Activity Week

Jay Yunas

5A

Activity Week

Activity Week!!! Activity week is a time away from school and dorms for activities. It was great getting ready for the fresh week, away from normal life. The e-mail had arrived from Dr Wood. All the bags are out. Clothes were all over the place. Everyone was rushing to see the e-mail. It was fun looking at the excited faces of all grades, especially 5^th graders.

The Ganges. When I first saw the Ganges, I was really disappointed about all the misuse that has been done by everyone. They make the animals poo and pee in the water. Some people put chemicals in the water. Another way of misuse. The Ganges is used for for a dam in Chilla. The dam provides electricity to various parts in North India. This river is used for farming, animals, bathing and other religious uses. This is a very holy river for the Hindus. The Hindus use this river for their Aartis and Holy bathing etc. The river is a recreational place in NE India. The Ganges flows all the way into the bay of Bengal, shared by Bangladesh. My experience of the Ganges was great except for the misuse that had been done to it.

Religious Notifications. Going to the Hindu Temples was a very new and fresh experience for all the people who have never experienced something like this. The fist time we went to a temple in Rishikesh, there was a guy dressed as Hanuman, the monkey God, giving tikas to almost everyone. Outside each of the temples, you could here the pundits' chants. On the visit to see the Aarti, we met a guy in the dark, only the bottom of his face lit, him looking like a ghost, looking like he's going to kill us, was scary. I tried not to look at him but it kept coming back to me. Freaky, HUH???

Our visit to the Gujjars and about them. The last few days before Activity Week, one of the groups researched about the Gujjars. Some of their information was proved wrong and some right. When we went to Rishikesh, our main objective was to buy gifts for the Gujjars. When we actually went there, we saw that they seemed happy with what they have. They really appreciated education. From 6^th grade and onwards, they have to cycle 5km to school but they still appreciated education, making me feel happy for them. At first thought, I thought they would be very poor but they didn't seem too poor. They didn't care about their simple life which I still and will always appreciate. I noticed these things in their campus/area: Mud houses, branch and leaf roof, wood cooking system, oil lamp, no bedding. These people are vegetarians and they use animals like cows, buffaloes and chickens. Their main business is milking.

So, I have mostly told you about my experience in all of the topics above, but I'll tell you more.

On the first day I had lots of fun scouting and having a little dip in the Ganges. As we came back from the “Scouting” experience, all of the girls were super cranky, especially to us. That day we had been to Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology. We had gotten Domino's pizza for lunch that day, and I got 2 discount coupon. That day had turned into a “settle in, lay back and relax” day.

On the second day we went on a morning walk on a animal search. In the day we went to Rishikesh to buy gifts for the Gujjars. We went on the Ram-Jhula bridge and the Lakshman-Jhula bridge. We took a boat ride across the Ganges. I collected in more than 600 ml of Ganga Water for free. We had gone to Chotiwalas for lunch. I had Cholla Bhatura for lunch. Today I had my first Night Safari.

Day three review. On day three we went to the Gujjars (you can read about it in paragraph 4). Since day 2, we had started to go on morning scouts. A daily routine. We also visited a dam right in front of our rest house.

Day 4. We went to Haridwar on the trolleys to a temple. In each and every temple I could smell the flowery smell of incense. In that temple I donated र 10 and got a Hindu Braislet on my right hand. In that temple, there were small buildings (all religious). In one of them there was a man with this bat kind of thing. I got hit thrice on my back “religiously.” We went for a good dip again. When we came back, only the huts had showering water, so we had to shower there. That night we went to see the Aarti (you can read more about it in paragraph 3). We had a bonfire night with many skits and stories. Great fun!

Day 5. That day was our trip to home. We had lunch at Mc Donalds. After we reached, someone had vomited on two people's bag's. Even so it was great to be home.

Even though Activity Week is a great time, you always want to come back to home. It happens to all of us, the same old, GREAT feeling!!! I'll be missing the great activity week that we had, away from the hills and into the plains...