Iason’s CAS Journey (2022)

On January 25th 2022, after a lot of preparation and anticipation, 16 students of grades 10 & 11 departed from OSC in Colombo and began the journey to Sigiriya in order to start the 5 day Weak-Without-Walls trip. The trip would be centered around activity, to be more precise, biking, as all days would consist of the group travelling around the area on our bikes. I learnt a lot during this trip when talking about learning outcomes which can be seen through photographic evidence taken during the trips.

Firstly and mainly, what I believe I achieved the best can be seen through Learning Outcome 4 (LO4): “Show Commitment to and Perseverance in CAS experiences”. This can be best seen during our long bicycle rides, where I continued to push through during rides where I felt physically tired, but kept going in order to properly complete the CAS experience. Direct evidence of this can be seen through photography and a screenshot of our long bike map:

Staying on the cycling topic, I feel like one of my strengths when it came to the trip was encouraging and acting as a leader in some moments. This is best seen when I was “setting pace”, or basically keeping a constant speed that I thought could keep everyone involved together and not cause separation in the group. Another strength that I had during the trip is keeping an open mind when coming into contact with situations that were knew to me. This was seen when we learnt how to cook a traditional curry under a mud hut, in which I was really interested in how it was done. On the other hand, I do feel like I had some areas of growth when it came to some specific elements, such as spending more time with only nature. This is because at most times when not on the bike, I was talking with other group members especially ones that I never got to know before. I don’t regret the time spent with others, however I do wish that I did something as simple as more reading outside, and appreciating nature a bit more. All of this comes under LO1, “Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth”.

But putting aside all of the learning outcomes, this WWW trip was exhilarating and extremely enjoyable all the way throughout. It taught me a lot about biking in the nature that I never knew, since I was more used to biking in the city. The beauty of Pidurangala took my breath away.

When it came to the physical aspect, I was very satisfied by the end of the week, having done over 200km over biking over the past 5 days. At times it was challenging, but nothing that wasn’t enjoyable.

Overall, the trip was a great experience, teaching me many things as well as allowing me to create bonds with people that I did not talk to much before. It was truly something of which is deserving of being my last Week Without Walls trip.

After an extremely long delay, we, the DP1 students of 2021/22 found ourselves on an exciting trip to Kitulgala.

The orientation part of the trip itself consisted of only 1 day out of the 3, but what a day it was. The first thing we did? White water rafting. It was definitely not a slow start to the day as we embarked in groups of fives and sixes to combat the powerful current. The start was calm enough, but once we hit the current, with the water powerfully splashing in our faces akin to the pressure of a water hose, and the split-second moments in which we were in the air, not knowing if we would land, those moments made the ride. And to just add to the adrenaline, someone (not naming) fell in the water because they didn’t get down quick enough. As a whole, it was an absolutely fantastic start to the day and there was already a sense of excitement of what was to come.

The second part was by far my personal favourite. As we marched on into the forest, we got to an absolutely pulchritudinous part of the river that seemed like an oasis in the desert of the forest. Everyone knew what was coming next: canyoning. This section consisted of two main activities: jumping off rocks into the river and sliding on rocks into the river. Whilst sliding off the rocks was enjoyable (except our rear-ends), the jumping was probably a majority favourite. There’s nothing like the turbulent rush of air pushing your hair while you live your nightmare. It’s a dream you just can’t share.

As a whole, the experienced definitely brought the class together, whether that was through the teamwork of the white water rafting, or whether it was taking off each other’s leaches. It was a great (somewhat) start to face-2-face school and was a good way for us to get our minds off the impending doom that was coming in the form of Maths tests and Biology essays.

Written, December 2, 2021