IB Orientation Reflection

In early September, our Diploma class went for an IB orientation trip to Kitugala in hopes to get familiar with each other due to new students coming into our grade and also to learn more about TOK.

In all honesty, the trip to Kitugala helped build my collaboration skills with people in my grade and I also communicated with people whom I normally don't talk to. By working together in a new environment (for most of us), we learnt to trust and reassure each other when the time called.

Our trip started with us taking a bus ride to Kitugala and then testing out our life-vests to get comfortable with it. This was a stress reliever for me since i'm not very skilled in water. By holding hands with the people next to us, you knew that they wouldn't let you drown, which luckily didn't happen throughout the trip.


Testing out our lifevests and plunging into the cold water for the first time.

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We started off by rafting in groups which required a great deal of team-work and communication such as when the person, Mahesh, controlling the raft shouted out commands and based on that we had to control the raft.
One thing that I discovered within myself was my desire to raft into streams with great currents rather than rafting into ones without much currents.



Our rafting group with Mahesh shouting out commands and us going into a great tide. 

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The next activity on the agenda was to go canyoning which involved jumping from heights into a pool of water. Initially, I found this both frightening and exciting but as I watched my friends jump, the frighting aspect of it decreased and with every jump that I took into the water, it became even more exciting.

The seconds before my first jump consisted of multiple nervous glancing in the water and thoughts about my life so far but after I turned back and saw my friends confidence in me and assertion, I decided to take my first jump and as my head popped out of the water; there was one thing on my mind: I need to do more. I undertook new challenges by taking that first jump into that cool water without having any idea where I would end up.



We then returned back to the camp where we played a great game of cards and enjoyed a chilled bottle of cocoa-cola.

The next day we went for a long (and tiring) hike to a cave where we discussed started questioning the time when people lived there which related back to Theory Of Knowledge. This got us thinking on how we were able to tell what was going on in the cave we visited by looking at the top of it the stone and seeing black marks which indicated that people used fire here.

Our next activity in the cave was to get into partners and while one would be blind-folded, the other would have a picture and would tell the details to it to the partner who's drawing that picture blind folded. For this activity to succeed, we have to work collaboratively with each other since we had to try our best to understand what the other was saying.

We then went for Abseiling which was a completely new challenge for me since it would be the first time that I walk down a waterfall. Initially it was a bit frightening but that feeling didn't last for long.

We had also planned a visit to the town where we would be interviewing people from there. The group I was in had to interview a headmaster of the school. The next day, we met with the headmaster for the interview. To make sure that the interview went smoothly, we had to collaborate amongst each other and give ourselves a task such as taking down notes, recording, asking questions, etc. Overall, it was a great visit since we got to understand more about the lifestyle of the town and how the people living together help each other out.


A group photo taken as we were about to leave the house where the interview had taken place.

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This whole trip was an amazing and memorable experience for me since I was able to undertake new challenges which I had never done before such as canyoning and i was also able to collaborate with many members of my class thus creating a strengthened sense of teamwork which we could take back to school.