ASOP ADVENTURE CAMP AT KHANDALA

5th - 8th December 2013

An ASOP Adventure Camp for ASOP participants was organised at Khandala, Lonavala District, Pune, Maharashtra.  The camp was organised by ICNL Kolkata (IAYP Official Service Partner) under the supervision of Bivujit Mukhoty (Programme Manager, IAYP) from 5th to 8th December 2013. There were 35 participants at the camp -- 13 participants from NAZ Foundation (12 girls and 1 boy) and 22 participants from Magic Bus Foundation, Delhi (13 girls and 9 boys). The participants performed various camp activities under the ICNL supervision, such as extreme Rock Climbing, Rappelling, Fixing Rope, Burma Bridge formation & Single Rope Bridge formation, and fixing Tyrolean Traverse for River Crossing. Apart from this the participants also learnt different Team Building Games like Spider Net. The participants ventured to climb different hills of the area, including the famous Kokenkara Hill. Of the 35 participants, 24 completed their Gold level, 4 completed Silver Level and 7 completed Bronze level Adventurous Journey.  The participants enjoyed their last evening with a grand Camp Fire where they participated in dance and music performances. The Award Programme Foundation wishes to thank the instructors from ICNL, Kolkata for their support and training.  Our Special thanks to Ms. Bhagashree, Award Leader, NAZ Foundation who took real care of the Girls during the Camp.   click for pictures

IAYP TREK - A REPORT

23rd November 2013 - Ecole Globale International Girls' School, Dehradun

The Bronze aspirants of Ecole Globale International Girls' School, ventured on a fifteen kilometer trek that led them deep into the heart of the village Horrawala - a place amply endowed with greenery and scenic beauty. 

The month of November it was, but in the Garhwal Hills, the sun was shining bright. One after the other you could see girls shedding their extra baggage - their cardigans and jackets! 

To the first-timers, the walk was long and tedious, for the veterans, very energizing! Tall, stately sal trees contributed to the picturesque landscape and there were monkeys in droves! It was great to see them swinging on the branches, some with their little babies clinging to them as they moved like trapeze artists in a circus. As we reached into our bags, we were warned by the instructor not to feed the monkeys.

Suddenly, we stood transfixed! What was that strange creature standing poised before us? A huge iguana, its scaly back gleaming in the sunlight, looked curiously at the lot of us. We looked on in wonder. It was our very first encounter with this giant lizard -- like beauty that is a native of these parts. Once it had inspected each one of us properly, the iguana lost interest, and disappeared into the bushes. Whew! That was amazing.

We moved on squealing in excitement to see the many other such beings of the wild. A mongoose here, a wild fowl there. What an adventure!

The most looked-forward-to part about the trek was, of course, the mid-way-snack that was prepared by the girls themselves. Sandwiches were wolfed down followed by refreshing glassfulls of fruit juice and the girls were already running high on adrenalin, waiting to hit the track again. 

On our way back, we visited a local dairy farm and were sure amused by the moos of hundreds of perfectly spotted Holstein Friesian cows that were around! To see how the milking process was carried out was informative and interesting. We look forward to more such treks.  Click for pictures

RSIS LADAKH 2013: A REPORT FROM JANSHER SINGH WARAICH

10th July 2013, Vivek High School, Chandigarh

Sixteen students and six adults from RS schools in eight different countries assembled in New Delhi in early July. In the short time available to us in Delhi, excursions were arranged to landmarks such as India Gate and a little last minute shopping was done at Khan Market and Connaught Place. Very early on the morning of July 10, the group left Indira Gandhi International Airport on the Jet Airways flight to Leh. We spent one night in the Hotel Omasila and two nights in the Ladakh Residency, the establishment owned by Tsering Wangchuk, the founder of Snow Leopard Trails. During this acclimatization period, we walked the colorful streets of the town, hiked up to a spectacular Stupa and took a daylong car trip west, along the Indus, to Likir Monastery and the Zanskar River. Following this brief and luxurious interlude, we headed east to our new home, the village of Thiksey. Our campsite lay in the shadow of the 1000 year old Gompa and the sounds and activities of the monastery were with us day and night for the duration of our stay. Our camp was simple but comfortable. The highlight was the cooking of our culinary magician, Sonam. The lowlight for many was the visit to the 'Thunderbox'! Washing from a bucket with cold water was both bracing and refreshing after a long hot day of work.

The work of the project took place at the Lamdon Model School, close by our camp. We developed a love hate relationship with the thousands of eleven kilogram bricks of sun dried Indus River mud as we carted them around the building site. We mixed and transported thousands of kilograms of mud. We decorated the main hallway of the student hostel with creative and cheerful murals and re-painted the entrance sign. We also spent some time in the school classrooms engaging with the students. We worked alongside local men and women who did much of the skilled work and kept our spirits up with banter and work songs. At the end of our time, they paid us the enormous compliment of saying that we had worked harder than any other group they had ever seen! In the middle of the project, we took a day to visit the famously beautiful Pangong Lake on the Chinese border.

