Talent Show 29th September

Hey,

It's gonna be a shorter blog today, not too much is happening now as activity week and quarter break are getting closer and closer.

On Saturday night we had the school talent show, it was completely run by grade 11 and featured acts from grade 11 and 12's. I was an usher for the night so I got to suit up and manage the main door with Cory. It was alot of fun, especially because we were part of skit where Leonardo Di Caprio steals a Oscar award and the host calls for the security guard's to get him, so we got to run down the middle of the hall and tackle Leo.

Before the show on the Friday night I volunteered to put up stars as the backdrop on stage. Parker Hall, the main hall at Woodstock is super old, so we had to hang the stars on planks of wood above the stage, it was pretty scary at the start but was awesome. After we put up the stars we ended up watching the dress rehearsel from there, so Cory, a friend of mine named Shrea, my Applied Life Science teacher Ms Weiss and I all watched and it was awesome.

Shrea and Cory. About 10 meters above the stage

Our View

The talent show featured a variety of acts ranging from k-pop to Mexican dancing. There are really talented people here and each act was entertaining. Here's a quick video of the men staff dance. Ranging from left to right are: Mr Okie (Guitar and singing teacher), Mr Paul (My Math's teacher) Mr Steve (P.E teacher), and Mr Radigan (I don't know)

My gum's are fine now for any of those who are still wondering :)

Sorry for the shorter blog, got lot's of school work, but I'm working on a video that captures my time so far here, I don't know when it will be done, but yeah, look forward to that. Oh and quickly here's a dropbox folder with 50ish of my best photo's https://www.dropbox.com/sc/lcmqsmji4fotu1j/AACiej5iZGykyiRgNAGJ9kyka

Stay Well,

Lachy Wild

Indian Hospital's, 21st September

Hey,

It's been nearly 2 months, wow! It's been a great experience and every minute has bought along different challenges and joys. Every day I still look out of my window and think "Im in the bloddy Himalaya's!!!". I wouldn't say I'm homesick, but I'm really missing a lot of things about Aus. The main thing is the cricket. I just can't wait for those stinking hot summer days where I lay on the couch all day going through 20 icy poles an hour while watching Mitchell Johnson destroy the pom's. Last summer we mowed a pitch in the backyard and we (mainly Ash and I) played cricket everyday, I remember the dirt getting so hot it burnt our feet so we had to wear thongs. Whenever I think of all that I do feel a bit of hole in my core.

On Wednesday I had a trip to hospital due to a inflamed gum, which turned out to be infected. I first notice that apart of my gum was sore monday night, I didn't do anything about it and woke up Tuesday morning with the bottom left corner of my face looking like a ballon. The swelling from my gum had caused a massive lump on my face. I told my dorm parent Mr Tim (He's a legend) and he told me to go to the health centre up at school. So I went up to school and to the health centre, they told me to come back at 10:00 o'clock to see the dentist. It was 8:00 now so I headed off to my first period, spare, and then to my second period, also a spare :) so after my second class it was 10:00 o'clock. I headed back to the health centre. They told me wait outside, and 10 mins later a man walks past and see a small signal for me to follow him, I wasn't quite sure if he really did signal for me to follow him, but I did. I followed him through the school and in to the parking lot where an ambulance was. At this point I was thinking "What is going on? I thought I was going to see the dentist at the health centre?" so I just said to him "Dentist?" and he gave me the indian head wobble which was all I needed. I hopped into the back of the ambulance and he drove me to Landour Community Hospital. We went into the waiting room where he stood in line and gave the lady some papers. I was then directed to sit in front of the dentist room. I sat there for close to 40 mins. The hospital wasn't that bad condition, it looked like they had good staff and cleaner's and it wasn't overly packed, it was horrible compared to Australian hospitals, but it's good for India and I wasn't complaining. During those 40 mins i managed to get my high score of 36 on this game called 'Swing Copters', I was pretty happy with myself. 

Finally the dentist signalled for me to come in, so I sat down wondering if this dude spoke any english, the guy that transported me here had left, so I started to feel a bit out of place. Luckily he did speak fluent english so that was a big relief. He took a look at my gums and prescribed me some anti-biotics and mouthwash and that was it. I found the guy that brought me to the hospital at the vending machine and gave him the paper's for the prescription, he got the meds and drove me back to school. I missed roughly 2 hours of school and I have to go back to the hospital again next Wednesday, but my gum's are a lot better already and it should all be fine.

The monsoon is starting to end which is great! I can't wait to see the Himalayan snow peaks which had been covered up so far. There have been some great sunsets the last few days, mainly due to this thing called the winter line. Mr Alex, a dorm parent was telling me that once you see the winter line, it means it's going to get colder. The winter line in the photos is where the orange just cuts off in the middle. The camera can't catch it that well but below the line was a bed of clouds that covered Deradun, but there was a school (Mr Alex's primary school actually) that appeared to be floating above the clouds. I sat out there for 30 mins just watching the sunset, and for those 30 mins I escaped all the school work and worries and just tuned out. It was a great opportunity to just refresh my mind from all the things going on. 

