For this CAS trip, we visited a small village called Mokhamal, in Dang. In these 6 days from 11th to 16th december, I had a lot of fun and did a lot of things, ending up teaching me some important things in my life and the realisation of how lucky I am. On this trip we visited various firms in villages, hospital, school, market, farms, offices, and sight seeing. I definitely incorporated all of the factors of CAS(Creativity, Activity, and service) throughout the trip in various situations like making artwork(painting, warli art) with the kids there and making a basket with bamboo. playing games like d odgeball, cricket, frisbee, and helping in farming. donating several items(clothes, and stationary) and help in cooking food for the children in school to make their life better and help them with some love.

LO 1
During the trip there were many times I felt that I lacked and I was not very good at that like while making the basket, I wasn’t able to manage the bamboo and perform the technique to build a basket which made me realize how I lack a bit of craftsmanship skills which could have helped me complete the basket without any problem, as I was a bit struggling to get the shape right. However, 1 strength I realised is how easily I was able to be friends with the local children there and talk with them although with the language issue, I was able to connect with them and know about them.

LO 2
Performing all of these activities was exciting, but one thing which was difficult was how new it was for me, for example, painting, which I had never done before, and farming, building tools. All of these were a totally new experience for me which made it challenging for me to grasp the technique and get it done. Although, I tried my best to do as much as I could, I listened to the locals and our guide to at least make sure not to make a mistake that could be serious.
Another big challenge for me was the language as I don’t know how to speak and understand the Gujarati language that clearly and many of the locals there were only comfortable to speak in gujarati so there was an misconnection of language and many times I could not talk to them normally, However, I made sure that if I had to understand and say something, I used the help of my friends who knew how to speak Gujarati to understand what they were saying and explain to them.

LO 3
During our trip we had initiated multiple activities and services while teaching the unprivileged kids and cooking with them. I organized classes for sports, games, and some teaching lessons, this allowed me to learn how to plan out the activities efficiently and initiate organized activities. We students and teachers collectively planned out donations given to the students there.

LO 4
Throughout this trip, 1 thing which required perseverance and commitment was being punctual and being on time with all the activities to make sure we follow the schedule we are able to perform everything planned, and in my daily life, I am not used to such schedules which made difficult to stick to, like waking up early everyday and do everything on time. It is necessary, it was hard but it was good for me and helped me improve my daily regime also if we hadn’t follow such a schedule, we couldn’t do alll the activities which would make this trip boring and of no use.

LO 5
Teamwork and collaboration definitely made all of the activities and work a lot easier, everyone helped me all of the times and I too in various situations like, When I was making the basket out of bamboo, my friend and I were working together to complete it which made my work much easier as I would not be able to handle the bamboo and manage to build it without him. The warli art was really big and it wouldn’t be complete if everyone had given their time and skills to paint it, everyone helped each other get the technique right and do all of the activities with best efficiency and quality.
I think because I was friends with the ones I was working, I was able to communicate better with them and with the communication we had no problems with each other making the activity more fun, interesting and easy going.

LO 6
I think the major global issue evident throughout the town was the lack of opportunities they have, how underestimated the villagers are. I realised this when the children there were able to do things I still can’t like our guide brought few children over to show how smart they were, they were able to revise the multiplication tables till 15 & 18, which was very impressive considering they were only 11 or 12 years old, which even I couldn’t do. This shows how much potential they have but not the facilities, and this problem is situated in every rural area, they don’t get enough to showcase themselves, because others underestimate them and assume they can’t do anything, which is wrong and to resolve this we as a whole class did everything, we helped them in their work and made their lives a bit easier and specially raised money amongst the teacher’s and student’s to donate them clothes and stationery to provide them supplies to live a better life.

LO 7
During my trip to the village, I became more conscious of the ethical implications of my actions. One key area was how we interacted with the local community. While our goal was to provide support and learn from the villagers, I had to be mindful of respecting their culture and not imposing external ideas or solutions. It was essential to listen to their needs and ensure our efforts were in alignment with their values, rather than assuming what might be best from our perspective. Additionally, I reflected on the environmental impact of our presence. Simple actions like waste management, the use of local resources, or transportation methods required careful thought to avoid leaving a negative footprint.

All in all, throughout this CAS trip I had performed and showcased a bunch of IB LPs helping me in my development of personality and my point of view of the world, like, inquirer, where I was keen to get more knowledge about the rural life and what they do in their life, communicator, caring and many other where I was trying to be as much comforting as possible to the children to develop a saf space between us share with them with ease.
I think this was a really fun and interesting trip, where I got to learn various new things and the best part was that I had my friends there with me to help me overcome any challenge and make the boring time as enjoyable as possible, making this trip really successful in its purpose and what it aimed to help us for.