When I travelled to Bali, Indonesia this past summer, I visited a construction masterpiece in the middle of the forest. It was completely organic and made entirely of bamboo and wood. Some of the buildings were two stories tall and unlike any other I had ever seen before. This construction in the middle of the Balinese forest was a school. It is called the Green School because the school is built of and around “green” foundations. I believe the Green School is the most unique school in the world because it was built with bamboo and wood, it is surrounded by the forest, and it is very eco-friendly.

To get to the Green School, first I walked down about 150 steps to arrive at a covered bridge to cross the Ayung River. Surprisingly, this bridge was also built entirely of bamboo and has a very beautiful curved design to complement its natural surroundings. Actually, this bridge is newer than the school because the first bridge that was built to cross the river was washed away in a flood.
The first thing I noticed about the school once I arrived there was that all of the buildings were made out of bamboo stalks that were joined together at the top and tied with rope. The roofs of the buildings are made of waterproof thatch and grass. Although this type of construction might sound unstable, it is actually very strong. The bamboo will never break, and the thatch and grass roofs only need to be replaced every seven years.
The Green School is an international school, and it has students from more than twenty different nationalities from Asia, both Americas, Europe, Australia, and Africa. The school begins at first grade and continues through high school. The elementary, middle, and high school students have separate bamboo buildings. Each grade has one classroom with no air conditioning and a garden to grow crops such as rice, carrots, chilies, and lettuce. The seniors’ classroom is in the main building on the second floor (where they use a rope ladder to get into their classroom), so they are literally on the top of the school. Last school year, Green School had its first graduating class of twelve students all of whom have gone on to universities around the world.

Visiting Green School was an amazing experience. Before I travelled to Bali, I could never believe a school like Green School could even exist. I had never even seen an organic building before I went there, but Green School consists of fourteen organic buildings in the middle of a rainforest. The Green School is very eco-friendly because it is entirely made with natural products. The students are taught to recycle almost everything they use in the school. They eat lunch out of wooden baskets covered with banana leaves. The baskets can be reused, and the students feed the banana leaves to the goats they keep on campus. These are all the reasons why I believe Green School is one of the most unique and fascinating schools on Earth.