Few weeks ago, the whole 11 grade had a great time which included lots of learning and fun. We all had an amazing together as well all went to borderlands for our orientation. The trip is oriented for the students especially for them to know each other well and to be familiar with each other. So borderlands is located in the area of mountains in kitulgala, Sri Lanka. It Is located nearly in the south-west part of Sri Lanka.
Borderlands is a company which runs fun activities for the kids which included Canyoning, Rafting, kayaking and abseiling and many more but these are the activities which we generally perform. Also, In the trip there was service activity as well where we went around the village and interviewed the locals based on their daily life and kitulgala. So we performed different activities each day.
Day 1: The day we reached kitulgala, the excitement begin! We all were so pumped and ready for the activities and the day further ahead to come. When we reached Kitulgala,we started with some rafting. But before that, we had some fun time in the river as we did some river activities by being the river and feeling it and along that the guides from the borderlands were telling us the instructions.
So, when we started the trip, we started with taking a bath in the river and knowing about the river and how we are going to raft. The river was really cold but in the heat, it felt great and woke us up for rafting. After the instruction we started the rafting.
RAFTING
Rafting was one of the activity which we were going to perform that day, we started with slow pace and how we are suppose to paddle and warmed up before we started. There were some great falls which were going to come ahead and we had to try to go through the falls and also to go against the fall for extra fun! we were also going against the fall as the stream was fast and we had to try that out boat doesn’t flip while going against the stream. Rafting was tiring as we had to paddle almost the half the way to the place borderlands where we were going to stay. we rafted, went through strong streams and also enjoyed the view of the beautiful mountains. After some rafting, we stopped under a bridge for some lunch as everyone was hungry and hunger stroke more after so much of that hard work.
We had lunch because after lunch, we were going to hike over the mountains to do canyoning!! one of the funnest and also scariest activity. Fun because you have to jump and slide on rocks with an extreme water flow and scary because there were also areas from where we had to jump in the water from 10 m height wall. So I was looking forward for the activity, was excited and also has a bit of fear but i had done this 2 years ago as well so I wasn’t that scared as i was the last time i went as i had the experience already and i was excited to perform it again.
We hiked a good amount of distance to go the canyoning area. This seemed very exciting because as soon as i reached there, i wanted to do all that, but had to wait til the instructions. So one of the guide from borderlands gave the instruction and what we should do and what not while canyoning and what are the things you have to take care of while jumping and sliding. In this image, you can see the first canyon, Which seems pretty exciting but also it is scary because you have to jump from a good amount of height and its not easy as for me personally, I was kind of nervous while taking the first jump into the canyon. I was kinda nervous before jumping in it because i thought what if i’ll hit the rock, what if i’l jump in a way i’m not suppose to, many things were going in my mind and made me nervous. When i saw the guide jumping, it seemed pretty easy for him as he didn’t think much about it and just jumped and also he has done it many times before. For me it was not really a new experience but it was something which i don’t do in my daily life. when it was my turn, i was scared but i jumped in without thinking anything and after i jumped and came up to the level of water, I got this feeling that it’s not that hard and scary and once you do it, you can overcome that bit of fear you have in you. So, After the first jump my confidence was up and i was ready to perform all the other jump later on.
There were many jumps and slides which we did while canyoning, there was lots of fun and also a lot of learning at the same time as some people overcame their fears and some who already had the experience developed themselves and tried to reach the next level.
After canyoning till the end where it was the last point, we went back to out rafts and we rafted again to reach out destination which was the borderland camp. Day 1 was filled with thrill and excitement and we enjoyed a lot throughout the Day 1. Last but not least, before the dinner was served we also reflected on the activities we did and what we learnt during the day and also talked about what we are going to do the next day. Day 1 was more and next day was been waited for more excitements and fun.
Day 2: Day 2 begin with some morning exercises and also some activities to warm our selves up because the day was going to be a tiring and a fun day. Today was the hiking day!!! Today, we were going to hike about 2 ours which includes the hike to the temple where we were going to have a TOK lesson and a hike later on to the abseiling. So, today was a learning and well as exciting day.
After we had breakfast we left for the hiking to the cave temple. After reaching the temple we had a TOK lesson there and we talked about some facts about the cave and the surroundings. We started with meditating in the cave to start off and to keep our selves calm and to know about the surroundings and feel whats around. We talked about what we felt while meditating and after that we explored the cave to know more about the cave, when was the civilization there, when the save might have been created and who comes to the cave, whats the purpose and etc.
We found many interesting things in the cave and also that people did use to live in the cave and we saw many areas where the rock was smoky black, which meant that people use to cook food there.
After our observation, there was a guest speaker who came along to tell us more about the cave and how it had been established. He told us about who was the first person to come and live in the cave. It was around 30,000 BC years ago when someone first came to live there. He told us about the history of the cave and how it was developed throughout the year. He also told us that before him, his father use to take care of the cave and after he died, he took over the job, so it comes along the generation, taking care of the cave. he also talked about how he’s living is different because he lives by the cave and the town is really far away from the cave, so going down and coming up is too tiring but he is use to it plus he has no other option to go down and come up.
