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We finally had our Week Without Walls trip, and went down south. We left the school around 9 in the morning, and rode for 4 hours. Twisting and turning in small streets made for tuk tuks or cars in a massive bus was quite entertaining for the first hour of the trip, before taking the highway.

When we arrived to Back of Beyond at Kahandamodara, we received our roommates, and unpacked in our rooms. The ride was tiring and we got some time to unwind. We had a great Sri Lankan lunch, with some dahl, what we thought was potato curry but turned out to be another type of tubercle, and fish curry. We weren’t too hungry from all the snacks we shared on the bus, but the food was good enough to get seconds.

Afterwards, we had an hour or two to relax before we were going to the beach. Some of us went for a dip in the pool, with an ideal temperature thanks to the sun (not too hot, not too cold). But I decided to explore the area and start taking photos. There were goats with HUGE droopy ears, 2-3 times the size of their heads, the flowing lagoon filled with mangrooves which connects to the sea, and some lovely wildlife.

While looking at the lagoon, I noticed a flying black dragonfly which kept returning to the same place in the air, it was a good 3 to 4 meters from me. I was intent on taking a photo of it. Setting my my zoom to manual and my shutterspeed to 1/800, and started to try and find it. due to its small size, it was hard to see where it was through the camera, which made focusing on it really difficult. But, after a good 10 minutes of struggling, taking the photo and checking to see if the iso was high enough, or if the shutter speed was right, I finally took some clear photos of it. One thing I would have done differently now, is increase the shutter speed to maybe 1/1000 or 1/1250, just because the wings are a little blurry.

Afterwards, something happened that really changed the whole trip for me: The shutter malfunctioned! I have to say, I feel like I went through the 5 stages of grief during the trip. I was hopeful, I turned off the camera and back on to see if that would fix it, I tried to maybe adjust the focus, to remove the battery even. But as I troubleshooted, the dreaded realization that maybe it was not just a simple issue dawned on me. Mr. Lockwood gave me some advice in regards to troubleshooting, but to no avail. Still, I was hopeful that it would be resolved by the end of the day, by maybe looking at some guides online. A shame I wouldn’t get to take photos with it this afternoon (oh, you naive soul, it only gets worse..).

We headed down to the beach on foot, with an aura of exitement. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the water. We took of our shoes and went for a dip. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a swimsuit, so I could only get knee deep in the water. Those of us who stayed outside ended up playing ninja, where we would take turned making one movement in order to tap another person’s limb. Only while we were moving could they move. It was a blast, you could choose to play it safe, since after your turn, the person you attacked could easily counterattack.

We stayed at the beach for a good hour before heading back. Upon our arrival, we went to our cabins and took turns using the shower, from which the top of our heads would stick out. We got changed and headed to the main area to relax before dinner. We started a game of One Night Werewolf, but were interrupted before we could finished by the news of dinner.

After dinner, I used Mr. Lockwood’s phone to research methods of repairing my D90.

It was now time for our frog watch, or rather, creepy crawlie watch. We saw some termites and a praying mantis in a spider web, who managed to break free after struggling (the act of which ended up scaring everyone). As we were moving along, a small snake sneakily slithered up to us, before disappearing in the grass. We ended up stopping and looking up, to see the beautiful night sky, free of light pollution.

It was almost spiritual. We tried to identify some constelations, but only got as far as Orion’s belt.

Learning objectives:

• Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
  • I challenged myself with taking a photograph of a small, moving dragonfly, which kept moving out of my focus. I developed additional patience, better tracking skills with my eye through the lens, improved manual zooming and focusing skills with the DSLR camera, and a better understanding of the ratio between lighting, shutter speed, and ISO, in order to paint a clearer picture of what I was photographing.

We woke up in the cold morning and got ready for the trip. The evening was cold (just like the water haha) and I struggled to sleep, but I felt refreshed in the morning, maybe it was something about the activities we did the day before, or the disconnection from any screen, whatever it was, it was good. I soon discovered that I got up much later than the others, as everyone was already at the main hub of the camp, chatting and getting ready for the morning activities.

We all gathered around and participated in a warmup led by Sam and Liam. The guides told us afterwards, that they had volunteered to lead the warmup, and I thought to myself I wanted to lead the warmup the next day. After the warmup and the games, I found myself in a river bath, going upstream with everyone else, and then letting the current take me back down. The cold and rushing water against my body was refreshing and made me feel awake.

We headed to the rubber plantation with the Biology group, our equipment in hand. making our way to the top, and fighting off terrible leaches, we reached the site where we were going to do our quadrant sampling of the plant coverage and type. I was paired with my bestie Filip, and we did our sampling in the next-door tea plantation instead of the rubber one. The main thing I realised here, was how much work professional scientists put into their research. The data collection was somewhat tedious, time-consuming and somewhat difficult. It brought out the worst in my and Filip, where we were arguing as to whether or not to include this plant in our quadrant, since the plant was present in the quadrant, but its stem was outside of the area. In the end, we knew it was pointless to argue under the increasing rain, and instead, calmed down and has a simple debate, which was much more efficient. Finally, once we got to our third quadrat, we were working efficiently.

