Surfs up!
Project Week is an opportunity for students to engage with their surroundings in India by travelling around India and completing a CAS activity. This opportunity allows students to engage with local communities in the region and explore India learning more about its rich culture and wide diversity. The procedure of proposing a project is as follows: students or faculty can choose to lead a trip around India unless it is part of CAS (Creativity Activity Service). The students then propose these ideas to faculty and if they are approved, all students are allowed to choose from the selection of the different proposed activities which trip they would like to go on. There are a lot of factors that are taken into consideration in order for a project to get approved. One of the main factors is the carbon budget. UWC strongly promotes the concept of sustainability and each project has a maximum cap on how much carbon they can produce. If the project proposal exceeds the carbon cap, there is the chance of the project being cancelled.
This year, we had a variety of activities proposed by students such as learning how to surf in Kodi Bengre while doing Ocean Conservation, working with Tibetan refugees in Dharamshala, working with an NGO in Kerala among others. The list was endless and all the projects seemed excellent and impactful! I chose to learn how to surf and educating people on the concept of Ocean Conservation in Karnataka, Kodi Bengre. We were going to learn how to surf with this surf school called ‘The Shaka Shaka Surf Club’, collect plastic from the beach and the surrounding areas and educate children in a nearby school about the importance of ocean conservation. All the aspects of this trip seemed very exciting for me and I was very eager to go on the trip. The trip comprised of 19 students and 2 faculties.
The train ride to Karnataka was 13 hours. Luckily, we set off at 11PM and the journey didn’t feel as long because we spent most of the time sleeping. My favorite part of the train is that you get to really know people who you weren’t friends with before. It’s where you form new bonds with people and wonder ‘Damn, why haven’t I ever spoken to this person before?’ It’s also where you strengthen the bond between you and some of your friends. We arrived at the train station in Karnataka at 1PM in the afternoon and were received by some staff from the surf school that were very welcoming. They drove us to the location and the founders of the surf school welcomed us. We had chai and discussed on the plan for the trip. For our accommodation, they set up tents for that we would be sleeping in.
On the first day, we learnt how to surf! We had the beginner classes where we made surfboards in the sand and practiced standing up and riding waves. After a few minutes of this, we got into the water and tried to surf. It was a very terrifying experience because I was afraid of the board hitting my head. I learnt how to lie on my board and how to turn my board to prepare for an oncoming wave.
The following day, we were divided into two groups; one group was to go surfing in the morning at 7AM and one group was to go surfing after breakfast at 9:30AM. Since I was to go surfing after breakfast, my group had a yoga session in the morning. It was very relaxing and rejuvenating.
After breakfast, we went surfing and the objective for the day was to learn now to kneel on the board and get carried by a wave without falling. I was able to achieve this objective and I was very proud of myself! After surfing, we had some chill time before lunch where we could read books in hammocks, take naps in the sand or go kayaking by the lake opposite the beach. I used this time to rest and do some planning for my blog. After lunch, we went to a nearby school that is founded by the owners of the surf club. The school has 35 students that were very energetic and eager to learn. Our objective was to educate these little children on the importance of ocean conservation. We began by showing them some videos of animals dying because of consuming plastic. We then split ourselves into 5 groups and each group devised a theater performance on the importance of ocean conservation to showcase to the children’s families in 4 days. After this, we would head down to the beach with paper bags and collect all the plastic that had accumulated on the beach.
Our routine was more or less the same every day. Every day, I would make progress with surfing and become more confident with it. We also did some research and discovered that the plastic does not entirely accumulate on the beach because of the actions of the local communities. This plastic comes from all over the world and is washed onto the shores due to the different ocean currents converging. Therefore, even though our efforts to make an impact would not solve the problem entirely, we did our best to educate the local community in the hopes of making a slight difference in their lives.
Thursday was the day when we showcased our theater performances to the parents of the students. Each group went up and showed what they had come up with. The children were having loads of fun on the stage. After we finished the performances, we went to the beach to clean up more plastic and this time, the children came and willingly helped us clean the beach. This was very good to see as they wanted to put what we had taught them for the past few days into practice.
Friday was our last day on the beach and we went on a boat tour on the river in the morning. It was very beautiful and we got to see the beautiful landscape and animals. Those of us who wanted got to swim in the river for a while. We headed back to the camp and those who wanted to surf one last time could do so. We also had cooking classes where we got to learn how to prepare some of the dishes we had been eating for the past few days. It was a very wonderful experience! We left to catch our train at 4PM and arrived back on campus on Saturday at 10AM.
Overall, I had such a good time on this trip and learnt a lot from it. I hope I get to experience something as wonderful as this sometime soon.
For pictures and videos of this trip, check out the photo gallery section. Enjoy!