Rural immersion, an activity where we learn about the rural community and find solutions to the problems faced by them. This year we went to Lachhakadi as our CAS rural immersion trip which is a small village in Gujarat. This trip was a pack of adventure, new learning, and overall a great experience. There were some challenges that we faced but over all of that, we had a lot of fun and made memories that we will never forget.

LO2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills.

Being in FS, we have already been to many adventurous trips over the years but this rural immersion was a totally different experience. This was the first time where we got to interact with the locals, look at what they do for a living, and even experienced it with hands- on activities. It was very difficult for us in the beginning because we are not used to using indian toilets, eating simple food, staying without AC, working in bamboo factories, and working in turmeric farms during the daytime. We went to a bamboo factory in Lachhakadi where we helped the workers in lifting bamboo, making bamboo rugs, and loading the bamboo in the trucks. All this heavy duty work for us and doing it in the scorching sunlight was very tiring and dehydrating. But all of this was worth it for the experience and skills we developed because we get very less opportunity to experience all of this.

LO5 – Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively.

We were assigned the task to lift the heavy bamboo rugs and load it into the trucks. Lifting them and then walking towards the truck was very time consuming and tiring if we did it individually so we decided to collaborate and make a chain from the factory to the truck. The person at the start of the chain started to pass the bamboo rugs to the next person standing to them and we all started passing the bamboo towards the end of the chain where the last person was loading those bamboo rugs into the truck. This strategy of working collaboratively made our task very easy and quick to do while it also saved a lot of our energy. This simple strategy showed us that with the help of our colleagues and team, we can complete any task easily. 

LO6 – Engagement with issues of global significance.

During this rural immersion trip I could see the importance of SDG 4- Quality education because we visited a local school where we saw that the quality of education they receive is very poor. Even though they had the facility to study till grade 12 in their village, for further studies they had to leave their village and go to another village. We got the opportunity to interact with the students, play with them and we even painted their school walls using warli painting. 

LO7- Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

Throughout the entire interaction, we took care to show respect to the locals. We actively participated in village events while keeping in mind regional norms and acting with empathy and curiosity . We have to consider the potential consequences of our presence on the area in order to do this. For example, we ensured that our assistance with farming activities followed their traditions and did not disrupt their regular routines. We also tried to leave the least amount of environmental footprint while we were in the village.