The Town of Mussoorie

There's only 2 and a half more weeks of school until Activity Week. Activity Week is where all the upper years, grade 9-12's,  have the week to do various activities outside of school. I'm going on the advanced hike to a place called Maldaru Lake. I don't know too much about it but I know it's a super high altitude lake and it reaches temperatures of -7 degrees Celsius most nights. I'm really looking forward too it, especially coz I have my birthday during it! Hopefully there's some really cool scenery and it challenges me physically and mentally. Cory and Isaac are both on the hike with me, aswell as 8ish other grade 11 boys. After the hike we have quarter break. I'm planning on staying in dorms and going rock climbing/hiking everyday and then go on the trip to some place the school are organising for the people who are staying in the dorms. So if I can just get through these last 2 and a half weeks of school then I can relax for pretty much all of October!

Stay well,
Lachy Wild

Cross Country and R.E Retreat. September 15th

Hey Hey,

Last Tuesday we had the school cross country, the course was 6km long around the top of the ridge above school. I ran with other grade 11s and 12s and somehow managed to come 11th place out of about 40 students. I was extremely happy with that due to the fact that everyone in the top ten does some sort of running outside of school and also I was over 2.5km higher up in altitude then back in Australia. The whole time I was running with Cory and without him I probably would have come a lot worse then I did. He kept on pushing me to go further and further and we didn't walk a single meter of the 6km's. When we got to the final stretch I absolutely gunned it as fast as I could and managed to just edge out Cory, I feel a bit bad for that because we had ran together for the whole time, but we're in the same house so it didn't matter point wise. That run was probably one of the hardest physical challenge's I've done in a very long time and I'm still feeling it in my legs (The walk up to school the next day was horrendous) 

On Friday night and Saturday I went on an R.E retreat that the school ran. The retreat was at a place called Torchbearer's, down in Dehradun, about an hours drive away. The main purpose of the retreat was for primarily christian students to escape all the busyness that Woodstock life brings. So Isaac, me and another friend called Emmett left straight after school on friday and got down there in time for dinner and a beautiful sunset.

Isaac

Silhouette of Emmet 

So damn beautiful

The structure of the 2 days were 4 sessions which included worship (Mighty to Save, My Redeemer Lives and all those other classics) and a 20 min devotion. The theme for the sessions was 'Blessed' and mainly resolved the 'Beatitudes'. One session that really stood out to me was one where we (Humans) are told to be salt to the world, because salt is a great disinfectant and also gives flavour to food, we talked about how we can relate those principals in our lives and we learned that we need to be salt to add flavour to God's creation, to help others, like salt helps to heal our wounds. Overall it was a great weekend and a lot of relaxation and fun occurred.  When we were leaving we got this beautiful sight of the sun shining behind the clouds.

I also went on a short hike on Sunday to Bear Hill, it was about 3 hours and we got some food from a place at the end of it. I haven't got the photos of my camera yet but ill edit this blog when I get them. 

Stay well,

Lachy Wild

School and Stuff, September 8th

Hey guys, hope you're having a great day,

So I've been in this great land for 45 days, it's been long and short,  and I've loved every minute of it (Well, most minutes).  I still have 109 days till I'm back in Aus, I'm nearly 1/3 of my way through my time here and that does make me feel pretty sad. I had a countdown back home until I left for India and those last 100 days felt incredibly quick, so i'm a bit worried everything here is just going to fly by and before I know it, i'm back in Australia.

I'm happy with how I have settled in here, I have made some good friends, my grades aren't horrendous and I don't yell in agony every morning about the day ahead. One of the best things over here is the increase in independence, you are more capable of shaping how your life is. You can sit in your room on your computer all day long or you can get out and take in all this school and place has to offer. I prefer to get out of the dorms as often as possible and extend myself because I reckon the only way to really improve yourself is to step out of what your comfortable with and 'Step into the unknown'. This is obviously a lot easier said then done and sometimes I must admit i've been scared off by something but I believe everyday I'm getting better at it. One thing I've done to get out of my comfort zone is the D.O.S.T group which works in Dunda village. I went again to the Dunda village last Saturday, the school had organised a scientist to talk to the villager's about efficient farming and to tell them to avoid using these seeds called hybrid seeds. These hybrid seeds contain lot's of chemicals that means a high chance of a successful harvest but it ruins the land so after the first crop using hybrid seeds, the farmer's cant plant natural seeds for about 3 more years. I went along with one other student and group of teacher's plus the scientist and we held 2 meetings for the people in the Dunda Village and surrounding areas. The meetings were all in Hindi so I had no idea what they were saying at the time so I just sat on the floor for 2 hours, half asleep trying to pickup the small fragments of Hindi I understood. Still it was a great opportunity to see how a large proportion of the world live. 