Even though, its a hard job, he loves his job and admires is a lot. All the information he gave us came from his father, or he use to read new papers to gain the information. This shows how determined he was towards his job. He has 2 daughters, so the next person who might take care of the save after him would be someone else.
After the interview session, we had an activity to perform. each of us were divided into groups and we had to make our own piece of art using the surroundings. By leaves, rock, stones, etc. we had to use and come up with our own art and there should be a meaning behind the art we make. So, each of use made different art works from different kinds of things. Each one of us had a strong meaning behind the art we did.
The purpose of doing this was to understand about the nature, and how can art be created by using anything. Also our main purpose was to find out does each art have a meaning. All of the groups came up with different ideas and were innovative. Also, the nature around us helped us to think much better which shows that the surroundings also help to make a good art.
After all that, there was one more activity which was the last activity for the day before we left for some fun. The last activity was to make a map of the way we reached the top. This was the last activity for our TOK lesson. The map should contain how we reached up there what was the way and what were the things which were present in the surroundings while we came up. The map should be for anyone, it could be for the students, or for the tourists for them to know the way or anyone. I decided to make a map for the botanist, who want to know what’s present and what type to plants and trees are present throughout the way. This is sense perception as we’re suppose to know the way we came up. This was a secret activity so no one knew the way of going up. So, this activity contains imagination, sense perception and bit of intuition. So, this activity was to test our areas of knowledge in TOK.
.
After the great lesson of learning, TOK, finally it was the time for some action and fun. Time for abseiling!! So for abseiling, we had to hike again in order to reach to our abseiling destination which was also about a 45 min hike to the top. I was excited to the abseiling as after all the hard work during TOK, it was time for now some fun. In abseling you were suppose to go down while holding the rope and by climbing down the rock using the rope.
This was fun and scary at the same time too because the height was about 80 m and you had to go down on a slippery rock and you don’t know that you can fall anytime because of the slipperiness and water on the rock. So, that is what makes it scary but it was fun too because it had some fear but when you overcome that fear that feeling you get is amazing plus going down a rock and then having a dip in the water at the end after so much of hard work feels worthless. So we did abseiling and when it was my turn i was kind of scared to look down because the distance was a lot so i tried not looking down and started my abseil. As, i had done it before in 9th grade it was easy to execute it this time easily and without slipping.
It was scary while i was doing it because my partner who was also doing it at the same time fell many times and because of that I felt bit nervous that i don’t fall. But i continued and went till the end without falling and after i was done i was so relieved and that was the last activity we did before we ended our day 2. When we went back we again did some reflection and talked about day 3 because day 3 was our last day in the camp and we were going to be there till noon as the last activity for day 3 was service.
Day 3: The day 3 was the last day for the orientation trip and after this we were ready to leave for our homes back which i don’t think anyone wanted to. On Day 3, it was the service day.
We were going to meet the locals of the area and interview them and know about their lives in kitulgala. Everyone was again distributed into groups in order to take the interviews as we were going to interview different people from different parts of the place. We were going to ask them about what they do for their living and talk about the depending on the jobs they do.
So the group in which I was, we were suppose to interview the tea plantation people.
We were going to interview them and know about the value of the tea plucking, and about the activities they perform in the field for living. We first talked to one of the people of one of the family who performs the tea plucking. We asked several questions to him. he told us that from the day he started the work, it has been 20 years, the weather changed in these 20 years, and the areas has been developed.
There use to be less tea plants before and now it has increased because of the development. Also, most of the women in his family performs the tea plucking and all of them don’t have a permanent jobs and they do different jobs depending on the situation.
This shows us that they have to work hard, do more work in order to make living. In the hot weather outside, with sweating, they have to do this as this is the way they can earn. Also we talked to one of the lady plucker who was plucking the tea’s and we also talked to her about her life. She was really happy to see us and she likes when people come and visit her.
Even though, she has to work hard in the hot weather, she loves her job and always want to continue. she also has kids but as she has to work, she has to leave them to a caring centre which is also available in the village to look after of the kids who’s parents are busy working.
these shows that their lives are many times harder than us, they have to work several times harder than us and still they don’t complain and loves their job. She also showed us how to pluck the tea. So, at the end we learned a lot of things about her and the place kitulgala and how their lives are completely different from ours. NO DEMANDS NO COMPLAINS!
So that was the end of our Orientation trip which was fun, we learnt about many thing and about the community over there and also had a lot of fun throughout the trip.
PHOTO CREDITS: THANKS TO MR. LOCKWOOD 🙂 🙂
Kumar's CAS BLOG 
It’s a really cute post with some cute pictures
LikeLiked by 1 person
awwww ur cuter!!
LikeLike