Submitted by: Eric Northard, Interact Chair
This past June and July, 10 members of the Grand Rapids High School community traveled to Sidi Moumen, Morocco on a service learning trip and social awareness trip. The trip was sponsored by the GRHS Interact Club which promotes global service and learning. While in Morocco students spent two weeks living with Moroccan families and helping with activities and lessons at the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center. It was an amazing trip filled with incredible learning and opportunities and the trip has had a huge impact both on the GRHS participants and on the Moroccans who hosted them. GRHS participants were students Lucas Berard, Liliana Cannella, Jordin McCartney, Preston McNamar, Mohammed Siddiqui, Nicole Sorenson, and Seth Washburn, and teachers Jinnea LaRoque, Eric Northard, and Nancy Northard
The trip was a part of an ongoing collaboration between GRHS and the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center that was initiated several years ago through a collaboration between Center Director Boubker Mazoz and GRHS teacher Eric Northard. Through this collaboration they have developed a digital peer to peer exchange, service learning and youth leadership activities, collaborative volunteer efforts in our communities and visits to GRHS and Sidi Moumen by youth leader Mohammed Elkhattaby and Mr. Northard. It has expanded this year to include a student from Sidi Moumen Aymane Id Hsain coming to GRHS as an exchange student through the Rotary Youth Exchange Program sponsored by the Rotary Club of Grand Rapids.
The Sidi Moumen Cultural Center is an internationally acclaimed cultural center that was developed over the past 15 years to combat extremism in an
economically disadvantaged community on the outskirts of Casablanca. Sidi Moumen is a low income community which includes several sprawling slum areas and the community has struggled with a number of social problems which have adverse impacts on young people and families living there. The Cultural Center is designed to offer young people a chance to develop academic, social, and leadership skills to help them become successful in their lives. By volunteering at the Center, our students gave Moroccans a chance to learn additional English with native speakers, and through collaborative activities, close friendships developed and cultural understanding was enhanced for our students and those of their Moroccan peers.
In addition to teaching English and engaging in leading games and activities, GRHS participants had a chance to participate in a variety of cultural activities including taking lessons in Darija (Moroccan dialect of Arabic), and drumming, visiting schools and agencies serving the community, and visiting cultural sites such as museums, mosques, and historic sites in Casablanca, Rabat and Fes. Of course, visits to the beach and malls and a multitude of traditional Moroccan meals assured that all fully enjoyed the experience.
The visit to Morocco included spending a weekend in a Riad, which is a traditional Moroccan house/palace surrounding an internal courtyard. The Riad was right in the middle of the UNESCO World Heritage Medina of Fes, and while there students had the chance to see artisans making ancient crafts such as leather making, pottery and textiles. Two cooks and an attendant in the Riad made sure that the group was well cared for.
In addition to two weeks in Morocco the trip also included a three day stay in Amsterdam and a two day stay in Paris. In Amsterdam students visited the Anne Frank House and Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, took a canal cruise, and took extensive walking tours through the historic canal district and parks. Perhaps the most unique part of the visit to Amsterdam was staying in a historic Dutch sailing barge. The GRHS group not only got to stay in the sailing barge, but they learned to help sail it with the captain and a sailor, and were able to sail from the historic fishing village Monnickendam into Amsterdam where the barge was harbored for the final two nights.
The final two days in Paris were also special because the visit was timed to coincide with Bastille Day. In addition to visits to Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Left Bank, Place de la Concorde, Montmartre, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, the group was able to celebrate the day viewing fireworks from the hill at Sacré Coeur. While time in Paris was short, the group was able to navigate Paris with ease via the metro and by foot. Students even got to see President Macron waving as he returned to the presidential palace following the Bastille Day parade.
According to GRHS participant, senior Seth Washburn “Our experience in Casablanca, Morocco was definitely a culture flip. Besides
the obvious differences like language and religion, there were small ones that really made us feel like we were in another world. Eating habits was one of those small differences. Here in America, we are used to eating dinner around 6 pm, but in Morocco, it was often 10-11pm before we would finally eat! Our host family was very kind, their main goal during our stay was to make us as happy as they could. Doing our laundry, making our beds, paying for train tickets and of course feeding us were some of the very generous things they did during our stay there. While in the city, we stuck out as tourists quite obviously. This would often make us targets to street vendors trying to sell us things, although, Americans are looked at in a positive light, if they weren't, our trip could have gone much differently.”
Another participant Mohammad Siddiqui, also a GRHS senior shared “The experience we gained from the trip was unlike anything we faced before. Trying to adapt to a new world was quite the challenge. However, our trip to Morocco was so organized, that we never had to worry about where we going or what we were doing, we knew we were in for a good ride. The amount of respect shown by our peers in Morocco was incredible. Not to mention the fact that they loved to cater to their guest’s needs. All of this helped us understand that even though we come from across the world, our Moroccan friends and us aren't so different. I especially loved how open minded they were to all ways of life. They believed no matter who you are or what you believe doesn't matter nearly as much as your friendship.”
Eric Northard, who is one of the Interact and International Club advisors at GRHS, and who has led multiple educational and service learning trips abroad, says this was probably the most engaging trip he has led due to the hospitality of the hosts in Morocco and the awesome friendships made by the Interact students and their peers in Sidi Moumen. This is a trip we hope to be repeating on a regular basis, and we have already made plans for a service learning, social change and sustainable development trip to India and Nepal this coming summer and a service learning trip to Peru in 2019. We are hoping to invite other Interacters to join us on the Peru trip in June of 2019 and to inspire other Interact Clubs to make a difference both in their communities and in the World.