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Morocco charity trip for Sheffield University graduate - PICTURE
KILLAMARSH girl Stacey Clifford is not one for feeling homesick.
She's not in the slightest bit phased by the prospect of volunteering in a tiny village in the Moroccan mountains - even though she doesn't speak the language, there will only be one other Westerner in the area, and it's a 10km trek along a tiny track to the nearest internet cafe.
The 22-year-old Sheffield University graduate told The Star: "I'm not too worried. I've been abroad before - and I'll be able to keep in touch with home every so often at an internet cafe. One of the few things Stacey is worried about is the food.
"I've heard stories about volunteers being fed strange food like heart and brains - I'm not too keen on that.
"I'm also a little bit worried that I'll accidentally offend someone by making some cultural mistake.
"I speak French, which is spoken across most of Morocco, pretty well. But in the village where I'm going they only speak a mountain dialect.
So it's going to be a challenge to learn the customs and get along with everyone."
Stacey is leaving her home in Station Road, Killamarsh, at the beginning of September to put her recently obtained degree in Civil Engineering and French to good use.
"I'm doing this trip for a charity called Engineers Without Borders. I thought it would be a good way to actually do some good with the skills I've learned," the former Eckington School pupil said.
She is going to try and help the mountain community solve some of the problems they have had with water contamination and crop disease, by helping improve their irrigation system.
"Hopefully I'll be able to achieve something there," Stacey said. "But first I'm going to have to learn how to deal with the heat. Because it's a conservative country I'll have to have everything covered, from elbows to ankles.
"
At 40 degrees, I'm going to boil!" Stacey is raising all the money for the trip herself. To donate, or to find out more about her adventure, email stacey.mouse@hotmail.co.uk.
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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