Getting Ready to Volunteer in Ghana

You're going where? This is the response I get when family and friends ask what I am doing during the summer. I tell them I am saying au revoir to the developed world where everyone has more than their fair share of the world's resources and heading to Ghana where most people were given a much smaller portion.

When thinking about what I want to do during my summer of 2005 my immediate thought came to traveling. I find traveling and learning new cultures irresistible, but another idea came as well ... to work. All of my friends and including myself work at least work part-time during the school and then increase the part-time work to full-time during the summer at retail stores. This is what my summers consisted of for the past three years. When I started doing jobs similar to these three years ago, I did not mull over the work a great extent. I would work eight hours a day five days and sporadically put in overtime. This past summer when I did this the job troubled me. I did not help anyone else. I did not contribute to society or the world and this goes against my philosophy. I subscribe to a policy: I should only buy things if they are necessary and if I need the items--not want them. However, the stores where I generally worked were the opposite from the philosophy. The stores did not sell necessary items they sold "extras". And these extras help put and keep people in debt through mass marketing by sending messages to consumers that mix-up needs with wants.

Towards the end of the summer of 2004 I found myself hating my job and hating myself for: (1) taking a job that encourages frivolous spending and (2) not getting as involved in the local community as I should have been. I thought about what I wanted to do during the next summer so I could avoid this feeling the next time around. So, knowing I wanted to spend my summer making a difference I decided to spend the entire summer volunteering abroad because it would enable me to travel not as typical tourist. I would be able to get more of an inside look of a country of choice by living with a host family and spend a significant amount of time with local people.
I am open to volunteering in any country at this point...but two areas of the world kept popping into my head Asia and Africa. When traveling to both of these areas before I found I thoroughly enjoyed them. I loved the experiences I had with people. I read numerous books about the history and cultures of these areas. So for a while I was torn between these two geographic regions. Eventually, I decided on Africa, more specifically Ghana. I became overwhelmingly aware my curiosity for Africa remains not satisfied by my previous trips to South Africa and Tanzania. I chose to volunteer from July 1st to September 1st in Ghana. I want to spend my summer believing I can impact a community and contributed to the world while not only learning another language and culture, but more about myself.

To accomplish this I chose Cosmic Volunteers. This nonprofit organization will place me to volunteer 40-hours a week at an orphanage in rural Ghana and to live with a host family where I think I will learn from the experience to not only appreciate my life in the States, but to enjoy it. I think when we are given more than the world's fair share it is our responsibility to find a way to give back to those whose share is smaller, even though this seems like going against the American way.

Assumptions about Ghana:
• Family oriented
• Big families living in small living spaces
• The pace will be slower
• Most people walk to places
• Fewer cars in rural areas
• Lots of smiles
• Different
• Exotic
• Rich culture
• Hardworking
• Resilient
• Warm and friendly
• Curious about Americans
• Farming communities
• It will smell
• It will be hot
• Beauty
• Poverty
• There will be a language barrier
• I might have to relearn how to do easy tasks...such as washing dishes without running water.
• Assumptions will be opposite of what is

Skills:
To give the kids love and attention
I will teach English to the kids.
I would like to incorporate my Red Cross HIV/AIDS training at the orphanage.
I would also like to teach the kids a little French.
Patience/flexibility