Love for Morocco: Devastating earthquake gets real for NMC students

Sep. 14—TRAVERSE CITY — When a dozen Northwestern Michigan College students traveled to Morocco in June as part of a study abroad program, they had no idea that they would come to care so much about the Moroccan students they were paired with, or the two host families they stayed with.

They were devastated when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook the country Friday, with the latest numbers showing about 2,900 people died and 5,500 are injured.

Sereta Fager, 25, heard about the earthquake in a group chat with the Moroccan students.

"It was very difficult to hear about it," Fager said. "It felt so scary to know that someone I'm connected to is going through that. There I am, sitting on my bed and shopping on my phone and they're debating where to sleep that night ... It was surreal."

The students were in Morocco as part of the NMC Study Abroad program and were experiencing the Islamic culture firsthand.

"It was unbelievable that I was just there a few months ago," said Destiny Roy, who is studying business administration and international affairs.

Roy, 22, said the group worked with several local people on a community service project painting a bus stop, getting to know them in the process and learning about the struggles they face on a daily basis. Hearing what they are now going through is heartbreaking, she said.

"It just makes me really sad that they had to experience that," Roy said.

Jim Bensley, humanities instructor and director of International Services & Service Learning, said that after the devastating earthquake he reached out to Morocco Exchange, the nonprofit organization NMC works with. The host families are alive, but their villages were damaged by rock avalanches.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by Morocco Exchange, with donations going directly to the people affected by the quake, Bensley said.

Morocco is perched on the northwestern edge of Africa and across the Straits of Gibraltar from Spain. The country is split lengthwise by two mountain ranges and has an average elevation of 2,600 feet above sea level.

Fager, who will major in creative writing and linguistic anthropology, said that if she had learned about the earthquake on the news, she would have thought, "Oh, just another natural disaster." She is separated by distance and can't feel the personal effects of it, she said.

"It changes your perspective inevitably to know people who are going through that," Fager said. "I was grateful to have that connection. It makes me feel more connected to the world in general."

The Study Abroad program started in 2013 and, since that time, more than 525 students have traveled to 24 different countries, Bensley said. Anthropology students worked on shipwrecks in Wales, aviation students helped build an airport in South Africa, marine technology students mapped a coral reef being destroyed by tourists in Indonesia, and social work students toured a women's prison in Brazil. In the past, history students visited Russia.

Students once went to Athens, Greece, where they worked for a day in a soup kitchen feeding Syrian refugees. In talking with the refugees, students found that many of them were middle-class families.

"You talk about a teaching moment, that certainly was one," Bensley said.

In Morocco, being paired with local students let the NMC students have interactions that were invaluable, he said.

"They learned about the cultural differences, as well as the similarities being 19-year-old college students," Bensley said.

There are four or five Study Abroad "experiences" per year lasting 12 or 13 days each, Bensley said. Students can apply for financial aid to help fund the trip, for which they'll earn one- to three credits.

A scholarship started several years ago — before the program came into being — by Tim Nelson, who was president of the college, and Nancy Johnson, former president. Students can apply for up to $1,000 toward a trip.

"He had the foresight to do that," Bensley said. "Anyone can donate to help a student have an experience overseas."

Roy said in Morocco she was immersed in the culture, helping with the cooking, doing laundry and playing with her host mom's two young children. She felt very connected to her host mom.

"She doesn't have the luxuries we have here, but she was just so happy with her family, her house and her farm," Roy said. "The experience opened the door to other cultures. This goes to show there is no right way to live your life."