DP1 Orientation Trip: Borderlands, Kitulgala

“Together We Can Face Any Challenges As Deep As The Ocean And High As The Sky” – Sonia Gandhi

The DP orientation trip is a trip to Kitulgala, Borderlands. This trip is mandatory for every DP1 student as this allows all the students to bond, learn about CAS and Introduces us to TOK.  In the trip, we did a variety of activities which come under creativity, activity and service. We did hiking, rafting, canyoning, abseiling, a TOK prompt and interviewed some locals about their thoughts on the dam.

28th September – DAY 1

The day started off with me getting into a cab and reaching school by 6am. At around 6:30am we got into the school bus and left for borderlands. While going to borderlands, we saw beautiful sceneries. When we arrived in borderlands, we were greeted by Mr. Wade who organized the trip for us and we had some snacks and hot tea by the river. The first day of our orientation trip focussed on “Activity”. Before we started with anything, we were told to put on helmet and life jackets. Our first activity was Canyoning. So, we had to go through the forest and the river to get to the Canyoning point. I am a non-swimmer and so whenever I hop into the pool, I just walk around rather than swim. This is because I have had bad experiences whenever I have tried to swim when I was younger. But for this trip I had decided that I will try to do whatever I am faced with because the whole idea of this trip was to be challenging, bonding and teamwork. When we reached the Canyoning point, our trip supervisors gave us instruction on how to do the activity properly.  The first activity was a jump which actually was pretty scary. I got into the position and did the jump with my eyes closed hoping for the best. When I landed, I still had my eyes closed and I was just swinging my arms around as if I was drowning but then I realized I had a safety vest on. The instructor basically taught me a way to go around the water which was just by laying on your back and moving your arms. This made me a bit more stable because before I was trying to walk in the water which was obviously not working.

Then, the second activity was a slide down the river. I was a little less stressed about this one since now I knew a way to get around. When my turn came, again I just crossed my arms across the life jacket and slid. There’s this split second where you go under the water is what made me panic a bit but when I came back up I tried to go to the other point using my back. After that there was another slide and another jump which I did. Then there was another jump where people were slipping and falling down which I decided to not do and walked the trail to the point where everyone meets back together. After, the canyoning we went to the a spot by the river where we got an hour to just rest and eat some delicious Sri Lankan lunch.

To get to the rafting point we had to hike for 40 mins where we encountered a lot of leeches. Before rafting we were split into groups and my group consisted of me, Harry,  Takuro, Talia, Anargi  and Dr. Leigh. We had a practice session before going to the actual river. This was actually a pretty fun experience for me as there was laughter, some concern and satisfaction. We passed through 5 currents and on the first one our raft almost was at a point of tripping over. We passed all the currents with two people falling off the raft. I think the rafting was probably the most memorable part of this entire trip. Finally after a long day we arrived at our camp where we had dinner and some reflection time. Overall, I think the day was a really amazing one because it tested me to face my challenges and be courageous!

29th September – DAY 2

Day 2 focused on the idea of “Creativity”. Our day started off with some stretching at the camp and breakfast. Then we had to get into the bus and go to a point where we would start our hiking. First we hiked to the Belilena cave which is a historical cave in Sri Lanka. The cave was really nice as there was like water dropping from above. Here we had our TOK lesson. The class got divided and we went up to another cave which was situated just next to Belilena cave where we had a TOK prompt.

After that we came back down and the other class went for the TOK lesson while we in the Belilena cave were asked to draw a map of the journey we had the day. I drew a very simple map of a route and used my memory (WOK) to put in the specific details. Most of the maps were similar to mine. After the cave we hiked to the abseiling point. This was probably the most difficult experience for me in this trip. The trail was very slippery, and it was also raining heavily. I slid a couple of times trying to hike but then there was Marco and Dr. Leigh who helped me along the way with my steps.

I decided not to do the abseiling because I was pretty tired of the hiking and also because I have acrophobia. Here, again the class was divided and the people who didn’t have a helmet or jacket went for lunch. After that we hiked back down and returned to our camp where we got some time to bond with other classmates and do some reflection.

30th September – DAY 3

Day 3 was a short day and focused on the aspect of “Service”. Our morning was rushed because my camp group and I were pretty tired from all the hiking the other day and didn’t realize we had slept all the way till 7 am. So we all had to rush and brush our teeth and meet with everyone else at the camp. There is a construction of a dam going on in Kitulgala which is why we were given the task to survey people about what they think about it. The group I was in were given the task of interview a tuk- tuk driver. After completing our tasks we went back to the camp, ate lunch and said our goodbyes to the borderlands crew.

Overall, this trip was a really good experience for me. I really loved rafting and wish to do it again and I also miss the sounds of the rivers so much because here in the city its just so much noises of cars honking etc. I had some new experiences as well such as doing hiking, rafting and canyoning because if I had not come on this trip then I probably would have never done it.