A trip to Mokhamal, Dang and small town in Gujrat. This trip was an eye-opening and remarkable experience. This was a 6 day trip involving adventure and community service. The trip included interacting with local school students , interacting with the local people and learning their way of living , helping the local people , learning how the government functions over there. This trip was an roller coaster of emotions, I felt immense delight and at times fear. Overall this trip helped me realize how privileged I was , this trip taught me to practice gratitude and it also helped to give back to the community. I have learned a plethora of things through this rural immersion trip.

LO-2 : Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

The biggest challenge for me in this trip was the evening trek we went to. The start of the trek was really easy but as we approached a river, It was difficult since the stones were slippery henceforth it was difficult to maintain the firm grip on the stones. Another challenge on this trip was to communicate with the local schools students, these students have no exposure to the outside world thus they were very shy when we approached them , it was difficult for them to voice their opinions and thoughts to other people due to this reason , it was difficult for us to understand what they were trying to convey but eventully with some time we were somehow able to connect and communicate with these students.

LO-3 : initiate and plan a CAS experience.

On day 5 of the trip we visited a local person’s house to learn their way of life , where we were given the choice between 3 activated Basket making , Warli painting and welding. I chose Warli painting. Through this activity we took the initiative to come up with a design , work collaboratively to make the painting aesthetically pleasing. Another time we took a initiative was when we  visited to the local school , while interacting with these local children we realized that these children had noting , sometimes even their basic needs were not met hence we decided to contribute some amount of money , together we raised 10,000 rupees from that we bought clothes , stationery and other items for all the school children and then donated those items to the children. 

LO4 : Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience

This trip took determination and commitment like another CAS task. This Rural immersion trip was 6 full days meaning I fruitfully utilized my free time. I participated in every activity we were told to do , which helped me to better connect with the locals.

LO6 : engagement with issues of global significance ( to be added in RURAL IMMERSION blog  ) 

→ On the trip to the mokamal dang, us as privileged children were new to their lifestyle and we were having a hard time adjusting to the lifestyle but we did understand their situation. This experience had helped us understand the inequalities and existing poverty, we saw how clean water and sanitation, quality education, clean food and water weren’t accessible to all residents. This experience was truly an eye opener since we have been privileged all our life and we had never seen these things first hand.