Over March break, four School trips took students to California, Jordan, South Africa, and Virginia. We asked a student from each trip three questions about their experiences.
Mollie Ames (I), Globalization and Islam class trip to Jordan
What was your favorite moment of the trip?
It’s impossible to choose just one, but the wedding I attended during my homestay in Desa was amazing. Weddings in the village are gender segregated, so women dress up in whatever clothes they like and dance without concern over male or societal disapproval. The wedding tent was colorful, joyful and relaxed. Young girls belly danced to Arabic pop music and the older women got up for more traditional dances. Te Palandjian’s (I) host sister even pulled us onto the dance floor once or twice, and light-heartedly (I like to think!) laughed at us when it became clear we did not have her sense of rhythm!
What was the biggest takeaway?
Learning about Jordan in the classroom is one thing, but experiencing its culture firsthand is second to none. Discussing traditional gender roles in Globalization and Islam took on entirely new meaning when I sat down for meals during my homestay that were all gender segregated, or simply by wearing a hijab around Desa. Researching and writing about the Syrian refugee crisis is also a completely different experience from speaking to a Syrian refugee and hearing his often devastating life story. These incredible personal experiences went further to highlight Jordan’s unique culture, as well as the importance of getting involved in issues such as the refugee crisis in the Middle East.
What was the most surprising part of the trip?
I was surprised by how modern the lifestyle and the country felt. Whatever preconceived notions I had about Jordan, as run-down or the culture as outdated, changed after seeing Amman’s complex city and infrastructure growing out of the hills, or even women wearing jeans and typical clothing on the street. Everyone from my homestay experience also carried smart phones, and my family had a flat screen television in their home. My host mom even watched American soap operas.
Maggie Emerson (III), Appalachia Community Service Trip
What was your favorite moment of the trip?
When we sat outside around the campfire. We joked and laughed as we ate hamburgers and hotdogs, and watched the sun set alongside the mountain. It was cold, but the kind of cold that pulled us to the fire and turned our cheeks pink. We roasted marshmallows and made s’mores and we told ghost stories (some of which genuinely scared us and some of which ended in laughter). We saw a group of deer grazing on the field across from us. That night brought us together as a group and made the rest of the trip even more enjoyable.
What was the biggest takeaway?
That people’s backgrounds and experiences shape their perspectives, and that the world can be viewed in so many different ways. In conversations with local residents, I learned about their values and beliefs, most of which were shaped by their coal mining communities and churches. Understanding their stories helped me view experiences through their perspectives and made me more open minded about differing opinions and views other than my own.
What was the most surprising part of the trip?
How much I learned. Not only did I learn how to use power tools, build a ramp, and use an axe, I also learned about Appalachian culture and people. We explored St. Paul, Virginia, during a walking tour and learned about the history of the town and the hope for its future. We went to a museum in a tiny town called Dante, Virginia, where we learned about what life was like in a boarding town when coal mining was at its peak. Every day I learned something new, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to experience the Appalachian culture.
Wes Hudson (I), South Africa Jazz Program trip
What was your favorite moment of the trip?
It wasn’t the most fun moment of the trip, but we went into a shanty town, where people live in shacks all across the village. It’s a housing project, and they’re raising money to build small houses. In order to do that, they’ve had to tear down the shacks, and there are a lot of displaced people. We had the opportunity to walk around the village and go into some of these shacks, and meet people who lived there. It was really powerful. This was my second trip to South Africa with the jazz program, and I’ve learned more about the world and broadened my horizons in the time since I last went. This time, my eyes were more open to everything going on around me.
What was the biggest takeaway?
Learning what privilege means. We see poverty in the United States, but it’s nothing on the scale of what I saw in South Africa. It’s so sprawling and so massive that you can’t look away from it. A lot of times, I don’t consider myself privileged, in comparison with other kids at Milton, but just going to this school is a privilege. Traveling to South Africa, playing music without worrying about whether I’m going to have access to an instrument, is a privilege. Freely expressing myself is a huge privilege, which I understand more clearly after having been there.
What was the most surprising part of the trip?
Going back for a second time, I still found it surprising how happy everyone was. No one complains about how little they have; everyone is just satisfied with what they do have. We bring donations that support music education there, and bring items that people wouldn’t have been able to get as easily, but regardless of the donations, everyone we met just seemed so happy that we had come there to be with them. I talked to one person that I’d met on my prior trip, and he remembered us. Just to make that face-to-face connection with someone across the globe is really incredible.
Silas Monahan (I), Joshua Tree National Park Outdoor Program trip
What was your favorite moment of the trip?
Even though the main focus of the trip was climbing, and I enjoyed every day of that very much, my favorite moment happened while scrambling up a rock pile. One evening, our whole group decided to go scrambling up a mountain that was made up mostly of rocks. We had almost made it to the top when we found a place where some of our group felt uncomfortable going higher because the scrambling was pretty exposed, and it was getting a bit dark. Most of the group went back down the mountain, but one of my closest friends, Ceci, continued on with me. We were not too worried about the dark because we had headlamps, and we were confident that we could make it to the top safely. Once we made it up, we found a flat rock at the highest point that we could sit on. This was the highest point in our immediate region of Joshua Tree National Park, so we could see all the way to the entrance, and all around us. We just sat and watched car headlights pass far in the distance, and by the end we could see some stars. After that, we headed down with our headlamps on and wound our way through the boulders, figuring out the safest way as we went. It was just a peaceful time in nature where we didn’t have to worry about anything else. We could see for miles around us and the landscape was so beautiful.
What was the biggest takeaway?
How easily people can become accustomed to camping, or any type of lifestyle, with the right kind of leadership. Even though we had some mishaps, and at the beginning some people didn’t know too much about camping, after only five days, everyone started taking lead and looking more like experienced campers. I have been on many of these trips before, and I have noticed it with programs outside of Milton, but I think that I have seen this quality most on Milton trips.
What was the most surprising part of the trip?
How excited the students were to climb. It was a climbing trip, but even so, I expected some people to get tired of climbing. Half of the trip had never climbed before, but everyone was incredibly into it, even when it was extremely hot. The trip leaders always encouraged us to climb, and they also gave us helpful pointers on our climbing style and strategy.