Wednesday, September 10, 2008

How friendly the locals are

News from Jack -
Hey guys,

Last night we had dinner at one of Allison's local friend's house. It was a lot of fun. We walked into his house and they had all the food prepared on the floor and we all ate sitting on the floor. We then walked down to a "bar" which is a bunch of plastic lawn furniture on the side of a dirt road with a woman behind bars who serves beer as well as other household items (toilet paper, cigarettes, candies etc.). We just sat out and talked for a while. It was the first time that I got really cold in Africa.

Today our school had exams so we spent the morning at a local orphanage. It was a lot of fun just playing with the kids who are very sweet. The guy who runs the orphanage seems to be making a lot of progress with these kids. He has them do farm work and "self-reliance training" so that when they go back to the villages they have sustainable skills.

It was really cool...and really dirty :-P

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Hi.. me again :)

Let me just clarify that we had a FEAST at my friend, Mussa's house last night! He had invited us over a few days ago, and when we arrived they (Mussa and about 10 of his friends) had everything ready, all laid out in the living room like a huge delicious picnic. They had obviously prepared for hours, and I thought it was really sweet all the prep that went into our little dinner-party.

Visit to a New Orphanage
Today I had a great time at the orphanage. When we first got there, our driver Cyppy said, "OK That's it..." and pointed to a run-down shack that was supposedly an orphanage that houses 20+ kids... I thought in my head, "is he serious?" Luckily, first impressions can be very deceiving. While the place was a little more run down than the other orphanage I had been to, I actually think the kids are taken care of much better. The main guy in charge (Mr. Mambo) was very nice, and clearly cares about helping these kids. The kids were very sweet, eager to play, but not quite as needy and quick to attach as at the other orphanage we had gone to. Aside from a few games, for most of the morning I sat on a couch with the kids and read with them. Some of the older children are very good at reading in English! Much better than I could do with reading Swahili ;).
OK I've got to run because Libby and Jack are waiting outside for me...

Love you guys so much!! Write back!!!

Love, Allison

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Please keep these blogs coming. It is great fun to hear not only of your work experience but also all about the life in your village. Its also fun to hear Jack's perspective - not the most relaxing vacation for him I am sure but one that he will always remember and it adds one more exotic place in this world that he has visited.