DP Orientation 2019: Kitulgala Borderlands

August 28-August 30 / Kitulgala, West Sri Lanka

The DP Orientation trip was an eye-opening experience where I not only got to test myself physically, but I got to grow closer to my friends and classmates as they tested themselves. Even with our visit to Borderlands on the Grade 9 Week Without Walls trip where we abseiled, white water rafted, canoed, camped, climbed, hiked and more, this trip was still very educational, fun and challenging. In the end, the Orientation trip reflected what would come with the DP quite well.

Day 1 – Wednesday, August 28

Our DP Orientation trip for the class of 2021 began with our depart from OSC at 6:30 am. We arrived at Kitugala river after a couple of hours where we had a light snack, some cake to celebrate Harry’s birthday. We were briefed with all the safety equipment and the plan for where we were going, then began our journey to the canyoning site.

This was different from the one we went to in Grade 9, thankfully, as the whole point was to experience new things and to go outside our comfort zone. The canyoning was quite different in other ways too, with us having to place our trust in our classmates to not drop us or let us go while helping us down the slides and drops. I had to help everyone down one of the small drops as well as brief and guide them down a slide.

Eventually, we hiked back to near where we were dropped off and had lunch by a river.

After lunched, we walked to where we would have our next activity: White Water Rafting. We were briefed on the shore by the river and played some small games with the paddles. Then, to prepare for the freezing water, we split into groups and held hands in a circle, slowly wading further and further into the river. Eventually we got out and split off into our rafting groups, where we paddled out into the river and practiced commands, signals, paddling and teamwork.

Rafting was an experience. We witnessed Kevin fall out of his raft again, becoming subject to his “Big Fish” nickname once again. Our raft decided on scream-counting in German to help us paddle in unison, giving us an intimidating edge against the other teams, as well as the confidence to get through all the rapids with ease.

As the day drew to an end, we arrived at the Borderlands site where we debriefed, had dinner and went to bed. It was a rather calm end to such an eventful day.

Day 2 – Thursday, August 29

After waking up, we hiked up through a leech-infested forest to reach the 2 caves where we’d have our ToK lesson. We mapped our walk up to the cave and then listen to Dr. Leigh tell us the Allegory of the Cave, which was followed by the discovery of a dead bat.

I dreaded what came next – abseiling. We had practiced it in PE in 9th grade prior to our first Borderlands trip and we actually experienced it on the trip, briefly abseiling down a short waterfall. Even with this experience, I was terrified. I was placed in the first group of people to go and seeing everyone else so confident and brave gave me the strength to do it as well.

I ended up falling twice, bruising my hip and arms, scratching my arms and knee pretty bad and barely managing to swim back to the trail at the bottom.

Nonetheless, it was fun. Feeling the water rushing by your feet and slowly leveraging yourself down a massive waterfall really changed the way I looked at abseiling and those kinds of activities in general.

Sadly, the day was close to its end once again. We hiked back down to Borderlands, did reflections and had a debrief and discussion about the dam we’d visit the next day. Dinner was good and we fell asleep quickly, to rest from the long day we had.

Day 3 – Friday, August 30

Our last day of DP Orientation began with interviewing people who would be affected by the dam. Ours was a man who worked at a wood shop near the camp. We asked about his opinions on the dam, his experience at the shop and how he thought the dam would impact the shop and the community near the dam. Even with the language barrier, I found what he said to be very interesting and unexpected.

We played iSpy while waiting for the bus to return our group to the camp, with everyone picking things that no one else could guess.

Later on, we rode down to the dam itself and saw everything we had heard so much about through the day. We stayed on the bridge over the river most of the time, throwing rocks into the shallow water below.

We drove back to Borderlands and picked up our stuff before starting on the return journey back home.

DP Orientation was fun, and a great way to connect with our peers and explore ourselves and nature in a way I wouldn’t have expected, as well as an incredible introduction to our DP lives, but in the end, I was probably happy being back at home.