In Reply to: hi Thor posted by shaddup on Wednesday, 28. February 2007 at 05:52 Bali Time:
A lot of 'limited visits' are just the same as frequent sightseeing tours in this case and to answer your question - no I was not thinking about it BEFORE I got there, but I got aware of the problem when being there.
For visiting sponsor kids - there is absolutely no need to visit them in their local school!
Something like a day of an open door would be an good option I guess, to give an impression under which conditions these kids are going to school, for people which are REALLY interested and supportive and also push these organisations taking care for this problem by publication.
One thing let me add at last, we all should probably better send our own children into a Balinese school for one day, amazing how grateful and disciplined Balinese kids are for the opportunity to visit a school and to learn something, when you go to Helen's learning centre on a Sunday and see how 80 kids are happily and I mean happily visiting the English lessons there, then you will see first hand what your money is good for.
Best regards
Thorsten
PS: Will give your site a look ;-)