ETA Matthew Poissant had the privilege of joining his student Nadlifah in Labuan Bajo. Nadlifah was the runner up in the national WORDS competition so she earned the opportunity to go on a volunteer trip to Labuan Bajo that Matthew was lucky enough to be able to join. Along with the other two winners of the WORDS competition, they saw various natural wonders and beautiful sights for the first time. However the most amazing part of the trip was the time spent volunteering at two different elementary schools. At these schools all the WORDS winners and their ETAs played a variety of English games with the students to inspire them to learn English but what was most engaging to the students were when the WORDS winners told their stories that they made for the competition. Both the colorful storybooks and the colorful storytelling of the WORDS winners captured the student’s attention so they were very excited when they learned those beautiful books they just heard would be left in their library. This was a very inspiring trip for both Matthew as well as Nadlifah and he hopes that Nadlifah has become more inspired to explore the rest of her wonderful country.

Matt Poissant is currently teaching at MAN Demak, Central Java