Jamie Pelusi in Africa
10/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 2, 2006
Hi everybody!! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jamie Pelusi and I just graduated from Pitt with a Bachelors Degree in Social Work. I was also the goalkeeper for the Women's Soccer team, who is doing super by the way. I loved my time at Pitt, especially having the opportunity to play Division I soccer throughout college. Now I am living in
I am volunteering for a non-governmental organization called Project Educate. We are a small non-profit organization working to improve educational standards, first, here in Mongu, then hopefully if funds allow throughout the whole country. It has really been a blessing to have the opportunity to live and work in a developing country with such a rich culture and interesting history. I have learned so much from walking the sandy streets of Mongu that just can't be found in any book, not that any of you should give up school and backpack through
Speaking of walking through sand, that is the first thing that you notice when you come to Mongu, the sand. It's everywhere. There is a main road and two other roads that are paved and that's all. Everything else is sand, like a big huge beach everywhere. It's nice but sand walking is a struggle for sure. It's like pre-season every day, when my head hits the pillow at the end of the day I am out for the night.
Anyway, back to my work, our first project has been to donate used computers from a school district in
There were about 200 computers total that were shipped and we are donating about 20 to each school. At this point the Basic Schools, grades 1-8 usually, have either zero or maybe one computer. The high schools usually have a computer or two but the students don't always have access to them.
At the nursing college they have five staff computers and one student computer to share among 80 students, and that's a college! It's hard to imagine but most of the teachers have never even used a computer in their lives. I think I'll probably have an interesting time trying to teach folks who have never used a computer, first, how to use one and second how to teach students to use one. Oh, did I mention that I am a social work major and haven't taken a computer class since high school? But no worries, I know that it will all work out with patience and perseverance. We will make due with what we have and trust that God will take care of the rest. I think that's where the community development and the rest of the social work knowledge will come to be pretty useful.
So, that's what I have been up to since graduating from Pitt. I think that Pitt really does a great job of preparing its students, and especially its student athletes for whatever it is that they wish to pursue after graduating; whether it's med school, a job, the marines, graduate school or even
God Bless.