Trip to Gurudwara

As a service activity, I went to the Gurudwara with my classmates. At the Gurudwara, a Sikh place of worship, I helped all the volunteers make and serve food to all the people. The tasks that I performed were making and serving food and cold drinks for the people coming to worship at the gurudwara. I had never been to a gurudwara and I wanted to see how it was.

My expectations were surpassed. I never thought I was in for such activities, and it came as a surprise when we arrived and started to cook. I had never cooked before in my life, and I was completely clueless. After burning a few rotis though, the supervisors of the gurudwara explained to me the correct method and in minutes I was a professional! It was great because there was a lot of team work involved as well. The girls sat at one station and made the dough into rings, a few more girls at another station sprinkled flour on the rings. Finally the rings were passed to myself and some other guys, and we cooked the rings before handing the cooked rotis to guys who would take them to be served. It was also great, as all of us kept rotating jobs in order to get a feel for the all the activities.

There were difficulties that were encountered. The area was hot, and the steam from the gas was extremely hot, making it extremely difficult to cook. Also, as we had to be bear foot, it took some getting used to the floor. The sheer number of people coming into the gurudwara caused us to work like workhorses. We overcame these difficulties by setting our minds to the task and getting on with the strenuous activity.

This activity helped me to learn new activities and use my newly learned skills for a good cause. My efforts also helped others, as it helped all the people, especially the poor, less privileged people to eat a large full course meal made by my classmates and myself absolutely free.

I learnt that difficulties and harsh conditions may be faced, but the realization that you are helped people who will appreciate your efforts is extremely fulfilling. If I had to redo the activity, I would have to redo the activity, I would want to help out even more, perhaps by beautifying the place of worship even more and helping the cleaning staff.

My achieved learning outcomes were:
1: Undertaken new challenges
2: Worked collaboratively with others
3: Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
4: Considered the ethical implications of their actions
5: Developed new skills