Away From Home

Twenty Award participants from Manav Vikas High School, Jamshedpur completed their Adventurous Journey from 23rd to 26th January 2017 to Bisindha. Kalyani Chakraborty, the Award Leader from Manav Vikas High School is sharing this report with us.

The Award participants of Manav Vikas High School were buzzing with excitement very early in the morning at the school grounds, eager to get away from the monotonous classroom study and ready to embark on their IAYP Adventurous Journey. There were twenty participants and two mentors. The journey started from Tata Nagar station at 7:30 am and we reached Asansol at 12 noon. The further journey was through a local train up to Ranigunj and then by bus to Bisindha. 

Award participants from Emmanuel Ministries, Kolkata were also attending this camp with us. We were all guided by Soumitra Ganguly up to Bisindha. Bisindha turned out to be a perfect place for camping, far away from the maddening crowd. There were many tiny hills in the surrounding area. We reached the campsite around 2 pm. After lunch Asim Nath, the instructor from the Institute of Climbers and Nature Lovers (ICNL) started the camp activities. He explained and demonstrated the different kinds of knots, rope obstacles, jungle etiquette and how to behave with villagers. The participants were happy to find all this new information and kept sharing this new learning throughout the night with their other team members and new friends. The students of Emmanuel Ministries also joined these lively discussions. Though the night was very cold, it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the young students, who sang and played background music (Hukka hua). The night experience was indeed memorable and thrilling.

On 24th January, the day activities started at 6 am. All of us trekked to the surrounding areas, climbed small hills and did some morning exercise. Exhausted after all these activities, we took a deep breath of fresh air and saw the sunrise, before we returned to the campsite. After breakfast, we started our journey to Bandwan Dam, which was 8 kilometers away from the campsite. We reached Bandwan Dam at 10 am and our instructor, Imran divided all the participants into 7 groups. This was an SOS activity where the participants were asked to make food for themselves. The participants gathered firewood and fetched water from the dam and made an oven with mud; then they cooked their own food. After completing all these activities, we returned to the campsite at 3 pm. A theoretical class was scheduled for the evening, where the ICNL instructors detailed the Do's and Don'ts of camping.

On 25th January, we all trekked to the surrounding areas in the early morning. After breakfast, we all went to Susunia Hill for rock climbing under the guidance of Somnath Saha, Soumitra Ganguly and Partha Sengupta (all ICNL instructors). The participants enjoyed their evening around a campfire. Everyone participated, performed and enjoyed themselves. On 26th January we left Bisindha after breakfast.

This Adventurous Journey empowered the participants to develop the ability to focus and be determined to achieve any goal and be ready to face any challenges in the real world.