One of the nice things about having our kids attend an international school is that they are exposed to different cultures and ideas — in fact there are children from 46 different nations at their school. Some of the programs are also a bit different than might be found in public school back in Canada. The school they attend in Mumbai is very service oriented, and thus one of the flagship events is a week in November where the students get out of the classroom and go out into the community, countryside, or across the country to see new places, have new experiences, and volunteer.

For high school students the program is called Yatra, which in Hindi means a pilgrimage or journey. There are about a dozen different programs from which the students could choose: to volunteer in a rural Indian school, go hiking in the Himalayas, immerse themselves in the performing arts in Southern India, or go sailing in the Arabian Sea and learn about marine ecology. Students pick their top three options and each year they experience something new.

Which of your three choices you get really is the luck of the draw. K ended up in Goa on a program known as Surfing and Service, while Q went into the interior of India on a Young Naturalist program in Satpura National Park, which was the location that inspired Rudyard Kipling’s novel The Jungle Book.

Having just recently been in Goa, Kiernan was keen to get back to the beach and enjoyed the opportunity to take surfing lessons in the morning while supporting the local community each afternoon. They learned a lot about eco-tourism to help make the economy in Goa more sustainable, but their other main service project was to help build boats out of PVC pipe, foam, and Velcro. These little crafts, which look like small kayaks or surf skis, were to be given to local fishers to facilitate casting but, more importantly, helped them retrieve their nets. The big fishing boats they use are about 20-30 feet long and are not the most maneuverable. If nets get caught they are often discarded or pulled in forcefully, destroying coral and marine habitat on the ocean’s floor. Providing fishers with these small, lightweight, maneuverable craft, which they can carry in the larger boats, makes it easier for fishers to remove their fishing nets with a minimum of disruption to the local marine habitat.

While Q got to hang out in the jungle, he was not terribly thrilled with the travel plans which necessitated him leaving for the airport at 3am in the morning. His group flew to Bohpal and then took a bus to the national park where they were working with a team to evaluate human and natural interactions through education programs, GPS mapping, and video camera traps to document wildlife. While there were high hopes of seeing Bengal tigers and other wild animals on the safari tour, Q was a bit perturbed about only seeing bears and deer. For some students this was a highlight for sure, for Q it was just like any drive to the Rockies or going to the cottage. Learning about the impact of tourism on the local economy, however, was a bit of an eye-opener, and they had the opportunity to make some pottery and poke around in some caves which was fun.

While high school students went for the entire week, the service programs are also embraced by the junior high school so C’s grade 6 class embarked on a 4 day program called Week Without Walls. A little closer to home, the Grade 6 students went to Matheran, a hill station about 2.5 hours to the east of Mumbai. Matharan has been designated as an ecosensitive region by the government and the kids got to learn a bit about the area, especially the wildlife that lives there. The program also had lots to keep the kids active and C had great fun ziplining, swimming, repelling down trees, and proved that she is quite an accomplished bargainer judging by what she came back with from the local market.

All in all it was quite a quiet week with only K2 at home — though she quite enjoyed having Mom and Dad to herself!