Living in Rural area for 6 days was a big change. We took on a big challenge by living the rural lifestyle. Learning new things which we have never tried but heard before. Our aim was to learn and implement new learnings into our life. For 6 days we stayed and visited the village of Sankheda which is famous for its unique furniture and for its farmers. I demonstrated all the three strands of CAS (Creativity , Activity , Service). Creativity was when I taught Art and craft to the students of Ashramshala and explored the local furniture . Activity was when we learnt farming and gave sugarcane to cows . Service was when I had served food to the people present and had cleaned the class of the ashramshala . We interacted with several people , went to different places and learnt many things in these 6 days. This is what I reflected after coming from the trip.
Learner Profiles which I had used:
The two learner profiles which I used throughout the trip were Open-minded and Reflective. I was Open Minded as I accepted the rural life and tried living a different lifestyle for a week which changed my mindset about the people living there and about the whole area. I also learned about the local culture / local people and villages. They had a whole different lifestyle , facilities and routine. I had used the learner profile Reflective by looking at the activities / chores which I did in these 6 days. Understanding the importance of farming , rural lives and rural facilities helped me compare the Urban and Rural areas . It also makes us feel privileged that we have enough resources to live a happy life.
Learning Outcome 2 – Demonstrate that Challenges have been Undertaken, Developing New Skills in the Process :
Each day we tried doing something new. On the first day , we went to the local areas of the town where we saw unique art and craft , where they were making furniture with their hands. To develop new skills we learnt farming (how to grow vegetables and its steps). As I tried the skill , I also realized the importance of farmers and how much hard work is present behind the output. We also saw the dairy process and how each cow is treated with care and importance. Dairy process is nothing without the cows so we even saw their own lifestyle / daily routine. From their food (sugarcane) to their daily walk , the whole day we observed their routine. And in the remaining time we learnt how daily products are made from milk like butter , ghee and buttermilk. And for the first time I got the chance to milk a cow. The best moment for me was teaching Art and Craft to the students of the Ashramshala , which I am not good at. Teaching younger students wasn’t that hard as I had experience from my earlier community services but teaching art and craft in the local language was hard as I didn’t have much experience. We also served food to the students and staff of both our school and the ashramshala. Finally, we gave bottles and tiffin boxes to the Ashramshala kids, which made them happy and demonstrated that the trip was worthwhile.
Learning Outcome 6 – Demonstrate Engagement with Issues of Global Significance :
On the 4th Day , we visited the villages of the town. In groups , we talked with the villagers and how they live their daily lives. By talking with them we found that there is a big difference between the urban and rural people , the rural people have much less resources but live a happy life while we have problems with more resources. The villagers didn’t have a proper house , proper light and water (they use hand pumps for water) , and enough knowledge to know about their surroundings and about themselves. We saw many problems which were faced by the villagers like less education and qualification , bad habits which were hard to break (smoking , tobacco and drinking) , girl-child education , good health and wellbeing etc. This proves that we need to work really hard in solving these problems. I can connect these problems with the Sustainable Development Goals which aim to solve the 17 problems by 2030. Some of these problems like Good health and Wellbeing , Quality Education , Reduced Inequalities were seen in the villages.
Learning Outcome 7 – Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions :
I had hesitated when we were told that we would be living in a rural area for 6 days. It was hard to live a different life . Living in a rural place with no fans , lots of insects and spiders was hard. On the other hand, eating local food for these days was a joy as we experienced a variety in the food. One of the best actions which I and my group had done was to convince the parents to educate their small child as they weren’t willing to send her to school. We also made an effort to persuade a few villagers to give up smoking and chewing tobacco since children in their town would do the same. I learnt the concepts of Sustainability, Communities and Interconnectedness in this Rural Immersion Trip. Exploring different floras and faunas , seeing the daily life of cows , the production of dairy products helped me learn the topic of sustainability. Talking with the villagers , learning about the resources that they have , and spending time with the students of the Ashramshala helped me learn the meaning of communities . During the last days we had an interaction session with the Panchayat (Local governance) and its Sarpanch(The leaders of each village). We learnt that they are the ones who share the problems of the villagers to the state/central government . They are a type of connecting people between government and villagers. These things help solve the issues of the villagers. The Panchayat , local festivals and celebrations in the villages and how people live with the animals help me know the concept of interconnectedness. These 3 concepts sum up the choices and actions of the rural people and my whole rural immersion trip.
