In Reply to: more info re sponsor child trip posted by log65 on Monday, 18. December 2006 at 18:36 Bali Time:
The roads to Lovina are ok- you won't fall off any mountains although going by Melanie's report the trip to the village was a bit primitive. When I visited my sponsored kids village it was sealed roads all the way.
The families would probably appreciate food more than anything. That can be sourced with a bit of local help at their markets. We bought three 25kg sacks of rice for 100,000RP each- one sack will last a family for about a month. Thas about $40au to keep three families alive for a month! They also rely on spices.
You can also find out if they are cooking on stoves or open fires. A kero stove can be bought for about $25au.
Kids would be grateful for school accessories like pencils, textas, books, crayons etc. and these can all be bought in Bali much cheaper than in Oz. The beauty of doing it that way is that you don't have to purchase here, pack and fly with it and you are contributing to the Balinese economy whilst helping out the people. Take some green shopping bags to cart this stuff around with you. The Bintang Supermarket in Seminyak has all this stuff upstairs. The kids also like sweets like chocolate, chupa-chups and lollies that they can share with their friends.
You will have a great time doing this, in fact it doesn't get much better. Enjoy and please send us a JBR when you get home.