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| Enjoying a day hike |
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| Staff pitch in, too |
A Saturday in the life
The one thing we all look forward to on the weekend is going to the bazaar. Good food and a little shopping make for a good break from the tension and monotony of student life. Every month there is one closed bazaar day. Although we all moan about it, we rarely use the day productively.
The school, in an attempt to create aware, involved, enthusiastic and more rounded individuals decided that every closed bazaar day would be spent on CARE service activities or hiking. The first of such days was the 18th of September. Students could choose between hikes or one of several CARE activities-a trip to Rafael homes, Dehradun, another to Tibetan homes in Happy Valley, garbage separation, tree planting, clearing a site for a composting bin and garbage pick up around Midlands dorm. Although people weren't too excited about the idea of spending the day with their hands in the dirt, it was definitely an eye opening experience for many.
"Every one should do it to know the amount of effort that goes in. A lot of us blindly throw rubbish wherever we want; we don't pay any attention to the separate bins for dry and wet waste" said Vedika Birla while talking about the immense trouble that the CLEAN workers here have to go through in order to separate garbage for the recycling process. Likewise, students involved with the Midlands garbage pick up also came back disgusted with the state of the hillside. "The place was full of plastic waste. It was disgustingly filthy" said Avalok Kaul, one of the students involved in the clean up. Those who went to Happy Valley and Dehradun returned quite pleased with themselves. "We played with the kids and later ate momos. It was fun" said Pema Dechen, CARE Head.
Those who went hiking could choose between three options - Benog Tibba which was the hardest, Nag Tibba which was of moderate difficulty and Bear Hill which was the easy hike. The students who went on the hikes were glad that they did and they all felt a sense of achievement. "We had lots of fun. We definitely preferred it to the bazaar; the beautiful view made it totally worth the while." said Manami Shimizu and Eri Takeuchi who hiked up to Bear Hill.
Quite a few students thought these activities were a good idea. It would definitely benefit the students if the school decided to start it up as a regular program.