Volunteering a Wonderful Cultural Experience

Tuesday I will leave Denu. I will say goodbye to my host family and my new friends. I will spend a few days traveling to Cape Cost, Komaski National Park and Accra with Simon the director of STAESA. The past three weeks have been an amazing cultural experience that I could have never experiences if I had just come to travel. I have taken in all aspects of the culture, still working on the language though.












Here are some of the highlights that I may or may not have already mentioned:

• I’ve made about 1000 concrete blocks with fine cement and sand
• Eaten fish for almost every meal, including the occasional bone by mistake, and in the process I learned
how to take the scales off.
• Learned how to make Banku (a traditional meal that is made of grounded corn, eaten with your hands
and served with stews, soup, and anything else that you desire)
• Taken and survived a “Tro-Tro” often sometimes with 6 people sometimes with 16 (all the same size van)
• Peeled mangos the size of my head
• Worshiped at a church that is nothing like any of the churches that I have ever been to at home, and with
that I’ve met some wonderful people.
• Been to market day many times and seen everything under the sun
sold on the street
• Worn the traditional and modern Africa wear
• Become a pro at changing diapers, both cloth and pampers
• Learned that when you feel a little homesick a child coming to sit on
your lap makes everything better
• Tried Star and Club Beer (both made in Ghana – taste the same as American Beer)
• Eaten “Red Red” (beans and fried plantains) on the beach
• Been to a Celebration of Life (or as we call them funerals) VERY
different then in the US!
• Learned to communicate with the kids that I live with even though we don’t speak the same language
• Fetched water from a well
• Hand washed all of my clothes
• Found and embraced “yogurt” or what we call fudgecicles
• Fed a monkey a banana and walked in a rain forest
• Have learned to automatically wave when someone yells “Yavous” (aka white)
• And finally even in Ghana one of the first things a new friend says to you is “are you on facebook?”