Andrew Peisch '10 and Ari Sussman '10 of the men's varsity lacrosse team ventured to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, from September to the end of October to coach a local children's soccer team.
Older teammates inspired Peisch and Sussman to get involved with a program called Umzingizi. Through the program, the two coached 10- to 14-year-old children in soccer, giving the Big Green athletes a break from lacrosse.
"I played soccer throughout high school, and I miss it a lot since I have to focus on lacrosse [at Dartmouth]," Sussman said. "It was nice to take a break from lacrosse and be able to play soccer."
Sussman was selected as All-Ivy first team in 2008 and has led the team in scoring two years in a row. He also was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2007.
Alex Huestis '10, a member of the women's lacrosse team, spent her off-term in Tanzania.
Huestis' volunteer work in Tanzania involved teaching third graders to speak English in a local public school through an organization called Cross Cultural Solutions.
She discovered the program while searching online, and said she could not pass up the opportunity.
"I had never been to another country, and just thought that going in and living in a place would be a cool way to travel," she said. "I would get to know the people who live there and experience the culture first-hand."
While Huestis said that she never felt unsafe during her stay in Tanzania, both Peisch and Sussman cited a perilous situation in which they got lost at night, driving a stick-shift autmobile on the left side of a road without streetlights.
"You feel so far away from home and disconnected," Sussman said. "It's kind of terrifying."
This discomfort, however, was outweighed by the athletes' strong relationships with the townspeople they were helping. The people in Tanzania, according to Huestis, were always willing to strike up a conversation or help her carry a bag across town. Sussman and Peisch also found the people of Port Elizabeth to be hospitable.
"They were really nice and enthusiastic," Peisch said. "No negativity to speak of. The kids we were coaching were super, super excited and really skilled. They were a lot better than I was despite being ten years younger."
All three athletes returned to the U.S. with stories of remarkable interactions with the people of Africa during their volunteering and said they had a newly-developed appreciation for a different way of life.
"We went to an orphanage exclusively for kids who were HIV positive, and it was a side of the world I had never had any interaction with," Peisch said. "That was probably the highlight of my trip, because they were laughing all the time and having a blast. The perception of the African kid who is HIV positive I had going in wasn't right."
Huestis taught 72 students during her program, but her interactions with her students were not limited to the classroom.
"We played soccer on Fridays, and they would have to say all of the things in English," she said. "During recess, the girls would come in and draw princesses, since they had never seen Disney princesses before."
The natural beauty of Africa also drew the athletes' admiration.
"I had heard that cities in Africa were gorgeous, but I didn't appreciate it until I got down there," Sussman said.
Sussman said he was also fascinated by the unique experience of being in a country with few Americans. In fact, the foreigners Sussman and Peisch interacted with were mostly Europeans, they said.
Huestis said she was also intrigued when she discovered that certain aspects of the Tanzanian culture were not that foreign to her.
"They live very differently, but it wasn't that shocking -- there were more similarities, and that's what was more surprising," she said.
These African experiences also caused the lacrosse players to contemplate American culture and values, they said.
"The transition back was pretty intense," Sussman said. "It really helped us appreciate some of the things you take for granted 100-percent of the time in America -- like drinking faucet water and having Internet accessible all the time. Fifty-percent of the families are living off of around 10 dollars a week. It puts a lot of things in perspective."
