I recently wrote a piece for the School Travel Organiser magazine about a World Challenge expedition to Morocco...
Here is what I wrote:
Christ the King College, a joint-faith Secondary School on the Isle of Wight, has always had a global outlook. Recipient of the British Council’s International School Award in 2014 and then re-accreditation of the award in 2017, the college offers a range of trips and exchanges including Spanish, French and Norwegian exchanges, trips to Italy, Greece and Poland. In the past, the college had run two successful World Challenge expeditions to Ethiopia and Ecuador. World Challenge is a well-established provider of overseas adventure travel programmes targeted at schools. Expeditions on offer last between two and four weeks in developing countries for students aged between 14 and 18. The programme involves up to two years of preparation, to train team members in the necessary skills that will be required during their fully immersive and intense expedition in the developing world, as well as offering support to enable them to raise money to fund the costs of the trip of a lifetime. This build-up phase includes several meetings with the team facilitated by World Challenge. Typically, the expedition programme involves four phases including acclimatisation, community engagement, challenge such as trekking and Rest and Relaxation (R and R). Acclimatisation is about setting up the team in leadership roles and getting them to understand the new place they find themselves in. Community engagement involves not just contributing something to a community overseas but learning about a new culture and way of life. Challenge sees the students take on a physically demanding trek. R and R is about sight-seeing and more recreational activities. The unique thing about the expedition programme is that students run the trip themselves and take on responsibility for bookings and budget management.
World Challenge was highly recommended by my colleague who set up the two previous four-week expeditions, so when I was considering an expedition to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, I looked to see what World Challenge had to offer. As Head of Citizenship and PSHE, and Duke of Edinburgh award Manager, I worked more with KS4 students and so wanted to target this age group rather than 6th form. With that in mind, I was looking for a two-week expedition and World Challenge had on offer just what I had in mind.
Eleven students signed up in October 2016, ranging from Year 8 – 10 at that time, in preparation for the expedition to Morocco in July 2018. Students raised the money in a variety of ways from bag packing (thanks to Morrisons in Lake on the Isle of Wight!), to getting part-time jobs, to selling eggs from their own chickens. There was a practice expedition on Dartmoor in October 2017. Conditions on Dartmoor during Storm Brian may not have been the ideal preparation for the heat of Morocco, but the experience certainly brought the team together. It was also an opportunity for the team to meet Dan, who was to be the Expedition Leader in Morocco.
In July 2018, we met Dan again for our build-up day and then the following day at Gatwick before our flight to Marrakesh. The students’ responsibility for bookings and budget management started before we even left the UK. The links to the academic curriculum are evident from the planning stage through to the expedition: History, Geography, Mathematics and in the case of this expedition, French, whilst the enrichment of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education is huge. Despite being student-led, the expedition is well-co-ordinated by World Challenge with local guides on hand or support available throughout.
Following a night in the Hotel Ali in Marrakech for acclimatisation, we took a minibus through the Atlas Mountains to Tinejdad, on the edge of the Sahara desert, for the community engagement element of the expedition. We were met by our host Brahim at his home which was going to be our home for the next week. Brahim, his family, and their artist friend Rachid, were all very welcoming. We were struck by the intense heat, over 40 degrees every day, as soon as we arrived and so were pleased to find out we were sleeping on the roof of the house. We all mucked in and helped with the food preparation and clearing up each day. I have to say the food was amazing! We even got to visit the local souk to buy fresh fruit and herbs for the cooking.
Our project was to build a toilet for a school in a village about 20 minutes drive from Tinejdad. We had to plan the budget, buy the materials, and work very hard – no escaping the heat at any point during the day! There was some R and R time each afternoon and evening, when we visited the Ksar (castle), hamam (baths), Rachid’s art gallery and even a swimming pool. We were proud to have finished building the toilet on our last day and then it was a 8 hour minibus drive up in to the Atlas Mountains to Imili where we stayed one night in a very comfortable hostel, with beautiful views. This was the challenge element of our expedition. The trek to Toubkhal base camp at 3000m was hard but getting up at 4am, after sleeping in tents on stony ground, to climb the last leg of the 4167m initially in the dark, was even more so. Nevertheless, we did it and the views from the summit of Toubkhal were amazing. The ground did not seem quite as uncomfortable the second night as we were all so pleased with ourselves knowing what we had achieved. Back to Imili for one more night, and more excellent food at the hostel, and then a short drive to Marrakech the following day for a day of sight-seeing before flying home.
For anyone looking for a once in a lifetime educational adventure for their school, I would certainly recommend a World Challenge expedition! It was certainly difficult at times: the heat, the physical effort and the fact that we were all together 24/7, but the memories and the sense of achievement will stay with all forever.
Photo below taken at the summit of Toubkal, highest mountain in north Africa. I am wearing Craghoppers hat, shorts and a gilet with 18 pockets (after which my blog is named!).
