At the heart of community is unity.

This concept, simple yet meaningful, was exemplified in this year’s Bali Field School group who traveled to Indonesia during the Fañomnåkan/Spring 2017 semester.

Twelve seniors engaged in a semester-long sociology course, which explored the core concepts of community development. Half way through the semester, the team ventured to Bali, Indonesia for nearly two weeks.

Each day, from dawn until late at night, they endeavored to learn and explore aspects of community that proved to be both enlightening and life-changing.  

Plunging themselves in purification pools, praying in temples, mosques, and deep in mountain caves, visiting village families, hosting reflection circles at dawn high up in the mountain clouds—this group of students traversed great distances in a spirit of tender affection and mutual support to help each other along with way.

Through all this, the group forged deeper bonds of unity and turned stumbling blocks into stepping-stones for progress. Upon their return, they united under a common phrase that speaks volumes to the core values that helped them come this far—“I am because we are.”

A video titled “Prayers, Stairs, and a Thousand Temples” that details much of which the class experienced in Bali was produced by Ladera Linn, one of the students who attended the trip.

See photos from the trip.

For more information on the Bali Field School, contact Dr. Kirk Johnson at kjohnson@triton.uog.edu.