In the summer of 2018, fifty Park City High School students travelled across the world to Bali, Indonesia for two weeks. This service trip was led by the PCHS Spanish teacher, Señor Murphy, who has been leading these excursions for over five years. In Bali, students worked with two NGOs, the North Bali Reef Conservation and the Bali Wildlife Rescue Centre. Both of these companies focus on helping their environment.

The North Bali Reef Conservation is located in Tianyar, about two and half hours away from the capital, Denpasar, yet right in the path of Mount Agung: an active volcano. While the students were in Tianyar the ash from the volcano caused the airport to close down for a day- causing one of the student groups to miss all their connecting flights back to the U.S. In some areas of Tianyar, students could see the lava flowing from the mouth of the volcano.

The volcano didn’t stop the students from continuing their work. While in Tianyar students created “fake” coral reef domes. The domes were covered in a mixture of cement, dirt, and calcium. The calcium allows coral to grow on top of the domes, this, in turn, attracts more fish of multiple species. To make one dome took over four hours long, not including the time it takes for the cement to dry. Once a dome is finished, a local fisherman will put it on his boat and drop it into a designated area in the ocean. Then, scuba divers will swim out to that area and properly install the dome on the sandy floor.

The other NGO, the Bali Wildlife Rescue Center is centered in Nusa Penida. Here, students created bird and bee boxes.. The Blue Starling as well as bees are native species to Nusa Penida and both are critically endangered. Creating these boxes and placing them throughout the island attracts and helps protect the bees and Starlings.

During the service trip, when students had free time, they often went snorkeling, played with local school children, went on hikes, or walked into town to interact with the locals and grab a bite to eat along the way. If you are interested in participating in this year’s service trip contact Señor Murphy with further details. As you can see, through these trips the students create a major difference within the communities they work with and still have time to interact with their environment.