Check out this amazing blog entry written by Danielle Matthews, a Dublin City University student who recently returned from a Brigade to Ghana.
Freedom to Dream
Whenever you come back from a trip, volunteering or not, you always find yourself being asked the inevitable question “did you have a good time”. This was the type of question which on the way home from Ghana I was dreading, dreading that no answer could be given to this question which could give my trip to Ghana the justice it deserved. No words can truly describe my 10 day experience in West Africa.
Having said that I will attempt to share just a little of the life changing experience all 21 of us on the trip went through.
4.15am March 10th 2011 myself and 20 other university students met in Dublin airport, many of us having never met each other before, yet were all just about to fly to Ghana together to volunteer with the international organization, Global Brigades. Standing in the airport I wondered what it was going to be like, would it be dangerous, would the people be welcoming, would I hate every minute of it or was this going to be the best 10 days of my life. All of my questions luckily enough would be answered within 24 hours. From the minute we stepped off the plane I fell in love, the weather, scenery and overly friendly and welcoming people. Although I knew we would be having lovely weather and I guessed myself that due to the fact we were in Africa the scenery would be spectacular, I was not ready for the reaction from the public. Sadly enough this preconception came from the words of a few people before my trip, who unfortunately knew nothing about Ghana or the culture there. Many people told me I was mad heading off to Ghana, a “dangerous” country it was described as more than once. To these people I will now say, “have you ever been there, have you ever been invited into a Ghanaian’s houses to talk about what type of farm they run, how many children they have or what their hopes for the future were, have you ever had a child hold your hand just to feel special, or ask you your name, in the hope that you will return the question?” These are all things that happened to me most days during my experience in Ghana.
I can safely say the most overwhelming and breathtaking moment in my life was our first morning driving into the community which we were going to be working in for 10 days. When we pulled into the entrance my heart stopped and a smile quickly formed on my face. Crowds of men, woman and children lined the entrance, waiting eagerly on our arrival. For them this was the arrival of 21 Irish students who would hopefully give them hope and belief within the next 10 days. Sometime which I can safely say we did successfully. For the next few hours, myself and everyone else involved realized the huge impact which our presence was and would continue to make in the community of Ekumfi Ekotzi in Western Africa.
For the next 5 days, the Brigaders and I met with community members in group meetings and also during one on one talks with people in their homes. The reason for this was to assess what the community as a whole needed in order to improve their lives. Due to the language barrier which we encountered with many community members it was sometimes necessary for us to speak through translators. The translators were mainly young people, just like us who’s English was remarkable. Many strong and lasting relationships were made with these people, one of whom, named Josephine, was the reason I cried on my last day.
Many things about my trip make me sad, including the fact that many of the young kids who I met, would never get the chance to attend secondary school, never mind university, due to economic restrictions. Most of them would also never get the chance to leave Ghana as traveling for most of them just isn’t an option. The only thing I have to console myself is the smile that each person had on their face, every time we saw them. These people practically had nothing however I have never met such a welcoming and friendly community. This was something which wasn’t only apparent in the community we were working in, this was the same everywhere we went. Whether it was the traders selling their goods on the side of the road or children who waved at us in our bus as we drove by, not once during my time in Ghana did I not feel welcome, nor did I feel in any possible danger. I think I can speak for my group in saying we were all more than happy to hand a kid our cameras to gladly take pictures, knowing that it would be handed back before you left.
As the title of this article states this trip had a lot to do with giving people the freedom to dream, something which many people in developing countries are never given the chance or opportunity to do. When we were talking to the individuals in the community we would always ask them what type of things they hopped and wished for. We each found a reoccurring trend when asking this question, all that most people said they wished to do was educate children or grandchildren, afford medical care if they needed it, but also sometimes all they wished for was something as simple as having food to eat. Through our project we invested in two major businesses in the community, one a machine which would make their most harvested crop, the “Cassava” root more profitable and secondly the expansion of a honey making co-operative which was established in the community. During our time in this community we also came to the understanding that crops were continuously failing and peoples livelihoods were being jeopardized by an extreme and many times deadly lack of rain. We therefore came to the conclusion that an irrigation system was a necessity in this community. Sadly, though, this type of a project ended up being something we did not have enough funding to initiate, however we did research and report on the possible future investment in an irrigation system. This “irrigation fund” will now be constantly topped up through renting one of the machines we did buy to neighboring communities. The members of the community have also been taught about the importance of irrigation and the way in which saving for future investments works, so now we can just wait in the hope that in the near future they will have saved enough money to purchase this system for themselves.
My trip to Ghana taught me many things, but one of the main things it taught me is to not take anything for granted. The people who we were helping had nothing in comparison to what we have in Ireland, but I can honestly say while I was there I met some of the most happy, honest and inspiring people I have ever met. This trip changed my life more than I could have ever imagined, and I am positive it will continue to do so for years to come!
