Imagine a school where all the classrooms are constructed of sustainable bamboo, the kids help to grow their own food and the whole curriculum has a sustainable theme. The toilets are biodegradable. That’s the Green School in Bali Indonesia, brainchild of celebrity jeweller and eco-pioneer John Hardy.
Last week we took a brief holiday from Australia, staying in Bali with our good friend Ron Stones OBE, former Director of the Green School and a well-known international educationalist and author. Our 17 year old daughter was volunteering at the school, helping with a green summer camp.
One of the highlights was teaching younger children to make their own chocolate, starting from raw cacao beans.
When you fly from Sydney to Asia, you fly for five hours before you are even clear of Australia: it’s a very big country. But Bali is a very popular destination for Australian tourists, and apparently some FIFO (fly in fly out) mining workers live there permanently when they’re not at the mines.
Indonesia is Australia’s nearest neighbour and the two countries work closely together in many fields including business, security and foreign policy. Kevin Rudd’s first overseas travel after returning as Prime Minister was to Jakarta. He and President Yudhoyono agreed on a regional conference to discuss the issue of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat, most of whom come via Indonesia.
It’s a fascinating country with some 250 million people spread across an archipelago of diverse islands, and is one of the key emerging economies with which Britain is also significantly expanding its engagement.