Camp Mantanani Island - Borneo

Updated: Nov 17, 2020

This island is beautiful - we are spending 2 weeks here. The camp is based on a beach between the two villages. Even though there is a backpackers just next door. there are never many tourists. I felt like our experience there was truly authentic - we lived as the locals do. You can really see the how much Camps International have helped this island - from building toilets for the local community to creating a library in the school for the children. As with Bongkud the faculties were basic but definitely more than enough! They definitely also blended in with the surroundings - not looking commercial at all. One thing that was a bit of a shock to the system was that there was only electricity between 6pm until 6am - this meant no charging phones during the day. However, after a few days you get used to it, also it helps that generally the camp keeps you busy until then so you don't really notice.

Our Group

We had the same group here as we did in Bongkud. I have had some much fun in my first month in Borneo and I can honestly say I have definitely made some friends for life! These guys kept me going through home sickness, travel sickness and sea sickness!! I could not have asked for a better bunch of people to spend my first months with and I wish them all the luck on their travels - back home or to different countries.

The Camp Staff

Like Bongkud, the staff here all spoke little English, but our Malay was definitely getting better, which I feel like they appreciated. Aida, the camp manager, is so positive and lively. You can definitely tell what she's thinking by her facial expression. The cooks, made some of the best food, including having a delicious BBQ one night. The security guards were all so friendly and hilarious.

Meeting the locals

Apart from teaching the kids we got to do a few activities with the locals. Some of the local girls performed a traditional dance for us. Which was beautiful, it was so nice to see the culture not getting lost.

We were also able to spend a couple hours with local women, making our own coconut oil from scratch. I never knew how much was involved in making this, it was such a special experience.

Teaching Kids

We taught two days while we were on Mantanani Island. First day there were a small group of kids, mainly between 11 and 12. Even though their spoken English was not very fluent their written English was perfect. You ask them to spell any word and most of them can do it straight away. Brea, Stevie and I taught math the first day. They were all very enthusiastic about math because it breaks language barriers. They could work out the sum in Malay and then translate the answer into English. Unlike learning English, the numbers are said the same way and in the same order. Considering this was their 3rd language their math skills were exceptional and they had lots of fun doing it!

The second day we taught, we did a games lesson. From there only being about 15 children there were now about 30 because they had all told their friends to come, because they enjoyed it! This makes us all feel good. We played lots of games to try and improve their English like Bulldog and "What's the time Mr. Wolf?" which they were all enthusiast about. Then near the end of the session we played BOLA ( football!) which all the kids loved and we had a short match. It was amazing fun and the kids were so talented!

Project Work

Even though we didn't get to do much project work because of the weather we tried the best we could when we did do some! Not as much cement mixing was needed but we always knew we needed to do more when someone shouted 'laagi' to which you'd here a chorus of different people from the group saying it, if you hadn't head it the first time!

We were finishing off toilets for the community and the library for the school. As well as us doing this work the 3 security guys - Hashim, Albi and Numin, and Aida helped as well. Even though the security guards English wasn't very strong, they tried their best to communicate with us and we tried our best to speak Malay to them. In the end we made a good team and we finished the library as well as most of the toilets.