#seedscience | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hanleykayla · 6 years

Text

October 1, 2018

ELIZABETH! My sister agreed to a photo only if I would text it to her afterwards. I asked for her number and she replied with, “I don’t have a phone.” … So, there is that.

In addition to continuing to see Elizabeth on my daily lunch walks, I have been receiving internal and external confirmation that I made the correct decision to end my time early and I cannot express how great that has felt. We only feed our fear when we try to control our situations, and as someone who tends to overthink things, not leading myself down an unnecessary path towards regret is a new and exciting thing for me!

The two new Italian volunteers are leading a project called SeedScience, a 10 week long program to teach young science teachers from “underprivileged” countries how to teach the practical aspects of the subject by using resources and materials that can be found in local communities. Michele, one of the volunteers, founded and funded SeedScience, and after he concludes his teachings in Ghana, he will be heading to Kenya and Tanzania to lead projects there.

Last week, the SeedScience team had to conduct interviews of local applicants to select the eight teachers that will participate in the project, and with the current lack of human resources in our office, I was asked to help out. Fifteen teachers from the neighboring communities showed up. Each interview was only supposed to last around five minutes. Not surprisingly, the interviews lasted longer than the time allotted, so after hosting the interviews and having a team meeting to assess the applicants, we were there for about four hours or so.

It was a cool experience to listen in to the insights and opinions of the young teachers. The way interviews occur in Ghana is much different than what I have experienced back home. Due to cultural aspects, applicants must wait at the doorway until they are told they can enter (and the interviewers can wait and look at them for as long as they want before doing so), and in the same manner, applicants must stand next to their chair until they are welcomed to sit down. Not being a member of this culture, I was uncomfortable sitting on the other side of the table who was holding the power and demanding respect in this manner. But! It is not my place to step in and say anything, so I just had to sit there and learn.

Speaking of sitting and learning, I was welcomed to attend the Omprakash Partner Conference in Accra this past weekend - which is where I was yesterday, so sorry for the delayed post! Omprakash is essentially an organization that pairs international volunteers with organizations all over the world, but they approach their work differently than most other placement companies. Since 2004, they have been dedicated to building mutually beneficial & educational relationships between grassroots social impact organization and volunteers, donors & classrooms around the world who can learn from & support their work. Rather than selling a “package-deal” to volunteers and collecting their own fees by acting at the middle man between individuals and organizations, Omprakash empowers everyone involved to become more critically conscious participants in processes of social transformation. Their vision is to reinvent 'global learning' to make it more affordable, more ethical, and more impactful.

How I was able to attend this conference was through Patriots Ghana, one of Cheerful Hearts’ partner organizations.The picture above is, from left to right, our team: Oppong, Douglas, myself, Emanuel, and Michele. Patriots Ghana is within the Omprak has network, and they let me pretend that I was a part of their team for my application, but during the conference, I could still represent CHF. However, being completely unaffiliated with Omprakash, at a conference for its partner organizations, not volunteers, I was absolutely a guest in this space. I was able to learn from fourteen of Omprakash’s global partners - most of which were from many African countries - and I loved hearing their perspectives.

Within my social work education, I have studied how to raise social consciousness and how to address cultural differences, but until this weekend, I was only having those conversations with people who had similar identities to me: North American, female (…mostly…), and interested in providing help, not receiving it. So, to have the opportunity to attend this conference this past weekend, and to discuss the same topics, but be able to hear the opposite perspective - what it is like to be from the global South, male (…mostly…), and interested in receiving help, not providing it - was such an invaluable learning experience.

On Saturday night, everyone from the conference went out to experience Ghanian local food. When we arrived at the restaurant, they informed us that they were only serving one item on their menu: banku, a fermented dough made out of cassava and corn. Banku has such a dry consistency that it can only be eaten when dipped into a stew or a soup. I knew that I didn’t really like banku before this meal, but I thought I would give it another go in the spirit of being present in Ghana before I head back home.

I was right - I still did not like it :) The stews that accompanied the banku were either a tomato goat soup or a spicy fish soup, so neither of those made my taste buds nor my belly any happier. In result, Douglas ended up sneaking away from the meal for a little bit to go grab us some ears of roasted corn for us to have instead.

I spent most of night talking with two men: Joshua, from Kenya, and Remi, from Tanzania. Joshua is 65 years old and leads a boarding school in Kenya for children who would otherwise not be able to afford an education. Through volunteers and donations, he provides housing, meals, and lessons for 200 students all at different grade levels. Remi leads an environmental advocacy organization in Tanzania that raises awareness about climate change and river/species degradation. At some point during the evening, he let me know that his birthday was on Monday (today!), and when I asked him how old he would be turning, he replied with, “I don’t know. Maybe 50, maybe 70?” I laughed and said, “Let's just go with 40?”

When I arrived home on Sunday night, there were two new volunteers from New York that arrived at our house over the weekend who will be educating students who have learning or mental disabilities. It felt good being able to talk with them about what they are about to experience as my own experience is coming to a close. I know that they have so much to look forward to, and that there will be so many great things for them to learn from (especially because they will be doing consistent work in schools). And in talking, I felt a sense of confidence and confirmation that I encountered everything that was meant for me here and I found so much joy in the things I can now look forward to at home.

I will have one more post for you to recap my last week in Ghana, so be on the look out for an update about how everything comes to a close!

1 note · View note