Journey North Mystery Class Spring 2004

Introducing Mystery Class #8
Balikpapan, Borneo (Indonesia) 1.283 S, 116.833 E

You found us!

Pasir Ridge International School is located in the city of Balikpapan in the country of Indonesia. It is in the southeast corner of the island of Borneo. Borneo is the third largest island in the world (Greenland and New Guinea, which includes Papua New Guinea in Indonesia are the only two larger).

Borneo is made up of three countries
(Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei).

Balikpapan is the center of the major Indonesian petroleum region; oil refining and sawmilling are the chief industries. People speak Bahasa Indonesia and the major religion is Islam. Every day is hot and humid. We do have a rainy season. Then it gets to be really hot and humid.

Pasir Ridge International School is a small school with mainly American kids and a handful of kids from other countries of the world. It is a very small school (about 100 students) from grades pre K-grade 8. The school is mainly for children of the families who work for Unocal a U.S. oil company and other international companies.

One very cool thing about Pasir Ridge International School is that it was where the Balikpapan Orangutan Research Project
was born.

In 1991 the principal and students of Pasir Ridge International School helped raise money to begin the Balikpapan Orangutan Society. It has recently changed its name to Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) The BOSF Research station is 38 km from Balikpapan. The center screens and prepares confiscated young orangutans to be reintroduced to their natural habitat. It is an amazing place to visit and our school continues to do fund raising for the foundation.

My name is Ms. C (Jayne Couillard) and I teach 5th grade LA, 7th grade LA/SS and I am the school librarian. I am constantly "changing hats" throughout the day. Before coming to Indonesia to work my husband and I worked in Bucharest, Romania, Amman, Jordan, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Each school and each country has been completely different and I haven't chosen a favorite. They have all been great places with plenty of adventures to keep us stimulated. Living in Jordan was unique because when we left there we were no longer a couple but a family of three.

My name is Ms. C (Jayne Couillard)