Ghana report from Charlotte Rampton
April 2006 – July 2006
I am going to attempt to summarize a life changing experience that lasted three months. Also, I am guessing that some of you will not have time to read this report all the way through so I would like to advice anyone who is thinking of doing some voluntary work not to have too many ‘ideals’ about what your volunteering experience is going to be like, I guarantee it won’t be as you expect!
Whilst in Ghana I lived in a little village just outside Cape Coast (the ancient capital of Ghana) called Kakumodo. It was a pretty large village with a population of eight to ten thousand people. I lived with a Ghanaian family along with two other British Africa Trust volunteers called Lucie and Caroline. Most of the family had moved away and started their own families, so the only family member left was Jeffery, the youngest son. We had all of our food prepared for us as part of the Africa Trust package. This provided an extra income for the community and meant we ate a proper Ghanaian diet.
When I arrived in April, Lucie and Caroline had already been in Ghana for three months, so they took me under their wings and showed me the ropes. Things are so different out there that it takes a while to adjust. For example there are no showers, or if there is they don’t work! So we had to use a bucket and attempt to get the shampoo out of our hair with one hand. Another thing that took a lot of time to get the hang of was doing my washing by hand. It always seemed to take me three hours longer than Caroline and Lucie and I always ended up with cut knuckles because I was using the wrong technique! I still don’t understand how the Ghanaian mothers manage to get their children’s clothes so clean.
We were very lucky because there was running water and electricity in the house, well most of the time! Most of the houses in the village were too poor to have taps in their huts, most families didn’t have more than a single light bulb, so electricity was not a major concern.
It soon hit me how different Ghana is to our cozy country. Things that we take for granted in the UK just don’t happen in Ghana. For example most Ghanaians don’t know whether they will have enough money for their next meal, let alone keep a fridge full of food that can be eaten when you feel like it. One thing that I really love about Ghanaians is their very strong family ties. Children live alongside their grandparents and cousins, mostly due to lack of money, which means they all grow up with each other. The elders always know best, without question. The villagers are also very close, welcoming and sociable. No-one could walk through the village in a hurry, because you would always get stopped by at least a couple of people who wanted to say hello and catch up on the village gossip.
When I arrived at Kakumodo there was a bit of confusion about what project I was meant to be doing. Lucie and Caroline had been working with a Non Governmental Organisation called CEJOCEP (Centre For Job Creation and Environmental Protection) for the last three months. They were helping build the school and teach the children. Everybody thought that I was coming out to do the same thing. There had been a communication break down somewhere. As I had experience of working in a hospital I had intended to do voluntary work in hospitals. I wanted to set up art workshops and do occupational therapy style stuff on a children’s ward. As I am a passionate sports person, I thought I could use that love to create sports events at orphanages. (I didn’t want to come out here and teach as I haven’t got any experience with teaching and it wasn’t something I was passionate about). But when I arrived there was nothing set up (as David had implied that there would be) so that I could co-ordinate my work in the hospitals. The lady that was meant to introduce me to all the relevant people in the hospital was away and the Ghanaian Africa Trust coordinators had not contacted her before my arrival. I was then left in a horrid position, because all my dreams (which was not a good idea to have) of volunteering in the way I had imagined looked as if they were not going to come true. In the end I spent the first couple of weeks helping Caroline and Lucie teach and build at the centre. This made things even worse as I soon fell in love with the ideals of CEJOCEP and everything about it, but I still wanted to be true to myself and my sponsors and do the projects I had intended to do.
My first couple of weeks in Ghana were very hard, as along with the whole confusion about my projects, I was also a little home-sick (something I have never had before, but I guess I have never been so far away from family and friends before) and I got a stomach bug. I also found out that I didn’t get into graduate entry medical school in the same week, which hit me very hard as I thought my interviews went ok. I was devastated and on one dark night I decided that I was going to arrange to go home in the morning. Luckily my SIM card from the UK worked and I texted my best friend back at home who made me feel better and persuaded me to stick it out for the next couple of weeks and see what happens. I think all I needed was some reassuring words about medical school, which worked. Thank goodness as I can’t believe that I nearly gave up on the whole experience. I am so grateful for that text.
