The Vast and Yellow
Hot, dry, no water for miles around is what I thought of deserts. Whenever I
thought of deserts, I thought of yellow lands with bones of dead things sticking out of the
ground, Camps of tribes searching the yellow land for water, dying form the heat, and
cactus higher than houses shading the vultures picking at corpses. But I was wrong.
“David?” I looked up “I just asked for the name of the desert in Africa” said Mrs.
Holder. I stared, dumbstruck.
“Erm sarah saha Sahara –Sahara desert.” I stammerd.
“Good, good you’re paying attention.” I rolled my eyes. I didn’t see why we
needed to learn about deserts. Yeah it’s interesting, but not a whole unit and, I mean who
would want to live in the desert when they already had all they wanted in the city.
Unfortunately for me, I lived in Cairo Egypt, which was in the Sahara Desert, so I
probably will learn a lot about deserts. Worst of all I was only eight so I have no say in
what I learn. I rolled my eyes. I left my jubilant self at home while my intense side left
for school. I looked up. My teacher was pointing at a map of Africa.
Does the teacher have nothing else to teach? Why can’t we learn the important
stuff? I rolled my eyes.
“-So if you want to go, I implore you do so, then ask your parents to sign the
permission slip and hand it in tomorrow, Monday at the latest.”
Mrs. Holder strolled around and started handing out permission slips for
something. I gazed at the paper.
Field trip to Sahara desert
From 8:00 to 2:00
Wednesday January 17
_______ has my permission to go to
The Sahara desert signed_________
I ogled at the slip. Wow. I am actually going to find skeletons, Cactus, and tribes.
“Hey dad can you sign this?” I hollered
“Yeah” My dad hollered back. “come down here. What is it?
Field trip to Sahara desert
From 8:00 to 2:00
Wednesday January 17
David W has my permission to go to
The Sahara desert signed Jay Winograd
Monday, everyone was talking about finding unknown objects in the desert.
Tuesday. Everyone was restless nobody could really concentrate.
Wednesday. Everyone in the bus was checking their watch.
At the desert, it was what I expected if there weren’t restaurants, houses, shops,
and more right at the foot of the desert. The desert itself was vast, yellow, and flat. The
teachers (it was a grade field trip) talked to the guides about the classes diverging and
meet at this big hole. We got this big talk about finding scorpions to remain calm and
back away ad to not touch it. (As if we would touch it.) I rolled my eyes.
“So if you find anything dangerous, then just back away.”
The five guides took one class each. The whole grade went forward and one by
one the classes branched off. We were the third to move out.
“Wow” Charoltan, a tall kid, howled when he found a fossil of a fish.
“You know why?” Mrs. Holder asked. “This desert was covered in water one
time.” Nothing interesting happened after that. I rolled my eyes.
We came to a little hill where a bunch of rocks lay on the sand.
“Don’t touch the rocks” The guide yelled “scorpions like dark places like under
rocks.”
I was amazing that this desert was once filled with water. I thought how much time it
would take to drain the water out of this. How did it become a desert?
We turned around to go to the “pit” where it was a pit.
We played in the pit, rolling down it since the pit was thirty meters deep
“Oy! Christian” I bellowed, “I’ll race you down!” We sprinted up the pit. The
wind whistled in my ear as I ran up the hill. I felt like a bird, no, a condor rising from a
tree. Christian was a smart kid but he wasn’t that fast. I reached the top and zoomed back
down to find that Christian hadn’t move but was grinning. I rolled my eyes.
“You’re out of breath.” Christian snickered
“You’re dead!” I counteracted
The teachers told us to do one last roll and then they had to leave. Christian and I
were exhausted to climb so we waited for everyone to finish, then followed the teachers
up a flatter part and journeyed to the busses. Taking in the last few sites of the desert, I
got back in the bus resentfully. Now I wished I lived closer to the desert. I strolled out the
door and waited for my parents to pick me up. Deserts turned out to be fabulous. I always
thought deserts weren’t any fun but it did turn out to be fun. O.K. it pays off to do the less
important stuff in the boring classes. I wonder if there are any schools in the desert. I
rolled my eyes.