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Bannerghatta Zoo Trip Report On January 2, 2005, we (Asha, Bangalore chapter) took two groups of students to the Bannerghatta Zoo, approximately 20km south of Bangalore. Students from 3rd through 6th standard classes participated, from the two government primary schools that we have adopted -- 53 students from Kumaraswamy Layout School and ~70 students from Chandranagar School, both from Bangalore-South Block. They were accompanied by their school teachers, the two school headmistresses, and about 15 Asha volunteers. The students behaved very well, especially after the known trouble-makers were publicly spanked (just kidding). They were excited throughout the trip, and it was a fun trip all around! Asha arranged for four buses (of which only two were actually used; the others were sent back, because the kids sat five to a bench and fit into two buses; they can fit ten to a rickshaw, why were we surprised?), food, drinking water, and zoo entry fees for everyone. We gathered at the two school campuses at around 8:30am. In order to make sure we wouldn't lose any kids, we had the students line up by gender and grade, and spent some time writing name tags and assigning ID numbers for the day. Each line had a student leader drawn from their group who was responsible for making sure everyone in their group was present. We left the school campuses a little before 10:00am. The teachers and a few Asha members traveled on the bus with the kids. A few additional cars carried the remaining Asha volunteers. The students sang on the bus, and gave impromptu lessons in Kannada. On the way, the buses stopped at a temple, which the students visited (we are not quite clear on who asked for this, as it wasn't Asha). We arrived at the zoo a little past 11am. The zoo didn't appear to allow buses to park too close to the entrance, so they were parked in the parking lot. The teachers and a few volunteers took the students inside immediately, where they were given a quick tour of the bird cages. The rest of the volunteers carted large, extremely heavy pots of rice (bisi bele bath) from the buses to the zoo. These pots were very heavy. Very. There was some other food, as well -- cooked vegetables, chips, bananas, biscuits, and ice cream (bought at the zoo). Once the food was hauled to the central courtyard area of the zoo, we had all of the students wash their hands and line up for food. We ate a little after noon. After lunch, the students lined up again, counted off, and we started the tour of the zoo. We saw hippos, elephants, cranes, leopards, a zebra, crocodiles, pythons, assorted birds, deer, and a few bears. The elephants were the favourites of course, but the students were cheerful the whole time. All told, it took about two hours to go around the whole zoo, after which we spent another hour or two hanging out playing in the courtyard. There were frequent count-offs to make sure we hadn't lost anyone. On two occasions, two of the Chandranagar students had separated from the group, but there were no serious issues overall. We headed back a bit before 5pm, with students and teachers on the buses, and Asha volunteers carpooling. (One last bit of excitement -- one of the Asha cars had a flat just as we were exiting the zoo parking lot. Luckily, with the combined wisdom of ten of us, we were able to replace it with a spare and go home.) I think we were all exhausted from a full day, but it would be worth doing again! Asha volunteers who attended: Srikanth, Kalpana, Venkat, Madhavi, Ram, Garima, Ranjeet, Richa, Siva, Shashi, Arvind, Thomas, and Kentaro. There were a few others, and I profusely apologize for forgetting who they were. Please add, if you know. Notes for the future: -- We couldn't have done it without Kannada-speaking volunteers. -- Having a student list in advance helped. Having self-adhesive name tags was a good idea. -- Two large kettles of biryani was just enough food. (Did I mention that the kettles were extremely heavy?) Two water-cooler jugs of water was not quite enough. -- Large trash bags were a good idea, as there were a number of times when these were useful. -- The zoo charges 1 rupee for use of the toilets, so it's good to have a little change. Somehow, we managed. -- Maintaining an ongoing relationship with the Block Education Officer may be a good idea. -- Should we go to the zoo again, it might be a good idea to go clockwise around the zoo, so that the elephants come near the end. Kentaro |
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