TOUR
As I arrived half way through the other volunteers time in Ghana, it meant I had to have my half-way tour at the start of my time in Ghana. This was not ideal for me as I really wanted to get down to work, but I also didn’t want to miss seeing more of this amazing country. So after less than a week of being in Ghana the Africa Trust team went on tour. We had ten days off work to tour around the country. I had already seen the sights from the local area,. One of the best was Kakum National park, which had rope walkways high up in the trees. The views from the top were amazing, but the unsteady walkway was very nerve racking. I loved my first experience of being in a jungle. The noises were awesome. We had also visited Elmina Castle, which at one point was run by the British in the colonial years. The castle was used as a major port to export slaves, it was a very moving experience to hear the tales of what went on back then.
We started our tour with a Tro Tro (a sort-of large mini bus which they cram full of people) journey for four hours north. We made the mistake of sitting along the back row, which had almost no leg room, so after about half an hour I couldn’t feel my legs. We eventually arrived in Kumasi the capital of the northern region.
In Kumasi we visited lots of museums and cultural centres. It was so interesting to learn about Ghana’s history. I think I know more about the Ashanti people and the fights during the British Colonial years than I do about British history. Very embarrassing.
We then went further north to Tamale, this time by an STC bus (a posher air conditioned coach), my bottom couldn’t take another Tro Tro just yet. We very quickly moved on to Mole National Park. This place was so amazing. We were staying in a hotel situated just above a local watering hole. When we arrived we were all in awe and we sat watching the elephants in the water for hours. We went on a walking Safari and saw loads of animals in their natural habitat. We were about two meters from an elephant. He was so beautiful. The baboons, however, were not so beautiful, especially when one stole my lunch!
 After the Safari walk we cycled to the local village of Larabangna. The village had the oldest mosque in Ghana, which was interesting to look at, but what I found fascinating was wandering around the village and meeting all the villagers. I was shocked to find out that they did not have a clinic or any medical facilities in the village and if they needed medical attention they had to walk to the next village, which was at least four hours away. This really chocked me and I felt awful. These people really needed a clinic but there was no money to build or run one. Part of me wishes that I could have spent my time in that village as I loved the people so much and to be honest I felt as if I could have done lots there, but I had already committed to the work in Cape Coast. I had to get used to saying no, which was very hard when you could see that people were really desperate for your help. In some ways I wished that I was black so I was not targeted so much by people wanting something from me (being white meant I stood out and people associate white skin with money). This is true to some extent as many white people they see do have enough money to travel to another country whilst the people that were asking me for money had nothing at all. I am against giving hand outs as I feel it doesn’t really help them in the long run and doesn’t improve the image of the whites, but it was very hard to say no to hungry children. I was often very stuck for answers to the unanswerable question of poverty.
 We then spent two days on Tro Tros. Being bumped around continuously was very exhausting, so we decided to take a break for a day in Bimbilla. This was where I had my first experience of Ghanaian hospitals. We had met a nurse on the Tro Tro on the way down and on his tour of the village he took us around the hospital. It was a lot less basic than I thought it would be. But they still didn’t have much. They didn’t even have any nurses at that point as they were on strike over pay. They get paid so little it is appalling. What really did shock me was finding out how expensive the treatments were, they have nothing like the NHS, and I had no idea how families were able to pay the huge fees. Apparently most of them don’t even bother seeking medical attention as it is just too expensive, which upset me a lot.
We next visited a village called Ho Hoe, a village in the votla region (near lake Volta). We visited the tallest waterfall in Ghana, which was lovely to swim under. The next day we climbed the tallest mountain (hill!) in Ghana. We followed this by a brief visit to Accra as we had to travel through it to get to the beach resort of Kockrobite. This was where we ended our tour. We spent two days relaxing by the sea and drinking pineapple juices. I needed this time to take stock of what I had seen. I had seriously fallen head over heals in love with this country and its people, but I was very confused about my views on its economic and political position. I still don’t think I am sure about how I feel about some things, what I am sure of is that there are a lot of people suffering in Ghana, and the whole of Africa, that shouldn’t be.
TEACHING
The school where I was teaching was part of the organisation called CEJOCEP. It seeks to create a new social and economic order through promotion of free education, preservation and development of culture, protection of environment and enhancement of capacity building--all gearing towards poverty alleviation. Their goals for 2030 fit into seven developmental categories, and include:
- The establishment of primary, secondary, and vocational schools.
