Hey Followers!
Sorry it has been such a long time since my last post on this blog! Ever since our arrival in Ho, Cate, Juliana, and I have been non-stop in action scouting volunteer sites, taking photos, shooting video footage, designing a new web page for DIVOG, updating internal organizational material, creating PowerPoint presentations, etc... (a detailed list of our endeavors will be posted before our departure). At this point, I figured you all would be much more interested in hearing a little bit about Ghana, and what we have been up to for the past couple weeks.
For the first two weeks of our visit, our role was to visit DIVOG's project sites to shoot video footage and snap photos for DIVOG's new website. Some of the images I saw while doing this were truly amazing. Entire communities (literally!), 100% voluntarily, would be engaged in the back-breaking labor of building schoolhouses and washhouses that DIVOG raised funds to construct. By no means did this work require little effort. In the States, we have the luxury of utilizing 'John Deere' machinery that can perform the most arduous of construction tasks with the single push of a button. Here in Ghana, mothers with babies strapped to their backs (in a sort of hands-free kangaroo pouch made from cloth) must carry concrete bricks on their heads, and walk half a football-fields distance to set them with the foundation workers who then mold them into the walls of the construct. I stopped to ask one of the mothers why she, and all the other members of the community, work all hours of the day (form 8am to 5:30pm) in the blazing heat to construct school facilities for no pay whatsoever. She looked at me puzzled, as if the question only had one obvious answer, pointed at the children who were currently being tought under a tree with no desks, and said "so the children can have a place to learn".
This feat, for me, truly demonstrated the resolve and compassionate nature of rural Ghanaian people. Nowhere else in the world I have been (which, not to brag, is quite a few places), have I ever seen anything even close to the togetherness rural Ghanaian people work under. It also goes to show the trumendous demand for educational opportunity, and the great lengths entire communities are willing to undergo in order to obtain them for their deserving youth. The things we take for granted in the Western world, like, God forbid, a building to learn in, are luxuries in rural Ghanaian communities that the locals feverishly struggle to obtain. All too often their calls are left unanswered by local government as the beuracratic political system in Ghana leaves funding for social programs astonishingly low (everybody involved in the implimentation of these programs has to get paid, leaving practically no funding for the actual program once the money reaches these communities).
This is why organizations like DIVOG exist. To cut out the middle men in corrupt political systems and deliver results directly to the people in deprived communities. This entire experience has truly opened my eyes to the duty we have as a people to help uplift those with less fortunate circumstances than ourselves. Especially having met the children, who are among the sweetest, most disciplined, eager to learn I have ever met, I see that their potential is endless, and nobody is more deserving of these basic structures that are so relatively cheap to build (roughly $10,000).
A few weeks ago, we spoke to a man by the name of Toni who owns the Mountain Paradise Lodge in Biakpa (a beautiful place I would recommend to any traveler to Ghana). He spoke about how a local University (the University of Cape Coast) runs a scholarship program where they sponsor X number of the highest ranking students from rural Senior High Schools to attend their institution. However, upon arrival, many of these students are disadvantaged because their prior school's science and biochemistry departments were without necessary lab equipment for scientific experimentation. Toni explained to us that despite this handicap, these students, with only a theoretical textbook background in the sciences, would often come into Cape Coast University and utterly shatter the curve, exceling beyond anyones wildest expectations, and well beyond those students who had access to these resources in their larger, urban Senior High Schools. Toni was one of these students. One could only imagine how many of such students are out there who will never get a shot at receiving a higher education. A more prosperous Ghana makes a more prosperous world, as we are ever-globalizing in today's market, which is why it is important to donate to social programs accross borders.
The team of three we are working with are some of the funnest, most interesting, lovable guys we have ever met. Richard K. Yinkah, Ankah Angelbert, and Robert Tornu are all very dedicated to their work with DIVOG, and individuals with trumendous senses of humor. Working with them has been a pleasure, as I have come to view them more as brothers than colleagues, and will continue to do all that I can to help them further their cause. They have taken us on weekend trips, to go see the highest waterfall in West Africa, to and from work everyday, and have done everything with smiles on their faces. They have also always been there cheering me on at my performances that I have managed to arrange while out here in Ghana.
We will keep everyone updated on the specific details of our project and how our last few days in Ghana play out. Everything has been very well and Cate, Juliana, and I have managed to achieve so much in such a short amount of time. My expectations were high to begin with after the "Airplane Incident", and they have now been vindicated.
To all my friends and family - I love and miss you all. See you soon!
All the Best... Stay Tuned...
-Etan
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