My name is Henrik Hansen, I am 18 years old and currently working as a volunteer for Taman Bacaan Pelangi in Melo. Being born and raised in Hamburg/Germany, I finished high school in summer 2015.I had the idea of going abroad for quite a few years and I am happy being able to realize it with the help of World-Horizon and Taman Bacaan Pelangi.

The Team of TBP matched me with the Library in the village of Melo. It is located in the mountains of Flores and a half hour away from the more touristic place Labuan Bajo. From the moment I have been here I noticed a very special spirit in the kids of this village. The people are very happy and lucky although they have a rather simple life to face.

Immediately after my arrival I was part of the community and the people were interested in my job and personal life. They even arranged a traditional “manggarai welcome ceremony” for me which included a chicken as a gift. We slaughtered it after a couple days but it was delicious.

Anyway, I was officially part of the village and I made my guest family happy by attending other traditional events in the village. A week later I was prepared and ready to start teaching in school.

It makes me very happy to see that the library is already in a very good shape and the children are using it a lot.
There are two libraries in Melo. The first is located in the private house of my guest father and the second is located in the school.

Although the library in the school is bigger and offers much more opportunities, I decided to use both libraries. I create my activities in the school and have an open library in the private house.

Melo, October 15th
Henrik