Dava Antoniotti's Page

I feel like my alarm went off days ago, I've done so many things today! This morning I joined a number of other volunteers and helped out at the orphanage. The need for volunteers there is tremendous. There are around 250 children there, from infants to adults with severe disabilities. I was assigned to help in the section for older children and adults with disabilities, and it was intense. When we arrived, everyone was still in bed, so we had to lift each person out of bed and into their wheelc… Continue

Wow, there is so much to see and do in Morocco! I've been here for almost one week now, trying to experience and absorb as much I can.

In the summer, schools, social service organizations and even some businesses close throughout Morocco, which means that many of our volunteer placements are unavailable. The few that remain for the month of August, however, have been wonderful.

I spent last Tuesday morning volunteering at the Children's hospital, one of just two in the country. Kristin and I o… Continue

The past few days have been fairly relaxing while still full of activities. For some reason it took us a number of days to find our bearings and decide to venture out on our own (outside of scheduled activities).

On Thursday I visited three more placements: a school for children with intellectual disabilities, a very under resourced crèche (where the four volunteers placed there basically run the entire show), and a much larger and more organized preschool/crèche. It's wonderful to see the plac… Continue

It's evening again, in a fairly quiet home base since most of the volunteers went to Robben Island this afternoon and are still out. Kristin is chatting with a fellow teacher in the dining room, and I can vaguely overhear their conversation about teaching in NYC.

These past few days I've been seeing a bit more of Cape Town, in some very different ways. On Monday morning, Kristin and I went on a township tour; this particular tour is one o… Continue

It's 7:10 p.m. in South Africa. I'm sitting in the office at the home base, thinking about my cold fingers and how "winter in Africa" is still much colder than most people might anticipate.

Kristin and I arrived last night, after a very long couple of flights from JFK to Dakar to Johannesburg and finally to Cape Town. The driver who picked us up was lovely and greeted us with a wonderful sense of calm and kindness, even though he'd been waiting far too long since we'd missed our original Cape T… Continue