Gone from Ghana

Genuine, Incredible, Welcoming, Hard-Working, Caring, Happy, Community, Family-oriented….those are just a couple of the words that I would use to describe the Ghanaian people. Even in the 100 degree weather with 100% humidity, I was sad to leave this country filled with, honestly, so much more than I was expecting. My first steps off the ship onto land were, like I said, very hot. I got on a bus with about 30 other SASers, our bus driver Steven, and some guy named Fred. But I quickly learned that it wasn’t just some guy named Fred and let me tell you why. Fred grew up in a village that didn’t have any school for him to attend. A man in the village decided to start teaching some of the kids with nothing more than some seeds to count and a mango tree. Fred spent years excelling in school, sometimes having to walk 2 hours each way to get there, all while knowing his family was sacrificing parts of their lives for him. By the time he was done with the 3 years of high school, he passed the standardized test which is a big deal. All the schools in Ghana have to take the same test so people that grew up in small villages with few resources, like Fred, have to take the same exam as someone who grew up in a more advanced, city school. Fred moved to the city of Accra, which is about 7-8 hours drive from his village, to raise money to get into university. He was practically homeless trying to sell bracelets on the street. In 2009, there was a group of about 12 people who saw Fred and asked for restaurant recommendations. The group was from SAS and ended up spending the next 4 days with Fred touring them around. The group raved about him and so the next voyage got his contact information and also spent the whole time with him. He started setting up tours for each SAS voyage including a tour with a life-long learner named Barbara. Barbara decided to sponsor Fred to go to a university wherever he wanted, which included England, San Diego, and the Fall 2014 SAS voyage. Since then, Fred has created a tour company where he employs 40 people, has started Uber within Ghana, and built an incredible school in his home village, Senase. That’s where we headed on our bus the first day in Ghana. We got to the village that night and were welcomed by so many people, including our host families. Some people stayed with Fred and his large family (his mother, who hasn’t actually given birth to any children, has raised more than 25 children), and other families across the village. My family had probably 15 people living in the unit, and we added 5 more. We were given our own room. They didn’t have air conditioning, the shower was just a bucket of water, and the toilets were nonexistent, but the family was extremely welcoming and would have given us anything we asked for that they could. Everyone was so excited to have us there and we were even more excited to be there. The first morning in the village, we woke up with the children to go to the school that Fred has built, Semanhyiya American School (SAS). There are currently classes up to 2nd grade but each year they add a new class so they grow with the children. We served them breakfast and then did the morning assembly with them which included a lot of dancing to the Macarena, the Nae Nae, and the Cha Cha Slide. We spent time in each classroom with the kids and the teachers. The teachers are inspiringly passionate which has a noticeable effect on the kids. I was in the nursery with 3 year olds (there is also a 2 year old class) and I was shocked with how smart they were. They were such tiny kids that could tell me the alphabet, counting, colors, objects, songs, and that was all in their second language. The entire school was so positive and you could tell that the kids and the teacher both loved being there. The walls were filled with positive quotes, and it’s one of the only schools in the entire country that doesn’t use corporal punishment on the children which, obviously, is working. At the end of the day, we got on the bus with all the kids, dropped them off, and checked out the market for a little while before going back to our host families. After dinner at Fred’s mom’s house, we headed to a bar with all of the teachers and tried new beers and learned some new dances…sorta. Ghanaians are extremely passionate about music and dance, and it’s such a cool thing to see. The next morning we headed back to the school, it was Sunday so without the kids, and painted for most of the day. In the afternoon, a couple people came to the school and taught us real Ghanaian dance and drumming. Even though we all died a little from the heat, it was so much fun. We headed to the market to gather gifts for our families and sadly went back to see them for the last time. It felt like we had grown close to them, but it also felt like we had just shown up. We spent part of the night at Fred’s mom’s house with a bunch of people from the community just talking, dancing, eating, drinking, and laughing. At midnight, we got back on the bus for 8 hours and headed back to Accra. We got breakfast at a restaurant in the mall and then made a final stop at the Art Centre. The Art Centre is basically a big market for Ghanaian made souvenirs. I always love looking through the markets and looking (or buying) all the interesting things that the people make. I got back on the ship with a bittersweet feeling… even though I hadn’t taken a proper shower for 4 days, I thought about how much I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Ghana even if it was through a constant layer of sweat.