- The establishment of a Micro Credit Union, targeting over 20 villages around Kakumdo with 200 people from each village.
- The establishment of a Community Clinic to serve over 20 communities around Kakumdo.
- Workshops on the effects of Environmental Degradation.
- Construction of a theatre for the CEJOCEP Drama & Cultural Group.
At present CEJOCEP’s main projects involve completing a six class room building and toilet block. They have also got three classes to teach; cresh (2-5 years old), KG1 (3-8 years old) and KG2 (6-10 years old) classes. They also have a cultural group that meets three times a week. CEJOCEP consists of three main directors; Sylvester, Lawrence and Teresa. These three people work all hours for CEJOCEP and give everything they can, they are truly amazing. There is also a team of younger Ghanaian volunteers some of whom help cook the school children’s food, some help build the school and some just participate in the cultural group activities. CEJCEP is a huge loving family.
Sly, Teressa and Lawrence As the hospital stuff was not sorted when we got back from our tour of the country, I spent the next week teaching with Caroline and Lucie. My first day at school was very interesting. I had no idea how I was going to remember all the children's names. For the first day I got them to write on sticky labels, even this was harder than I thought it would be, as some of them couldn't even do that without a lot of help. I could see this was going to be a very interesting couple of months ahead of me.
We were initially (Caroline and Lucie had been for the last three months) teaching outside as the school building had no roof. I was amazed at how hard it was to keep the children's attention, impossible even! I like to think it was because we were outside, but I guess three to six year olds are not interested in numbers for more than about five minutes.
Caroline, Lucie and I had all the children together for my first day so that I could get to know them. The next couple of days were even more interesting as the class got split in two. Caroline had the younger ones and Lucie had the older/clever ones (some of the younger children are in the older class and visa versa). I just switched between the two. The schooling system is very different here to in the UK. Children do not go to school if their parents can't afford it. Yes, the government schools are free, but the parents still have to pay for books, school uniform and food. Also if they send their children to school it means that they are not earning money for the family. So there are a lot of older children in the same class as the younger ones. This took me a long time to adjust to. It is very upsetting that all the children do not have equal opportunities.
 I was expecting things to get a lot better in terms of behaviour once the children got used to me, but it didn't really happen. It just got a little easier to tell them off when they started fighting, mostly because I was learning Fante (the local dialect). All Ghanaian teachers use the cane as a form of punishment, but us volunteers were against using it. This was a bit of a problem as it was the only thing that they respected so it was very hard for us to get them to behave when they knew that we would never cane them. We tried to work along the lines of respect rather than fear.
Lawrence, one of the CEJOCEP founders, gave me my induction course. Which consisted of a weeks worth of two hour Fante lessons and then a weeks worth of two hour social and culture studies lessons. These were so useful, especially the Fante lessons. It was great being taught Fante at the same time as trying to teach the children English. I could sympathise with them so much more! Even the alphabet I found very hard and it is very similar to the English one! I am so glad I spent those days working on it, it paid off. I know so much more Fante because of it. Seeing the shocked faces of taxi drivers when I reply in Fante made it all worthwhile.
HOSPITAL
The directors of CEJOCEP are so amazing that when they found out what pickle I was in regarding contacts at the hospital, they went out of their way to help me. Sly worked all hours to try and find a suitable placement for me at the local hospital. I can’t believe how amazing they are, they were so generous with their time and effort to in effect help me volunteer less for their organisation. Sly arranged a meeting with the director of the local University hospital director and the regional hospital. Things did not go so well at the regional hospital as they wanted me to pay $200 to volunteer for them, this money was supposedly to cover the extra time the nurses would use to show me the ropes. I think they have had one white ‘volunteer’ too many who turns out to want to follow doctors around all day to get work experience. I explained to them that this is not what I wanted to do, I wanted to work and get my hands dirty.
