My First Experience with Nature: Bosbivak

Last Easter two groups of students ( one male, the other female) went to a nature camp at   the Bosbivak Nationaal Leger’s camp.  from April 16^th – 20^th, 2011.  30 Academy high school students and teachers took part in the camp where they learned preliminary camp training and  survival skills.  

The camp for boys / males took  place from April 16^th – 18^th, and  the one for the girls / females, took place on April 18^th – 20^th.  The camp and training experience was under the direction of Staff Sergeant Lucien Vroom,.

Below is an account of the impact of this experience by High School student Jason Hoppie. This essay won the third prize  in the Junior prose category in the Tagore Art Competition held in may, 2011.

Jason Hoppie                                                                                                                                        
                                                                    
                                      My First Experience with Nature: Bosbivak

                       “I believe that children should be surrounded with the things of Nature which have their own educational value. Their mind should be allowed to stumble on and be surprised at everything that happens in life to-day. The new to-morrow will stimulate their attention with new facts of life. This is best method for the child. But what happens in a school is, that every day, at the same hour, the same book is brought and poured for him. His attention is never hit by chance surprises from Nature.”

                       I especially admire the ideas in this paragraph because of my encounter with nature a few weeks ago at Bosbivak in the forest of Suriname. Actually it is so that today adults and children in general are not interested with the things of nature like they should. I make this statement because at first when I heard about the camping trip, I was not interested, but later, with great consideration and my principal’s encouragement, I agreed to have this experience. Just being out there away from everything in the city and experiencing nature first hand made me realize that it is something that no book could have taught me. One needed the experience to actually agree with this statement. There is so much that can be taught in one day and surprisingly, it is not like learning from a textbook because when you see the animals, trees, insects, and a lesson is taught upon each, it is difficult to forget because it is an encounter with nature.

                       Personally I did not know that there were so many harmful insects that normally I would take for granted. There are so many trees in the jungle that can actually be used as medicine to cure various sicknesses, but many of us will never know because we are not interested in nature. If given the opportunity to camp out once again in the pure serenity of nature, I would agree immediately and not think twice about it because as the old epigram which one of my instructors kept repeating at camp was, “One will die faster in the city than in the jungle.”

                       I think experiencing nature is the best method for a child, because it opens his or her mind. An experience with nature is miraculous, pulchritudinous and serene. Nature can teach a child several lessons. Tagore gave up learning to spend time experiencing the fullness of nature. Because Tagore experienced nature and learned many things from it, it opened his mind, and he was able to write some of the best poems in the world.

                       Some schools teach nature studies, but doing this in the city does not really enlighten a child’s mind unless that child gets the opportunity to spend time in the jungle. I personally can give account of this, because I did nature studies, but I can say that spending time in the jungle explained much more than I knew from books.

                       Tagore was right when he went into the jungle and wrote his poems because he was not talking from a book but he was writing from his personal encounter with nature and that gave his poetry more reality.

                       At first, I was afraid when I heard the various strange sounds at night, but then I realized that I am so accustomed to the busy city that I did not even have the time to enjoy what nature has to offer. Why was I afraid of sounds that the nocturnal insects and animals were making? This is purer and more natural than the cars and motorcycle that I hear in the city.

                        Each day at Bosbivak was a new experience for me. Never once was I bored. I learned something new every day and seeing that I want to be a pilot, I think this firsthand experience was excellent for me and I would not trade it for anything in the world.

                        I must thank Mr. Tagore for his inspiration and my principal for seeing beyond what many people actually know about life and nature.