I collected some flowers off the ground (dead ones, no life was harmed) and returned to camp with the rest of the group. We knew that we would be exploring a rainforest in the afternoon, and that filled us with excitement. We had our lunch and we were on the way. The bus dropped us after 30 minutes, and we had to cross a river with a ferryman to get there. in the rainforest, we did some lichen sampling and anti-leech warfare. The sampling was stressful, as every extra second, you spent standing still made you feel like you were a meal presented to the leeches on a silver platter. Unfortunately, even while we were rushing, by the time we got back to the ferry to cross the river, the tide had increased, and the sandbags that led us to where the ferry would pick us up was underwater, except the ones that were too far away.

That is, too far away from where we were standing. The water looked dirty, and I wasn’t going to get my shoes wet just now. I looked to my left and there was a steep muddy dirt wall, with trees, too steep to go back, but it was feasible, to use it and sort of wall-climb across to the rice bags. So I went for it. I jumped up onto the wall and hooked my arms around the tree trunk. I slipped a few times, but I held on tight and made it to the next tree, and then the rice sack. I felt, pleased, and encouraged Federico to do the same, which he did with a lot more ease. We got to the other side with our dry feet and made it to a hotel to have some tea.

We were talking about the secondary trees in the forest, including ones from Brazil. We had a good time and the tea was good too. It was a nice respite from the leech war (which they won).

We returned to camp to have dinner and reset our pitfall traps. Not before another river bath though. Afterwards, we relaxed in the main area and started singing along to songs, and dancing like fools, really just having fun and enjoying the evening. We finished it off with a long dance train and headed to our cabins for the night. This time I was prepared for the evening. I was wearing long pyjamas, socks, long sleeves and a jacket. Still cold, however. So so cold.

The next morning, We were outside for the warmup, and the guides asked us if we wanted to volunteer to lead this time. Yangki and I went up and lead the warmup, I’ll admit, a little worse, but I felt good doing it then, and I feel happy now that I did it. We finished it off with a fun game where we were running in queues and the last person had a tail which needed to be caught. after that, however, we had another, you guessed it, RIVERBATH! Which was great.

The Bio group headed off to do some sampling in the river while the Physics and ESS group went to visit a cave. We went back to our original canyoning spot where we were collecting samples in the water. When we were done, we started playing bug catcher with the others and used our nets to catch bugs. I got pretty adept at catching damselflies, and some of us caught waterbugs. We returned to the camp and did another sampling where we had the river bath (a recurring theme).

We got to packing and placed all of our luggage in the hub area, and had one last meeting by the campfire, where we reflected on our trip and left to return home.

This was an unforgettable experience, and won’t be like anything I’m going to be experiencing soon.

Learning objectives:

• Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
  • Working with Filip over the course of this trip deepened my bond with him and allowed me to understand what was necessary for teamwork.
  • Overall, interacting with my peers is a much more enjoyable experience than doing things alone, and I hope to continue doing so in the future.

• Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
  • We talked with Mr Lockwood about the conservation of the rainforest we visited, and the way the wood had been used for industrial purposes in the past and needed to be conserved today, also focussing on the invasion of foreign trees. This significantly ties in with Science, Technology and Environment Global Issue.

• Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
  • I challenged myself to volunteer to do things, even If I didn’t necessarily want to. I usually procrastinate and try to do as little as possible, but doing this allowed me to enjoy the day to its full potential.
  • I also grew as a leader. By taking on the responsibility of directing people, and describing the actions they needed to do, I got more comfortable in my communication and in my responsibilities.
  • I’m glad I decided to volunteer.

My service goal will be leading Eco Schools, the enviromental service group, as a co-leader. My reason for doing this is to improve my colaborative and team management skills. One of my main weaknesses is getting work done on time and avoiding procrastination. That is why, I will have to implement propper planning and create a structure that will help us work efficiently.  Mainly, I want to create a structure where we can work even when we are unmotivated to work, and where we can do as much work ahead as possible. In addition, I need to achieve the Eco Schools certification by the end of the schoolyear, by completing the 7 Steps created by Eco Schools.

Activity Goal:

My activity goal is to rehabilitate my right shoulder. My shoulder was injured 14 months ago, and recently I discovered, thanks to having an MRI, that I actually have a Type 3 acromion, meaning, the shape of a shoulder bone that I have is hooked when its supposed to be curved due to genetics. It interfers with the muscle structure, which increases my risk for injury and weakens my shoulder strength during movements that involve my infraspinatus. These overhand movements, such as washing my hair cause me to experience pain and weakness. In order to rehabilitate my shoulder, I need to either have surgery,and rehabilitation exercises, or, in order to avoid surgery, (because I dont want to have surgery) build upper body muscle, strength and improve my posture (in addition to the rehabilitation exercises). I will be able to measure my progress through monthly measurements of my fitness, overall ability to do activities that I wasn’t able to do before (such as washing my hair without discomfort), and (maybe) health checkups.

My service goal will be leading Eco Schools, the enviromental service group, as a co-leader.

My creativity goal will be to design my CAS blog, taking pictures and coming up with methods to study with my peers.