1) Hi Nada, can you tell us what you've been up to since graduating from THINK Global School in 2022? Since graduating in 2022, I've been pursuing a passion I found while at TGS, sustainability, and I am currently majoring in engineering in renewable energy systems at Al Akhawayn University, in Ifrane, Morocco. But there is way more than that! I've had a chance also to explore the world of...
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From 14 different countries they came, an army of curious teenage minds unleashed in a place only 700 people visit each year. 24 sets of student legs walked alongside spiders, monkeys, and birds in their rubber boots. They squelched their way into a world of knowledge, into a new way of thinking and into a new passion for nature.
This is the tale of what happened when THINK Global School visited the Amazon Rainforest…
We hiked, swam, and scaled trees 40 meters high. Ate lemon ants and went night searching for caiman. The sights and smells were immense, as were the spiders.
On our first morning Megan realized the guides were right when they had told us to “always shake out your boots before putting them on.” Heeding their words she picked up the first, shook it, and slipped it on her foot. The second boot wasn’t as kind. A scream erupted from her mouth as she jumped back and we looked on in horror – a spider the size of my hand had flown into the air. We hoped it would be our first and only encounter with the beast, however Mr. Spider turned right back up that afternoon. This time we had to employ a brave male specimen to remove the creature attached to our door. It definitely was an eye opener to the diversity of the Amazon and how truly embedded we were in nature. We were assaulted constantly day and night by new experiences.
One of these new experiences was rowing a tiny canoe around a lake, somewhere in the middle of the rainforest. We had been divided into four groups to complete activities throughout the day. Fortunately my group went first, while the sun was still shining. At first the boat ride was filled with silent screams, the canoe relentlessly rocking from side to side, our hands squeezing the life out of the person next to us. We had been told the bottom of the lake was filled with the remnants of trees, these trees happening to be covered in dangerous looking spikes. After we had been calmed down somewhat, the rest of our ride provided exclamations about the beauty around us. We were lucky to see birds that have been on this earth since the dinosaurs roamed, plus hundreds of other species of birds, bats, butterflies, bugs, and unfortunately something not beginning with “b”: fish!
Throughout the rest of the day we discovered the different types of soil, animals and weather the Amazon was home to, returning to our cabins exhausted and smelly, but with massive smiles plastered across our faces.
The next three days passed by in a blur of activity, the Amazon Rainforest being such a great place for us to match our own personal diversity with that of nature. A place where everyone had an outlet for their creative and adventurous tendencies, making for some incredible pieces of art and literature. It was also a once in a lifetime opportunity that we were all so privileged to be a part of, an experience that none of us will ever forget.
Here is the story I wrote after coming back from Tiputini for a Global Studies assignment:
Parallel Realities
I cast my eyes over the tumbling, brown river and up into the treetops; a mass of green that never ends. Wind pushes hair past my face in long streams, placing a brown veil across the world. The buzz of cicadas reaches my ears, a natural orchestra mixing with the thrum of boat engine. In this place heat clings to me, a warm embrace intensifying the fresh, earthy smells rising from river and trees. Blue above, green beside and brown below. Breathing it all in I close my eyes, absorbing everything.
It is then that I feel like I am being watched. Cautiously I look up and into the jungle. At that moment I could swear I was looking at someone, although surely there couldn’t be anyone there. As I continue to look images bubble up inside me, visions that seem like a reality.
Straw huts rise from my imagination, worn yet sturdy, a construction fading and camouflaged within it’s surrounding. Clay beneath my feet, nature at my fingertips. I thrust out a hand, well experienced in the art of scavenging for food, and pop a berry into my mouth, juicy and sweet. I’m savoring the flavor when a tornado of arms and legs hurtle towards me. They’re my brothers and sisters, pulling me towards the river. Our feet skim across a path, well known to us, but hidden to all others. Water rises up out of the distance as we near the river, a torrent of snaking brown water.
I peer out from amongst the trees as a boat thrums past. I see many people on this boat and they look young. I’m about to look away when I swear a girl looks straight at me, although of course she cannot possibly see me. Her brown hair is getting whipped about by the wind, but her eyes hold strong. I feel a connection, as if I know her somehow, but the moment passes as she looks away.
The boat speeds up and I’m pulled out of my reverie as we move off into the distance. I look around, no jungle, no straw huts surrounding me- only people I could almost call family. No-one seems to have noticed anything different, but I feel like I have gained a whole other lifetime. A new identity. As I continue on this journey into the amazon, the images stay with me, like a parallel reality. Everything I do is shadowed by another voice, a comforting and experienced one.
Day one we hike into the jungle, making our way to platforms towering 40 meters above. I cautiously ascend the ladder, harness hugging me tight. Hands go up slowly, rung by rung. I gasp, pulling my hand away from the ladder. It’s throbbing as I look at the culprit. A bright green wasp. I’ve been stung.
I warily assess the tree in front of me. I’m half- way up grasping it with nothing but bare hands and feet, scavenging for food. No luck yet.
The voice echoes in my head. Showing me a parallel life, the life that so many are living. It fascinates me and I get wrapped up in it. Daydreaming.
We plunge into the river, water rushing up on all sides. My heart skips a beat as something brushes up against my leg and I wait to get eaten alive. I chuckle. It’s just my lifejacket.
Silent as a caiman I slip into the river, legs powerful as they propel me past trees and swirls of brown water. I’m calm- this is my territory, this is where dinner comes from.
The voice’s stark contrast to my own startles me. We are experiencing the same things and yet our experiences are so different. It get’s me wondering what I would’ve been like if I’d grown up as a child of the amazon. Who would I have been?
That is a question I will never be able to answer. I cannot change the fact that I am a New Zealander or that Tiputini was the first time I’d been stung by a wasp. I can in part imagine what it would have been like, but of course four days in the amazon is not a substitute for a lifetime of living within nature.
Head spinning I turn back and run into the jungle. Running away from a life I will never quite know. Losing sight of the boat and the girl and all the images that came with it. I am not accustomed to this other life, nor do I think I ever will be.