Winter camp dec 2015

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Every camp brings an opportunity to learn while living. It often begins with knowing each other in many different forms – we meet as we come, we meet when we work together, we meet when we learn from each other.We are blessed to get exposed to different cuisine at campus, as visitors of different walks of life come to Aarohi. In winter camp we got a food request ‘Jain food’. Day one, on our dining room there was a curiosity ‘what is jain food’. By the day three curiosity was high, we asked kids to share about jain food. A session was planned with them. – It began with Jains, Jain food, Jain culture…and so on

Living brought another aspect – sometimes it was about cleaning and brooming while other times it was about making a joyful salad for other…the range was vast – what all we did and how we lived together, sometimes alone all by self, sometimes together with all around.Doing all by self, with others and failing and making and achieving and just not doing sometimes also brought joy and self realization. Knowing each other brought joy and understanding.

Challenges thrown to not only play at tree house but also to contribute led to exploring tree house not as a consumer but also also as doer

We do not know where it began…Mani, one of the participant of winter camp at campus started making shoe rack using Bamboos and it taught us many things. We saw perseverance, we experienced commitment, we embraced joy of doing.

A small constraint of ‘no geyser’ led to exploring long forgotten experiments of ‘fire using sunlight’ to make fire in our rocket chulha…we met learning in many ways.

Any music, any ground, any instruments…no limits of exploring music. We danced on Sufi and also on Hard rock. Each one is different, each one brought a different music to life at campus, we dance in many forms.

Trekking often throws natural challenges for us and this time it was not different, brought joy of meeting nature in its different form.

Like any other day at Aarohi, even in camps we have no dish of learning to offer. We do not serve any learning on a platter. We aren’t cooking to satisfy the children. We’re like a kitchen: Raw material and tools (resources) of all kinds are available. Children are challenged to cook for themselves, to create own learning, to explore, experiment for own reasons, to satisfy own hunger.


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