Being in the school trips business in China during Covid...

Actually, my first experience of online learning was in 2007 when domestic terrorism got so bad that we couldn't safely move around the city.

Actually, my first experience of online learning was in 2007 when domestic terrorism got so bad that we couldn't safely move around the city. At that time, I was at a small international school called the Lincoln School, in Kathmandu Nepal. One year, we couldn't do our regular Explore Nepal trip (we were supposed to go to the far flung countryside somewhere) and had to settle for an in-city overnight program instead. We stayed at Patan Durbar Square and learned about copperworking and visited a local perfumery started and run to support underprivileged women.

Our IT teacher, the late Mr. Bill Tucker, bragged to us all the time that our school had the best servers in all of Nepal. So, we better do our homework. We could connect to our files via our FTP servers. To put the internet situation in perspective, I remember that downloading one new backstreet boys song for my mp3 player took 12 hours.

I had some friends from school in the neighborhood that I could bike to to meet, but I missed my friends - I missed school. On the road, there were no cars. Either the government forcibly shut up all businesses to make a point, or, the incumbent young communist league, or the Maoists, shut down businesses to make a point back. Once, there was a 3 day strike (and lockdown) because a politician had been locked in a bathroom stall by an opposing party - or so the story goes. The threat to safety was real though. We had to turn our car around after school one day because they were defusing a bomb on the ring road surrounding the city center. They'd only set a 10 meter perimeter or so, so I got a good look at the bomb squad. But, I missed going to school anyways. I wanted to sit in a classroom and stare out of the window, I wanted to skip class and sneak off of campus, I wanted to have senioritis on campus - not online. Senioritis is not fun when you're stuck at home.

I now manage a team that works purely on school trips and experiential education in China. We develop programs that generally lie outside the purview of regular academic curriculum then pitch, sell, and run these for various schools. I am very proud of the work I do and I know first-hand that it's transformative stuff, especially when we're able to spend days and weeks outside of the four walls of a classroom.

I've found in my years doing this job that, as a rule, all educators are excited by finding new ways to teach valuable core lessons. I love pitching our programs to teachers and school principals. Who wouldn't want to go learn about Tibetan architecture, or build a water wheel mill in Guizhou, or work in sea turtle conservation for a week?

I love what I do, and I'm proud of my team - but covid has made things heartbreakingly difficult. It's hard to sustain a team and pay salaries when you have a team whose entire livelihoods are dedicated to designing and running things outside of the classroom. Since the start of the pandemic in 2020 we've scaled up and down so many times that, at times, I feel like a deflated wrinkly balloon. We've gone from too busy, to no income, to too busy, to no income, over and over again for 3 years running. I know that what we do is important. I know it because I remember every school trip I did from primary school to high school graduation; Even the one I did with my language program when I first arrived in China. Important things are worth holding out for, important things are worth looking forward to.

I know it because I remember every school trip I did from primary school to high school graduation; Even the one I did with my language program when I first arrived in China.

There are some caveats, we've had great successes with our virtual programming - especially for our long term partners abroad. We've also developed a very strong suite of hands-on in-city & on-campus programs that allow students to go off curriculum.

When I was in high school, it never occurred to me that there were whole organizations that suffered as a result of the lockdowns, the curfews, the online learning. I just knew that any time I could spend with my friends experiencing new things was better than learning online.

I was able to have an in-person graduation. We were also able to go on a final graduation trip with my class to the Sino-Nepalese border (we stayed at the Borderlands adventure camp as pictured above). The moment that we were able to, we went for our off-campus adventure.

Dear on-campus teachers, I know it's hard to plan, but I hope that you will join us in holding out for and looking forward to all of the off-curriculum activities that were a part of regular school life before the pandemic. If you're reading this and in China then drop us, or your current provider, a message - I know we'll appreciate it.

Important things are worth holding out for, important things are worth looking forward to.