Young Leaders in Action

Duke of Edinburgh Gold Team from Scotland in Indiaby Rory Higginson

As the plane touched down I started to get anxious. What was I doing bringing my Fettes team mates all the way to Kolkata in India to a place almost the polar opposite to where we are all living? Would they appreciate the hot, hot weather, the chaotic travel, the dusty, dirty streets or the food?  None of them had done anything like this before and I was now worried this was going to be a disaster.  However 45 minutes later, after we collected our luggage and left the arrivals and were met by a smiling Paul and Hari who would be our companions for the week and DP our driver, who even gave me a hug I knew it would be OK.

We immediately went to our guest house and dumped our stuff before heading to lunch with Tiger and Ajay – our introduction to food in Kolkata was hot and spicy Chinese.

In the afternoon the Jungle Crows under 18 team were playing the rest of the Jungle Crows in a practice match before the U18 all India tournament the following week. Pedro and I took the opportunity to join the training and play with the team. I almost lasted the first half, but totally shattered from the journey and the heat, with the sweat streaming from my head into my eyes, hardly able to see what was going on I made the earlier exit. Pedro, from Hong Kong was more used to the heat and he managed all of the first half. It’s a great experience playing with the team as they are so enthuastic and although we were so much bigger in height and body mass they were not afraid to tackle and came straight for us, and my goodness they are fast…so fast. We wished them all the best in the All India Tournament.

After a quick sleep we headed out to dinner. DP our driver met us at the guest house and walked us to the New Market – the market is so very old so we don’t know why it is called new. See the pictures we found here, this is how it looked in 1945.  Think this was quite a surprise for everyone as it was so busy and there was so much to see.

Dinner was great, somehow we had managed to get a table in the coolest restaurant in Kolkata – 1658  …….we all enjoyed the food which was a mix of Indian, European and Asian so something for all.  After dinner DP met us to take us back to the guest house and although DP’s plan was to make two journeys we persuaded him otherwise and all 6 of us squashed in for the 5 minute journey.

We all crashed after such an eventful and enjoyable first day but excited about what the week would bring. Some of the highlights included...........

Working With The Children

Sunday there was no resting as we were met at 8am and headed out with all the stuff we had brought with us to our first training session at Salt Lake Dhapa. When we got there it was obvious that the Khelo coaches had been here often as the children were very familiar and treated us all as good friends. They knew the games and were skilled. They loved our hula hoops, as this was new and fun.  There was quite a crowd of children so we split them into three groups with Lauren, Anna and Sophie coaching the younger group and Hugo, Pedro and I coaching the older groups.

Over the rest of the week we went to Brooklyn, Siliguri, Howrah, each Khelo Community was completely different but all had expectant children eager to meet us, be coached and have some fun. When we found something they were good at they just didn’t want to stop and loved the positive praise.

Night Train to Siliguri

That night we were getting the night train to Siliguri and we had been told we had a luxury coach. We had also been warned to sleep on our possessions and not to go to the toilet alone so it was with some trepidation that we boarded the train. Our luxury coach was interesting - it was a compartment with two sets of triple bunk beds separated by a table. The compartment had no door so as people walked down the corridor they could look in. However, it was luxurious as it did have a fan!!

It was a new experience for all of us and we had lots of fun but not that much sleep.

The Elephant

Meeting an elephant was a totally unplanned experience – when we were up in the village of Saraswatipur we could see an elephant in the distance. When the locals saw our surprise at seeing it one of the them brought it over to us. Seemingly it lived outside the village in the forest. For most of us it was the first time we had seen a wild elephant –  it was furry (a surprise) and very friendly and obviously used to people as it would play with our hair and legs with its trunk.  The girls got to ride it and it was very photogenic as we all got to take photos with it.

The Sun Rising on the Himalayas

We visited Darjeeling on our way home from Siliguri and Paul and Hari asked us to get up at 4am for a special trip – we did and made a journey up a rocky, sketchy road to the top of a hill where there was a lodge. We stood on the balcony with lots of other locals waiting to see the sun rise on Everest. It was really cold – a surprise as I was in my shorts! As we had just been boiling in Darjeeling. Despite our poor choice of clothing and although we didn’t see Everest we did see the most breath-taking sunrise over the Himalayas. Well worth the early morning trip and when the sun came up it was a lot warmer :-)

Diwali

We were lucky enough to be in Kolkata during Diwali which is the five-day festival of lights, celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world. The festival, which coincides with the Hindu New Year, celebrates new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. Christophe who runs Terra Indica works with Calcutta’s street children, providing them access to education and vocational training in woodwork and carpentry, many of them also play rugby with the Jungle Crows. Terra Indica has the most amazing roof terrace looking over all of Kolkata and Christophe was persuaded to have a party – we all dressed for the occasion. The roof was all lit by candles and we had fireworks. We also had great Indian music and were taught how to dance – not sure we were much good at it but we did have fun.

Painting the Jungle Crows Nest

The organisation that manages the Jungle Crows and Maidan Hazards rugby teams and supports all the Khelo programs is called the Jungle Crows Foundation and they had just moved into new offices which were on the top floor of a school. The school didn’t use the top floor as it was so run down and they didn’t have enough teachers for so many classrooms. It is a great facility for the Jungle Crows as it not only gives some office space but also can provide some accommodation for the Khelo coaches and any visitors. It also has shower and kitchen facilities. When we were in town they had the official opening and we helped prepare for it by painting the school yard and outside walls to make it more welcoming for visitors and kids.

Outside the school is a field so some of the training can take place here and on the open day we had about 100 kids turn up to play sport – we had brought some hula hoops and play tunnels with us from the UK and the kids loved them.

We had such a fantastic trip and felt we really had made a difference and had learnt a lot about ourselves. Our hosts Paul and Hari who coordinated our whole trip were absolutely fantastic and along with all the coaches gave us a really memorable experience that none of us will ever forget. Thanks to everyone!!!!