First Morocco Trip Meeting

I signed up for this trip because it's such an amazing opportunity, it's someplace that is less common and more adventurous than France, Spain, or Quebec, and I knew that it'd be more than just going to somewhere and being like a tourist. I think everyone would agree if I said that the trip to Morocco is an opportunity of a life-time. If you're the type of person that loves to travel than this really is an amazing opportunity because it's a place that's so different from places like Spain and France. In this trip you'll be able to help out in small villages, go on a camel ride, and go to the spice market. What other place that Sturgis has gone to has there been the opportunity to help out in villages, go on camel rides, or go to a spice market. You may be able to go to some time of market in France or Spain, but there definitely isn't camel rides or the opportunity to help out in a small village. This trip will also be so much more different than going to Spain or France because you'll go to places that tourists normally don't go to. For example, tourists probably don't normally go to small villages and teach children math or how to speak some english or even build something for the village itself. In France and Spain you'll probably go to all the tourists sites like the Louvre or the Museo del Prado, both being very popular tourism spots. I have never been so excited in my life to go to Morocco. I am just so excited to see a different culture, go somewhere out of the States, and to also be able to help out in some way is just the cherry on top. I've never been out of the United States before and being that Morocco is in Africa makes it so muche more exciting because how many people get to or have been to Africa or Morocco? Also, I am so excited to learn and see a different culture because it just interests me to see how people live and to learn about their traditions, it's going to be so different and that makes it more exciting. Being able to help out in a small village makes this trip even more exciting because we'll be able to help out in some way, whether it be small or big. Unlike other places people travel to they go to the tourist spots and probably spend a lot of money, but in Morocco we'll be spending money, probably not a lot at all, and we'll be able to help some people out. It just makes me feel like I've actually done something to help other than just being there doing nothing. What I am hoping to gain from this trip is an idea or even more about the cultures in Morocco, how they live and what we can do to help them, and being able to adapt or be polite in an atmosphere where there's different traditions.

I plan on doing my best to help contribute to the fundraising by thinking up of ideas for fundraising and participating in the fundraisers themselves. I already have some ideas, but don't exactly know if they're good enough. I had told my mom about one and she was kind of contemplative over it. My idea was to set up lemonade or ice cream stands at beaches during the summer like at the Bordwalk in Sandwich because there's always many people there including tourists, and what a way to take advantage of all the tourists that come on to the Cape. I plan on participating in as many fundraisers as I can. I'm not completely comfortable with the group fundraising, planning, and group activities. They are definitely challenges because we, the students, live in so many different parts of the Cape it may sometime be hard to decide on a place for the fundraiser (s) and if all of us will be able to go to them. The part of this that I'm not completely comfortable with is the fundraising because we are going to have to think of fundraisers or do many of them to raise a lot of the money that is needed. Also, the biggest challenge of these fundraisers, again, is being able to choose a location for one and for all the group members to be there. Some of my personal goals I have set are getting a job or multiple part-time jobs, and having huge fundraisers where many people will come and we'll get a lot of money. I hope to have huge fundraisers like car-washes where many people will come and the money that we earn will cover a large portion of the money that we need.

Last week on Thursday was the Morocco Trip's first meeting. Two people from World Challenge came and talked to us more about the trip and money management. The most important, or the most focused on part of the meeting, was money management. They gave us sheets that helped us to plan how to get the money we need, which is about three thousand five hundred dollars. I think that the meeting was very helpful to us to help plan how to get the money we need. Also, it was almost like a shock or a wake-up that you are going to Morocco, it finally set in. When they were talking about money management it probably woke up a lot of people that this is real and time to start saving up. Maybe because the whole entire process started that it finally set in because when I handed in my papers and money to signe up it didn't seem completely real, but now that we're actually starting to plan, at least for money, for the trip it seems more real.