In the end it all turned out ok as the university hospital were amazingly welcoming. I was handed over to one of their equivalents of a nursing auxiliary (my old job title in the UK) called Dora, who showed me around the hospital and introduced me to everybody. Dora and everybody else at the hospital were so friendly and welcoming, it was very refreshing. After my tour around the pretty small hospital, (about the size of the hospital I used to work in, so it was the perfect for me) I went to the children's ward to try to help out there. It is not easy to volunteer out here, you have to push very hard to get them to let you do any work. They want to be hospitable as you are the visitor, so they don't want you to do any hard work. It took me a lot of time to explain to them that I was there to do hard work and I could cope with it! As I say it is not easy (this is a very common saying out here, as things are seriously not easy)!
My weekly routine was that I went to the hospital for three mornings a week, taught at the school for two and then helped build the rest of the school in the afternoon, or do any other work CEJOCEP needed doing. I also went to visit a local orphanage a few times at the weekends.
The hospital had already organised a sort of rotation thing for the volunteers. It was very hard to get out of the trend of ‘volunteering’, yes I do admit I would have liked to get some experience in a medical field whilst I was in Ghana, but my main priority was trying to do something to help. I was first put in the children’s ward where I spent most of my time playing cards with the children and sitting around. I took one patient for an X-ray at the nearby hospital, other than that I didn’t feel as if I was being of any help. There wasn’t much for me to do as there were not very many patients, which was good, but I felt pretty useless.
 After a couple of weeks working on the children’s ward I helped out with the family planning/ante-natal unit. This was a lot of fun and very rewarding because I could actually do something to help. I helped fill in forms for pregnant women who were having a check-up and I weighed very young babies who had come in for their jabs. My favourite day was when I got to join the team on their outreach project, they went into a near-by village and ran a clinic for the young babies. Again I weighed the babies, which I got pretty good at except when the babies were scarred of me because they hadn’t seen a white person before.
After the outreach project I got very ill with Malaria so didn’t work for a couple of weeks. When I was eventually well enough to go back to work I started at the laboratory. This was also another good place to work as there was work for me to do. I helped do the laboratory tests. I did anything from spreading blood out on a slide ready for malaria or sickle cell tests, to helping with HIV tests. They didn’t have very much equipment, but enough to do tests for everyday things that the doctors needed, anything more extreme had to be sent to the regional hospital which had a more extensive laboratory. The people in the laboratory were extremely friendly and very surprised when I worked hard, all they were used to were people watching what they were doing. Again a problem with lots of medical ‘volunteers’.
Sammy and me in the university hospital lab For the penultimate week I helped in the adult wards. I arrived at a very busy time, which meant that the nurses were too busy for me to explain to them that I wanted to help. This was a very frustrating time for me, but I didn’t want to use up any of their very precious time, so I spent most of the time watching them run around and did any fetching and carrying I could. I helped take patients up to theatre, as I was around the theatre a lot one of the doctors asked me if I wanted to watch an operation. I felt bad for accepting as I was not meant to be here to observe, but I felt that I deserved a couple of hours off. The operation was a very basic one, but I have not been in an operating theatre before so it was amazingly interesting for me. I was awestruck at how good the doctors were and how professional the operating theatre was, I guess it had to be, but it was very different from the rest of the hospital.
For the last week I helped the doctors in the outpatients department. When I was recording the patients diagnosis in the records book for one of the doctors I scanned over the previous patients he had seen over the last couple of months. I was amazed at how many patients came in with malaria. I had a similar experience in the children’s ward, where 80% of patients were admitted due to Malaria. This is such a devastating disease, which I knew before I came out to Ghana, but when I saw with my own eyes the true extent it shocked me, and Ghana is not the worst of African countries hit by it. I wonder how Ghana would be if diseases like malaria and HIV were as uncommon as they are in the UK?
Making cement blocks AFTERNOONS OF SWEAT AND TEAMWORK
The work in the afternoon was pretty demanding. Making cement blocks and moving rubble out of classrooms took a lot out of me, but it was also really rewarding working together with the boys from the nearby village. These boys come back to the centre every afternoon despite not get paid. Their belief in CEJOCEP is amazing.
A lot of work had been done before I arrived; the foundations for the six classrooms had been built with the help of some American volunteers the previous summer. The boys, Lucie and Caroline had already completed the rest of the walls for the classrooms. When I arrived they were working on the toilet block. We continued to make cement blocks so that the technical man could build up the walls. We also cleared out the classrooms and flattened down the floors.
