Day 1- (August 28th)
We all had to arrive at school before 6:30 wearing our wet river clothing and river shoes because we wouldn’t have any time to change there since we were going to do the activities as soon as we arrived.

We arrived at the Kitulagala at around 8:45am. We arrived at Broadlands where one of the dams are being built, then we were given a safety briefing from one of the instructors from Borderlands and also given river gears for safety. We all got our gear on and went to do our first activity which was canyoning, where we would hike, jump and slide around. The whole time the water was freezing that you would hear some people’s teeth chatter as we were waiting for each other in the water.

After lunch we were told that we had to hike more up to go to the rafting location, it took about half an hour as the roads were steep, rocky and muddy. We were then set into groups of 6 with one instructor. This was one of the best activities we had done to improve team bonding which also made our grade closer, especially with the new students. The biggest challenge during rafting was not falling out except, Anargi and I failed as we fell into the river where it was called the “double crunch”. We ended the day by floating back down to the Borderlands Camp which was down the same river we went for rafting.

Lunch (Photo Creds: Mr. Lockwood)

Day 2- (August 29th)
We woke up at 6:30am with some morning stretches and then breakfast, we then got ready to hike up the Belilena cave for Theory of Knowledge (TOK) workshop with the teachers. When we got to the cave, we were split into two groups where one group first stayed in one part of the cave drawing a map of our journey from the Borderlands camp all the way up to the cave. Which was pretty difficult since Junsu and I were basically racing up during the hike. After the group finished drawing the map, we had a small exhibition to see the other maps. We then went to the other part of the cave where we were told the “Allegory of the Cave”, we then were allowed to explore the cave more.

The Cave (Photo creds: Mr. Duncan)

After the whole cave exploration, we then went onto a hike again for at least an hour to go to our next activity which was abseiling. It was a very frustrating hike as it would rain so much and which affected road we were walking on, as it would make us slip or feet stuck in the mud and along the way collecting leeches on our legs. I wasn’t really nervous about the abseiling activity when we were hiking to the location but when we arrived at the location, I got terrified as I am not good with height and because it had been raining the current of the water that was flowing down the edge was pretty fast. I started thinking all about the negative things that may happen while abseiling, which just made the situation more terrifying but I just wanted to overcome it and try it as everyone who did it before I said it was really fun. When it was my turn I made sure what I was doing was exactly what the instructor said as every movement I did I would just look back-up to the instructor.

Abseiling (Photo Creds: Mr. Lockwood)

Day 3- (August 30th)

The third and final day was more concentrated on the understanding of the people who were living in Kitulgala, we were set into different groups; which I was in the group that would interview the woodcutters. All the groups had to talk to their interviewees about the effects of the construction of the dams that are being built in Kitulgala. After the interview was finished everyone came back to the Borderlands place to get onto the school bus as we were going to have a visit to the dams that are in the process and some that are already been built. We would discuss the effects of the dam both on the community of Kitulgala and the environment, we would all share what we had learned from our interviewees throughout the discussion and it was a really good experience as we would hear of the effects from the point of view of the people who are being affected. As most of what I had known was more assumptions from people who haven’t experienced the situation.

Summary-

DP Orientation was a helpful and fun experience as I was able to learn about the effects of modernization on location, like Kitulgala, and how it has both positive and negative effects on different people and its not only negative effects which I found really interesting. It was also fun to interact with the new classmates in different activities as it was a really fun way to get to know about each other and their past experiences in their previous schools.