Charlotte’s Story: A Bali travel adventure changed her life

Charlotte’s story begins in Bali, Indonesia. Like most young Australians, she yearned to travel and volunteering at an orphanage in Bali when she was 18 years old was a natural step after working at a childcare centre in Melbourne. But orphanage tourism didn’t sit well with her and she moved to Bali’s Kuta Beach and its nightclub scene. Things soon spiralled out of control. But after falling pregnant, she overcame her drug addiction and returned to Australia, where she was diagnosed with HIV. Charlotte now has three beautiful children all born free of HIV. For more details on topics discussed in this episode, please visit:Positive Women Victoria: https://positivewomen.org.au Episode 1: Charlotte’s StoryTranscript / Show Notes Heather EllisHi, I'm Heather Ellis your host on our stories ending HIV stigma, a podcast by women living with HIV, where we share our stories of our diverse lives and challenge the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma are stories as part of the women and HIV tell the story project made possible by Gilead Sciences and produced by positive women Victoria in Australia. Charlotte's story begins in Bali, like most young Australians, she yearned to travel and volunteering at an orphanage was a natural step after working at a childcare center in Melbourne. At 18 years of age, Charlotte had already achieved so much in her young life, and often against the odds. She raced BMX bikes from the age of three was a ballroom dancing champion and crewed on a racing yacht, a sport that took her to those wild oceans of Britain. But all this was just a small part of Charlotte's young life. Now in her 30s, Charlotte has been living with HIV for 10 years. Welcome, Charlotte. CharlotteI was always a go getter. I was always looking for something more. And I was always looking for a bigger rush, a bigger thrill in life. And I had such a passion for childcare and working with children and I just thought, what more could I do than volunteer in an orphanage where I can volunteer my time and my skills of loving children. So, off I went. First off I did a fundraiser by baking slices. And after a couple weeks, I'd had enough money from fundraising I went and I donated the money that I had made to the orphanage. It came about spontaneous and one day I just googled Bali orphanages, and I emailed a handful of them. I got a reply from one and they said, Okay, see you next week. Heather EllisWere you the only volunteer there? CharlotteYeah, it was really bizarre. When I arrived at the airport at about midnight. I didn't speak any Indonesian. And I had only ever been there once when I was maybe six months before on a week holiday with a girlfriend. And I arrived at the airport and there was a strange man standing there with a sign with my name on it. And I thought, well, this must be my ride. So I went over and introduced myself and I got in this strange man's car and off we drove to the middle of a jungle in the middle of the night. It was pitch black and he literally dropped me at the door and said, goodbye. So I walked in and there was nobody there to greet me. Everyone was asleep. So I just wandered around the compound and I was very confused as to what I was meant to do. So I found a bedroom and I just parked up there for the night. And I remember calling my mom and I was like, there's giant geckos on the wall. There's a Huntsman spider in my toilet, and no one was there. And then at 5am, this huge alarm and siren went off, and I could hear all these little children. It was an all girl’s orphanage. And I could hear all these little girls all running and cheering and going into a hall, and still no one came to meet me or introduce me yet. So I followed the noises and I walked into this hall and all these little girls turned and stared at me. Heather EllisAnd so when you got there, what were the children like? What was the reaction to this stranger coming into their life? CharlotteI just waved and said, Hi, I'm here to help. And they all kind of giggled and ran up and started touching me and I had a big bag of gifts of Australian teddy bears and money to buy rice and Washing Machine for them a washing machine. Heather EllisA washing machine. CharlotteYeah, because I realised that's what they needed because these girls were scrubbing their clothes with on a rock with soap and I thought a washing machine would really benefit these children so they had a quality of childhood not washing their own underwear each day. So after about half an hour, the children fussing over me, an adult walked into the room and she said, Oh, hi, you must be Charlotte. Heather EllisThis must have been an amazing experience and amazing amount of warmth and love that they would have been giving you while you're there being part of their life and helping them learn English. CharlotteNo one really spoke much English. It was very broken and very difficult to communicate that they said to me that mor