During lunches and after school on Monday and Thursday I've been doing some indoor rock climbing in the room they have in the gymnasium. My friend Cory is a big climber so he's been teaching and mentoring me on my climbing technique and showing me some cool routes. Here's a little video showing off what I've done so far. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K7B0EZV5Ik&list=UUzHuJWZbjCbmEnBZ1VpVwqQ

Hindi is going pretty well, were going through the topics incredibly fast so sometimes it is hard to keep up with everything but I'm really enjoying it. I've learnt how to have a basic conversation with someone, like: what is your name, how are you, where do you live, what do you like, do you know such and such. Drawing and Painting is also coming along pretty well, it's a pretty laid back class and we meet only twice a week. Here's a picture of the first assessment we have done. I know it's not that good but i'm pretty happy with it knowing that i'm not any sort of artist.

There is school cross country tomorrow so we have a shorter day and we run 3km's. No one is going to take it seriously so I'm looking forward to just mucking around with my mates. There is a house system at this school but it is only used for whole school days like cross country, very different to back home.

Now that i'm on the topic of back home, a few people have asked me to say the main differences between here and Aus. Obviously you got your easy differences, such as language and culture, I'm not going to dive to far into that because western movies and stuff have provided a pretty good image of how it is, and to summarise my dad "India feels as it is: multiple religions, cultures, vehicles, laws all blended into one surging pool of nonstop humanity." A personal difference I have felt is that this place give's a lot more opportunity to achieve greatness, I don't really know how to explain it, I look around and see so much more potential and most importantly, true happiness. It's a sort of happiness I've never seen or experienced before, a happiness that doesn't come from money, good job and smartness but an overall peace as hard as rock. This happiness is beautiful inside and out and comes from a place deep within, I only wish I had the words to describe it better.

Well my computer's on 2% battery so ill stop rambling on now. I hope you have a great week and ill see you all in my next post.

Stay well,
Lachy Wild

Journey's and Experiences, September 1st

Hey everyone hope you are enjoying the spring or autumn, where ever you are.

Alot has happened since the last post and the weeks have gone really quick, it's hard to believe i've been over here for more then a month, i'm over 1/5 through my time here.

I don't know if i've written this somewhere else, but I'm involved in a student community service group called D.O.S.T. One of the projects we are doing is supporting a village called "Dunda". You might have seen on the news a couple of years ago, that there were incredibly bad floods in northern India, the event was called a cloud burst, it's basically where a incredible amount of rain appears in a super short period of time. This cloud burst really affected the Dunda village because it lies in the bottom of the valley. The village had really sophisticated irrigation systems that made the land very fertile, but since the cloud burst, there had been landslides that completely destroyed the irrigation system. This ruined all of the crops and made the land really hard to grow on, This severely affected the village's food supply and there source of income. The landslides also ruined parts of the village, most importantly the school. 

The remains of the irrigation system

Half the school building (They still use it)

One of the many landslides

#roadsidesnaps

The view from the village, it's quite beautiful

 So we went to the village on thursday and had a talk to the residence about what they wanted to see in the village and what there priorities are, because there priorities are our priorities. They said they really wanted to have a new school and a community centre for meetings (We were having this meeting on someone's verandah) so we took down that information and were gonna see what we can do for them. 

The D.O.S.T  Team, minus a few other students

On saturday I went on my second hike, this time to Benog Tibba, It was roughly 35km and took us from 8:30am to 5:30pm. It was probably the furthest i've ever walked in a single day, and I really felt it afterwards. The hike started from school and we walked through the Bazar and around the back of the mountain and then up it. It was such a beautiful hike, but it wasn't the best day for it because it was pretty foggy at some moments. Here is a link to a Flickr album with the best photo's from it.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/127409953@N02/sets/72157647104174955/

If you don't have time to see the album, here's a cute puppy we found on the side of the road to cheer you up from your busy day.

He was alive if you were wondering.

On that same Saturday the legendary Hugh Evans was visiting the school, for those who don't know, Hugh attended the same primary school and secondary school as me, as well as going on the Woodstock exchange from Carey, which I am on now. Hugh Evans co founded the Oaktree foundation and is the CEO of the "Global Poverty Project" an organisation that aims to end severe poverty in our life time. Hugh is a big inspiration for me and is one of the main reasons I chose to go on this exchange in the first place. So when I heard he was coming to Woodstock I was really excited to meet him. He was scheduled to have a afternoon tea with students at 3 and my hike was supposed to arrive back at 3, so i went on the hike, thinking i'd meet Hugh after it. But unfortunately the hike went until 5:30. I got to school and frantically looked around for any sign of him but I couldn't find him. I was severely bummed about not meeting him, but I guess things like that you can't really control.

I'd like to end this blog with some words from the bible that have really helped me through my time here, and I hope it can have some sort of significance in your life. This verse for me solidifies the fact that everything happens for a reason, and that God knows what is best for us, contrary to what we think is best for us. "Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known" Jeremiah 33:3

Stay well,
Lachy Wild