A Collection of Experiences

All of the following pieces of this entry are taken from Allison’s various emails. Cut and pasted, they give you some idea of the things she is seeing and doing. She asked that we enter them here and she will try to write more herself soon. By the way, she can receive emails at Allison.dinoia@gmail.com if you have any questions for her.


Safari – Spending the weekend on a safari to the Ngorongoro Crater (if you can, google it and see how magnificent it is) Just saw two lions and a lioness. Earlier we watched cheetahs prey on zebra. The cheetahs are sooo patient, we watched them for 30 min and they still didn't attack. (That's actually a good thing because I am not sure I am ready for nature's reality.) We earlier stopped to make a pit stop (don’t ask, but lets just say, flushing and washing your hands afterwards were not part of this adventure!) and monkeys actually appeared out of nowhere and tried to climb in our car. Seriously... It was like the safari park at Great Adventure!! Hehe. We camped out for two nights and the sounds and stars were amazing. Its such a huge world. When I get back, I will send pictures.


Life at School – I have gotten several emails asking if there is anything you guys can send to me. Its so sweet that you ask and we are all allowed to receive care packages, but they say that it is difficult - they take a few weeks to get here and we are taxed on what is inside the package. It doesn't make much sense to me, but that’s what our program directors told us. I don't need anything for myself (aside from hot showers, great cup of coffee and fresh tap water :-), but I could use a ton of stuff for my kids. It's challenging to come up with creative lesson plans when they literally have NO MATERIALS to work with (not even paper, crayons, pencils, etc.)! We have been making up our own worksheets and making photo copies in town, which has been working well... but tough when you have 100+ students/day. Gosh are these classes big. Three to four kids will squeeze into a two-child bench just to be closer to the front. They even need to share pencils to get their work done. I know I say this all the time, but they are all sooo eager to learn.

I will start taking pics of my students maybe later this week or next week, but the people here are very sensitive to photographs. Also, the kids are a bit intense and crazy and I don't have much control over them... just bringing a pencil or a crayon makes them go crazy, not sure if I could keep them under control if I started taking pics! I will certainly get some before I come home though :-)

As for a visual, the school is kind of what you would imagine or see pics of a basic school in Africa... think minimally... cement buildings, no electricity so there are holes in the side of the walls that provide for lighting, and the children sit on wood benches.

Not really third world - they have Backstreet Boys!!!
I totally forgot to tell you guys- they LOVE the Backstreet Boys here. The other day I was walking home from school and this local hangout was blasting it. Then yesterday I was talking to our safari guide and asked him what type of music he likes, and BSB was one of the few groups he mentioned. He said people love BSB here haha. I really do belong here!!

The food - Today was such a good day. I gotta be quick but ill try to write again later. I'm packing right now for Zanzibar. We have lunch at 1 and were leaving at 1:15 so I gotta shovel the food in. Have I told you guys how good the food is here? Literally, a FEAST for every meal. The other night we had BBQ... those of you who are meat eaters would have been in heaven. I am not certain what animals we were eating though. I hope it wasnt the tarantula from our bathroom or the hedgehogs from the back yard!

Things they need - I spoke with the principal of my school today. Ill have to explain more details when I get to a computer, but basically if anyone is looking to help there is a ton we can do. She showed me one unfinished project where there is no sidewalk, just a dirt path right outside the classroom (happens to be my grade 2 room). Today it rained, and since it was muddy outside all of the kids had to take their shoes off. So now half the kids are wet and cold and barefoot in class all day. (Yes, it does get cold in Africa – its winter here – not really cold like we are use to, but cool none the less) Anyway, to finish this project is only like 200 usd... They also need a fence (to keep intruders away, and children in) but that is more expensive. She is preparing a cost summary for me for a few of the projects so I can spread the word back home if anyone wants to help.

Aside from structural problems, out of 520 students ... 301 of them are orphans. That is over 50 percent of the students. It’s just hard to comprehend. And to sponsor a child (pay school fees for a uniform, lunch, etc.) is only $26 a year.... I thought I heard her wrong, but she said 26500 shillings which means about 26 bucks. I want to sponsor them all!

Not All Wonderful - One difficult part of the teaching is the use of corporal punishment on the students. I have witnessed several events of teachers hitting children with sticks and it breaks my heart. So unheard of in the US, apparently it is not unusual here. It’s clear that in order for these children to break away from poverty they will need an education but there is so little available to them – as simple as paper, books and pencils - and at times, it is even a bit frightening. I wish I could do more. The days I see this are hard and I find myself feeling like such an outsider, far away from home.

Ok I gotta finish packing so I don't miss lunch ;).

Wonderful Days Also - and many of them at that - Oh my and I’ll write back later and tell you about today. We did arts and crafts projects with the kids and they were SO HAPPY. We took pics afterwards, and every time the flash went off they erupted in screams... Then they rushed the cameraman (aka me). :)