Konko Zone - Needs volunteers now! Cheapest programme!

Posted by Kevin, Scotland, on Feb. 2, 2009

As my time in Ghana came to a close, I can't help but feel sad at what I'm leaving behind. The experience has been one that I will never forget and the memories I have made will last me a lifetime and hopefully inspire others to do something similiar. Africa is a beautifull, vibrant, musical and joyful country which is sometimes not shown as fairly as it should in our media. Yes there is poverty and suffering, and many many orphan children due to AIDS, death or any other circumstance but more often than not these people were the ones that would offer me a seat, a meal or even somewhere to sleep. They were the ones making the most out of life, and not merely the things they have in it or dwelling on the lack of things. They had nothing, but would always greet me with kindness and warmth. The joy they had was in life and play. In the music and dancing. There is a lot to be said for the way many people I have met here live their lives.

Speaking with a 6 year old girl at the orphanage were I worked about how she lost her mother to AIDS, and had never known her father. And how she was concerned that she might die, absolutely broke my heart. That is something no child should have to think about or really even know about and never be worried about. The words like, 'putting things in perspective' come into play when things like that happen.

I can only hope that the small time I spent with the school and other projects I was involved in was useful to the people around me. Ghana has certainly been good to me and I can't recommend it enough to other people. The work is tough, the hours long and the weather (well, at least for a lad from Scotland) extreme, make it is an experience you will never forget, but the emotional rewards are well worth any sweat and tears they may have caused.