One of three possible destinations for the 2012-13 Bird Fellowship. See also Malaysia and Panama.

BACKGROUND

The two most recent Bird Fellows worked in Bali on two very different projects. Aran Wiener lived and worked in the small village, Sudaji, exploring issues of waste management. The next year Jesse Froehlich developed an ecological development guide for Oddysey Institute’s Tropical Ecology Adventure Center (TEAC) in West Bali National Park. These projects were coordinated by Gove DePuy ’02, who lives in Bali.

BIRD FELLOWSHIP PROJECT OPPORTUNITIES

For the next fellowship opportunity in Bali, Gove DePuy will once again find a range of projects from which the Bird Fellow may select. Projects may have elements of permaculture, environmental education, ecotourism, and community development. The next Bird Fellow, as with the previous two, will be able to work with Gove to determine the specific project to make sure it is of interest to the Fellow.

TIMING

The best time for the Fellow to be in Bali is sometime between September and December or between April and May. These months are generally outside the monsoon season and also outside of the high tourist season.

QUALIFICATIONS

Working in Bali on a project identified by Gove DePuy will require:

• Independence and initiative, as the Bird Fellow will live and work directly with residents of Bali, not Gove,
• Willingness to live very simply for the period of the fellowship,
• Ability to adapt to a diverse work environment and a rural lifestyle,
• Patience and persistence.

LIVING IN BALI

Previous Fellows living in Bali have found a range of accommodations. If the candidate can ride a motorbike, then transportation is not a problem: $200 should rent an automatic scooter for up to eight weeks. A car and driver is about $50 per day. It is also possible to take local transportation and buses, although this takes a lot of time.

BALI PROJECTS COORDINATOR

Gove Dupuy is a 2002 graduate of the Conway School and a resident of Bali. He wrote in con’text in 2010:

I loved my Conway experience and have found that it is even more applicable in a less controlled context than the mainstream landscape design world. The “use what you have to get where you want to go” mentality at Conway has led me through more than a few tough design challenges here in Indonesia.

Before Conway, I had a BA in English literature from Lewis and Clark College, a bit of handyman experience, a one-year stint as a primary school teacher with special needs kids, and a total of about eighteen months of travel experience, including a semester in Indonesia with the School for International Training. I struggled to devise a way to put my most cherished experiences traveling to work towards a more productive “career”—I finally came up with landscape architect. The next struggle was how to develop that identity. I chose Conway over some of the larger universities I was accepted to, because it seemed to offer the opportunity to explore “out of the box” solutions. I think the Conway School’s model for learning to understand and design with natural landscapes can serve as a positive example for anyone working in design and planning as well as related fields.

Since Conway I have worked for a Vermont-based landscape architect doing residential work, set up a seed bank through a grass roots NGO in Indonesia, designed several constructed wetland waste-treatment facilities around Southeast Asia, gotten married, had a baby girl, and am now in business with a small environmental consulting firm based on Bali and working throughout Southeast Asia.

Ishwara Environmental Consulting grew out of a perceived need for competent solutions to the seemingly innumerable challenges related to building in Southeast Asia. Development is continuing at an ever increasing pace here, with or without conscious designers. Most developers are actually very concerned about environmental impact, but when they look for answers they get a lot of cynicism and horror stories about what happens when you stray off the beaten path.

In answer to this need, my partners and I have formed Ishwara as a sort of hub for linking international accreditation schemes (LEED, Green Globe, etc.) to local knowledge and services. The interest so far has been staggering.