So we pulled into Batam Indonesia the other day. The port was definitely not exciting. It was extremely dirty and stinky and yeah, wasn't a fan. We only came here for "civic operations". We were the first ship to pull in at this port in a LONG time.....so ships crew provided numerous tours and we had lots of interaction with the locals. The only thing I participated in was a community relations project at a local Islamic Boarding School just outside of town. Al-Kautsar Pesantren was the name of the school. They had about 230 students. We went there in the morning to paint and such. I was able to interact with quite a few of the children. Such a sad sight it was.....These children were absolute angels....living in poverty....with nothing but smiles on their faces. It was an amazing experience.





Now as far as the port visit itself, as I said...it was stinky and dirty in this town and I did not enjoy myself there. However, I did enjoy seeing the little kids in the street. Ok, it was sad because they were BEGGING, and I mean BEGGING for money (and it was late, and i told them they need to BE IN BED) but they were NOT taking NO for an answer......so I was handing out bills to them (granted this bills, in their currency were the equivilent of about TEN CENTS ~haha~ but yeah, I told them you have to take a picture with me then I will give you some money......overall I think I gave them like a whole dollar. PLUS I got the picture below. :)