Morocco: a trip outside the comfort zone

SEDA regularly organises trips to Morocco which are hugely popular with students. Juliana Spinardi shares her experience of one of these trips. Photos by Gustavo Toledo.

Morocco is a scream. It fills your eyes with information, colours, smells. It is a living wound that burns in the 40 degree sun. Morocco is so fantastic. When you step on Moroccan land everything begins to change. Not only the way you behave as this is a Muslim country, but your perception of life also changes. Food, music, fashion – everything is different there. Everything is a culture shock.

When our group got off the plane in Marrakesh airport every step was a new discovery. The experience of exchanging money for the dirham – Moroccan currency – was fun, and seeing a restaurant menu where all the options were in Arabic was extraordinary…

But our adventure was only beginning. In addition to breathtaking landscapes, what made the trip memorable was the group of students I was in. We were always together, laughing at our confusion in Africa, trying out new spices. We were changing our perception of Islam and the Moroccan people. Hand in hand we left our comfort zones to see the world the way it is and not the way we think it is.

Crossing the Sahara desert on a camel, spending the night with Berbers, watching the sunset and sunrise in the middle of the largest desert in the world was an experience that touched the heart of everyone who took this trip with us.

It is such experiences that shape us and make us who we are. There are situations that we need to experience to become a better person. The student exchange programme that we are doing here in Ireland changes the way we think and feel. The exchange of values, cultures, spices adds colour to the human soul. And we, exchange students, become citizens of the world as we open our eyes to life.

Originally published in SEDA News