I took par in rural immersion trip organized by my school. A group of 10 of us spent a week living with families in a remote village several hours from the city. We took part in daily activities like farming, drawing water from wells and helping with other chores.

I selected this activity as a means of getting to live in rural community and also be in a position to know some of the difficulties faced by people in poverty in my country (LO6). Before going I was rather anxious about how they would cope with no modern amenities in a week. However, I vowed to engage myself to the maximum level and ensure that I make a lot of out this (Learning Outcome 4). Every day we assisted the families with chores which you’d perhaps imagine as including milking cows, tending and weeding the vegetable gardens as well as mending damaged fences. It was prudent manual labor which of course, was utterly different from the type of work that I usually do. Still, I aimed at giving as much as I could and that is why even when the work was hard I had to do it (Learning Outcome 4). By this I realized how I had been arrogant to some of our colleagues who do such jobs to survive each and every day. What I noticed was the fact that the villagers or rather children in particular had to travel several kilometers to look for water or even firewood. I understood how much this keeps them from going to school or engaging in any other activity. In conclusion, I have become conscious of the global water issue, and thinking of the next CAS project dealing with availability of safe water in villages (LO6). While being with the people I was living with, my host family involved me in worshiping as well as other cultural occasions. In order to maintain appropriate understanding of culturally and religious related taboos, the measures of consideration decreed necessary (LO7). In a nutshell, the rural immersion was a very enlightening. It is my joy to thank those families we met for their patience and the ability to gain an exposure of a rural life in my country.