the roaring oceans. We shall learn all about life in a desert. Understood?” Ms. Lilly announced.
All the children nodded. “Good. Now, who’s ready to have some fun?” “We are!!!” shouted the
enthusiastic class. “Let’s go!”
I was the first to get into the plane. The Gobi Desert sounded interesting, and I am feeling
more enthusiastic than ever. An hour or two after the take-off time, we landed. The captain of the
plane announced, “Good afternoon, boys and girls. Today we landed in an oasis inside the GOBI
DESERT. I know you’re excited, and I want you to have fun, but I need to lay down some rules
here: No fooling around; no digging or kicking the sand; no covering each other’s bodies in the
sand. Are you with me here?” Everyone nodded. “Good, we can start having fun!” He shouted.
There wasn’t really much to explore. There were only a few palm trees and what looked like
a small lake. But it got interesting when Ms. Lilly demonstrated how the early Egyptians got
water from rivers with a vase. The pilot said that he needed to go somewhere, so he left with the
airplane. We camped in tents next to the lake. Throughout the whole night, all I could think about
was this: How could Ms. Lilly let our pilot leave? Just like that? There was no doubt. Ms. Lilly had
absolutely no idea of what she had said at that moment.
The next morning, when everyone was awake, Ms. Lilly told us some terrible news.
“Unfortunately, the pilot lost his way when he was leaving yesterday. It seems that we are now
stranded here.” I knew this was going to happen!!! I argued with myself. Now look at what we’ve gotten
into. What are we going to do now? No one’s here to save us in the middle of a vast, dry desert.
The next few days were even more hopeless. At least some kids had some sense to pack a few
snacks. We survived with clean water from the lake and also by eating up the snacks. And finally,
after 5 days of wandering around for help, I caught sight of a helicopter circling around on top of
our heads. “HELP US!!! HELP US!!!” We shouted. The pilot heard us and landed near our campsite.
Then you can already predict what happened… we got sent back to school and each of us wrote a
report on the Gobi. We may have not learnt many things about the amazing desert, but I learned
one thing: That sometimes, it’s good to explore the big, wide world.
