Anyone Ever Volunteer in Africa?!

FLCullen

Bonjour all,

I am off to Norther Ghana on Sunday to spend some time working as a volunteer in a children's home. While I am very excited about this experience I am a little apprehensive. Has anyone else ever volunteered in Africa? Or anywhere with children's homes? (I imagine that everyone will have had a similar harrowing experience no matter where they volunteer).

Any positive stories or useful tips would be greatly appreciated!!

Italian_Buju

My sister went to Ghana for three weeks to work as a teacher, she had an amazing time. It was just earlier this year. She was told before she left that she would have to adjust to a few things, mainly, wear long skirts for privacy as your bathroom is a hole in the ground.....usually not any running water, and do not touch anything with your left hand (which is suppose to be reserved for 'wiping').......also, the classroom have ONLY blackboard, chalk, pencils and paper...nothing else.... Let me share some of her journal with you:

It is exceptionally hot, humid and buggy in Ghana, but I'm having a blast! There are 18 volunteers in the house together and we all get along really well. In fact, about 8 of us walked to the internet cafe together tonight to be able to email our families. Our beds are covered in mosquito netting, but mine must not have been tucked in well, because I woke up with 3 bites this morning. Anti-Malaria medication, don't fail me now!

The city we are in is called Hohoe (pronounced Ho-way) and was a 4 hour very bumpy van ride from Accra, where we flew into. The city is relatively poor. While some homes are fairly nice, some are made of mud and straw. Goats and chickens roam the streets, along with the occasional cow. However, I did see one guy taking good care of his goats yesterday, walking five of them on a rope. Very amusing! The goats here are like mini goats and so cute I told the girls I wanted to bring one home as a pet. Do you think it would make it through customs? We also have tons of frogs and lizards. One little gecko has been living in our shower for several days, so we adopted him as our pet and named him Ghana. And speaking of showers, they are all cold in the house where we are staying and more often then not, the shower doesn't work. Today I had to take a "bucket shower" - which is fairly common here. Fill the bucket with water from the faucet and dump it over your head. Lather, rinse, repeat... While it's not the most efficient method in the word, I spend all my time here sweating, so it still feels good to have a cool rinse.

I began my volunteer placement yesterday and I absolutely love it! I am at a private school which was founded by a working mother for working Ghanaian mothers. They have a year round school where mothers can bring their children as early at 7am and pick them up as late as 5pm, so they can go work at the market, the farm... to help earn a living for their family. The school has 2 half walled buildings with open air top-halves and tin roofs, with the classrooms divided only by portable chalkboards. There are 200 children in the preschool, 50 in kindergarten and 50 in grades 1-6. Sadly, the number of children drops off significantly as they are older and able to work. There is one combined class of 4th, 5th and 6th graders, with a total of 8 children in it. Yesterday, I spent my day apprenticing in the different classrooms to decide which class to select for my 2 weeks of service. The teacher for the 2nd grade class just didn't show up for work that day and the 10 students were sitting quietly (amazing!) but kept peaking into the preschool classroom where we were singing songs, so my partner (a college student from Florida) and I decided to spend the rest of the day with the 2nd graders. Apparently, that happens a lot, where teachers don't show up to work (or students to school for that matter).

I've learned that my favorite new word in the local language of Ewe is kabba-kabba. It means hurry up. I brought paper and the crayons, because unfortunately, there are very few school supplies available within the classroom. The few workbooks they do have feature pictures of different heroes on them – many have Barrack Obama and some have football (soccer) stars. One thing that really struck me was the teacher’s story of what her day is like. She gets up in the morning, puts on her farm dress and works on the farm. Then she goes to the river to take a bath. Then she dresses for work and walks across town to the school. Never again will I complain about how early I need to get up for work!

We went to Cape Coast Castle, which had beautiful views, but horrible stories of when it was a slave fort for 100 years, beginning in the 1730’s. The dungeons held 1,000 men and 300 women at once, shoulder to shoulder, with very little ventilation or room to move. Most of them died in the fort, before ever even exiting “The Door of No Return” to be placed on a boat and shipped to their destination. The tour was a very sobering experience and the heavens thought so too. By the time we were reaching the end of our tour, the sky was crying buckets. A torrential rain storm came in, with very little warning.

No Hooting. No Hawking. No Drumming. That is my favorite sign that I have seen in Ghana. That sign was posted outside of the Hohoe Community Hospital, to make sure that people weren't going to be yelling, selling things or making music outside the hospital and disturbing the patients. A close 2nd for my favorite is the merchant sign "God is Not for Just One Man Frozen Pork Products." I completely respect that the people in Ghana are deeply religious and often name their businesses with inspirational phrases. OK, for the "Glory Beauty Salon" it works, but I just get a little tickled when the business and inspirational phrase don't really fit together, as with the previously mentioned pork business. Perhaps I amuse easily. ;-)

We went for a hike up the highest mountain in Western Africa yesterday. We saw loads of Army Ants making their way up the mountain and one of the locals started telling me stories about how those ants can take down lions, tigers and pythons. For example, if a lion is sleeping, they will crawl into his ears and nostrils. When he awakes, he will begin beating his head against a tree trying to get rid of the ants. He will only be successful in knocking himself out, then the ants go in for the kill. Yikes! I certainly was sure to jump over that army of ants while I was hiking! Today we had a fantastic experience with nature. We went to a Monkey Sanctuary where little Mona Monkeys run wild through the rainforest. Armed with bananas, after the monkeys were done sizing us up, they came right up and peeled a banana that I had in my hand and ate it. It was the most fantastic thing ever and I got pictures and video I can't wait to share!

Now transitioning back to the wonderful kids I'm teaching, we've had a great week. I taught them how to make paper airplanes and they loved it. We had lots of fun and just a couple minor eye injuries from flying planes. ;-o I got the kids on video today and they were so polite in letting everyone have a chance, because I offer Jelly Bellies as incentive. Bribery works! They loved them for sure.

Well I'm running out of time at the internet cafe, so I'll be signing off until I return stateside. I've got to kabba kabba (hurry) before my time runs out. Can't wait to see everyone soon!

********************************************************************

Although it does not give much in the way of tips, perhaps the story she shared might make you feel better? She had a great time, and said she plans to do it again in years to come. At least this painted a little picture of what her time was like....hope it helps somewhat.

FLCullen

Thank you so much for that post! Your sister is a great writer. Those houses made of mud and straw she talk about- that's where I will be staying! Though knowing that the showers in homes don't often work makes me feel a bit better about my living situation!

Good to know about the left hands and long skirts, too!

Italian_Buju

Glad you enjoyed it....hope you have a great time there as well....