Following a farewell performance and feast organized by the school, we set off on our five-day trek. This was a stern physical challenge for many as we ascended to passes that were well over 5000 meters. Our camps were idyllic and the display of stars at night was a revelation for many. Returning to Leh, we spent our last nights together at the Ladakh Residency before returning to Delhi where we said goodbye to the Indian students and adults. The rest of the group made a lightning trip to the colorful city of Agra where we visited the Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal before returning to Delhi and our flights home.  click for pictures

CLEANLINESS DRIVE

A report from Dolly Arora (Award Leader), Dikshant International School, Zirakpur

Award participants of Dikshant International School, Zirakpur have undertaken a project in the village of Nagla on the Old Kalka-Ambala highway. The project is towards their Service Section. The main aim was to undertake a cleanliness drive to clean the open drains and thereby prevent the spread of various communicable diseases. Initially, the team found the task difficult, because the drains had never been cleaned after they were made. They were stinking and choked with polythene and tall grass was growing all around. But with the co-operation of Mandeep Singh, one of the villagers, the team managed to take up the drive and arranged sickles and baskets to throw the garbage. Another problem that the team came across was to find a place to throw the garbage, as there was no bin kept to throw the garbage! Every house threw the garbage in the open space outside their house. The IAYP team first tried to convince people not to throw litter everywhere. The next problem was pulling up grass roots inside the drains--this procedure was quite a challenge because the filth from the drain came out along with the grass; so the team got masks and gloves for the job. Once the team started doing it they warmed to the task and the villagers helped by providing baskets, sickles and sticks etc. It took nearly two months to clean the drains. It was a satisfying job to carry out the cleanliness drive every day. The work was appreciated by the village folk and the elected sarpanch of the village promised to lay out the sewerage line.  Click for Pictures

OUR ADVENTURE EXPEDITION

Saumya, Aishwarya, Abhinav & Tushar of G D Goenka World School, Gurgaon sharing their learning 

Early in the morning of 25th October 2013, a group of 80 Award participants (17 Silver & 63 Bronze) reached Camp Wild, Dhauj. We barely has time to settle into our cottages/tents when we were divided into groups to start with the activities. First was the obstacle course followed by lunch and then we did rock climbing, rappelling and valley crossing, followed by a session of the obstacle course. The obstacle course was a fun task to teach us the distinctive ways in which the army trains. This involved: the jungle leap, Tarzan swing, commando net, Bermuda Bridge and much more.

However, with all this fun we also had some serious activities to teach us vital survival skills like knot tying and tent pitching. It took a lot of effort and teamwork, since it was first time for most students, but we still managed to pitch a tent. The students learnt the different and vital ways to tie knots with a rope. This was the base for everything, even for putting up the tent.  To us, learning the skill of tent pitching was the biggest take away from the camp. Tents are one of the most important camping materials, and without them, explorers would have to sleep without shelter on long treks. Pitching a tent is rather simple and can be done in 5 minutes.

Step 1: Find a good camping spot; flat ground is essential as the tent may not stay up on uneven ground. Also sleeping on a slope is rather uncomfortable.

Step 2: Lay down the ground sheet; this sheet protects the tent from the soil, rocks and also makes it more comfortable to sleep on.

Step 3: Set up the ridge pole; this pole slides into a hook at the top of the tent, it eventually will become the backbone of the tent.

Step 4: Attach the pegs to the main tent structure; they should not be too tight or loose, just enough to keep it upright.

Step 5: Pull the ridge pole up so that you can attach the two dollies; these two rods attach to the frame on both sides of the tent and help keep it upright.

Step 6: Now attach the pegs to the upright tent structure to make sure it does not fly away

Step 7: Attach the flysheet to the tent; the flysheet is a waterproof cover for the tent to protect it from rain and/or snow

Step 8: The guy ropes can now be attached. These ropes hold the flysheet steady and attach it to the main tent; they also steady the Dollies. 

There are many different kinds of tents but they all are set up more or less the same way. I know that with this skill in hand I can now travel on long expeditions and not have to worry about where I am going to sleep. 

Some key facts that we learnt:

1. Tents cannot be heated by anything electric or by fire as they are made out of nylon and that is very combustible, the only thing that can heat it is body heat.
2. The two most commonly used tents are dome and A shaped; Dome shaped is used for long expeditions and A shaped for shorter ones.
3. Tents were widely used by the Roman army -- which needed a place to stay for all its troops that was light and portable. The answer was the tent.
4. People living in warm places usually live in tents made out of woven goat hair as nylon can catch fire in the extreme heat.
5. Some camping tents are large enough to keep 10 people, extra camping gear and family pets; there is also room for 6 extra people! However this is nothing compared to the Khan Shatyr; this 150 by 200 meters tent is larger than 10 football fields and is an urban scale internal park.

This is our learning for life! Click for pictures