Roasting Gari The money that I raised in the UK went towards the school building. A large chunk of it went on the roof for three of the classrooms. It took a long time to get this up, as we had to make sure that we were getting the best value for money. There is a lot of bartering in Ghana, price tags do not exist. We also had to wait for the right weather conditions, being the rainy season it tended to rain a lot! Eventually about a week before I left Ghana the roof went up. It was amazing to see it go up. About a month after I arrived the roof to the other three classrooms had gone up, which meant that the children could be taught inside the classrooms instead of in amongst the trees. This was an amazing day for CEJOCEP and one I will never forget. Lawrence had also constructed benches out of planks of wood and cement blocks, which meant the children didn’t have to share chairs.
Carrying head pans full of stones In order to raise money CEJOCEP processes Kasarva into Gari. This means going to the farm and harvesting the Kasarva, which Lucie and I helped with. It is first pealed and grated, and then it is sieved and dried over a fire. I hated the roasting bit as the smoke from the fire always got in my eyes
We also did a lot of sweeping and weeding for the large plot that sly/CEJOCEP owns. There was also a lot of stones and sand to move using head pans. Despite the number of times I used the head pans I never managed to walk without holding it with one hand, I just don’t have the posture!
MALARIA
Just to make sure that I had the proper Ghanaian experience I ended up coming down with malaria about halfway through my time in Ghana. On the day that I went on the out-reach project I started feeling really sick, hot and had stomach cramps. I got myself home as quickly as I could, then the aches all over my body started. I thought it was just a cold or something like that. Then when Lucie came home she saw me and pointed out that it could be Malaria, this had not crossed my mind before as I didn't feel too bad until the afternoon. Dora, my nurse friend from the hospital came round and took Lucie and I to the hospital. I had a blood test and it confirmed the doctors suspicion that it was Malaria. I even got to look down the microscope and see the parasites in my blood (yes I am a weird person!). I was given some tablets and an injection for pain relief in my bottom (that hurts!) and sent home. It was great knowing everyone in the hospital as they treated me very quickly, didn't charge me and sent me home in the ambulance. I was very grateful that I didn’t have to worry about how I was going to pay for the treatment, a problem most Ghanaians have to conquer before they can think about going to the hospital. I hate the whole idea that people have to pay for their treatment and the fact that people don’t seek treatment because they are too poor. This really upsets me. The NHS does have its problems, but my experience out here has made me love it.
I got home and then spent the next week in bed or sitting around the house. It took me a long time to get my energy back. It was very frustrating doing nothing for a week when I knew I didn’t have long left out in Ghana. I got back to work within two weeks and I had a blood test just before I left Ghana which showed that there were no parasites in my blood. Unfortunately I will most probably have them in my liver for the rest of my life and I will have to make sure that I seek medical help very quickly if I ever get ill like that again.
EXTRA PROJECTS
I also managed to visit a local orphanage. It was a pretty rich orphanage as a family from America founded it. The children had lots of toys to play with, but there didn’t seem very many people around looking after them. This is where I came in. I originally planned to spend every Sunday there whilst the other volunteers went to church and had a day off, but time ran out. When I did manage to get there I played rounders with them and made lego sculptures and bracelets. It was great to spend time with such amazing children. They have been through so much, but still are amazingly smiley and generous.
GOODBYE
About two weeks before we left we had a goodbye/thank you meal with all the directors of CEJOCEP. We had this very early as there were 10 American volunteers arriving and we wanted to say goodbye with just us. We had so much to say thank you to CEJOCEP about, they were more than directors, they were our friends and family whilst we were in Ghana. They were there in the early hours of the morning when we needed medicine and fought to get me a contact in the hospital.
It was a really sad dinner, but also a lot of fun. It had been a long time since we all had all been in the same place. It also provided as a good place for a lot of discussions about the future of CEJOCEP and the possibility of more volunteers joining them. We also had lots of speeches and evaluations about our time in Ghana, how it could be improved for the next volunteers. We came to the conclusion that on CEJOCEP’s part it could not be improved upon :) They are great.
 We were having such a lovely evening, but then my mother phoned so I went outside the spot (bar) to phone her back as the music was way too loud inside. After a ten minute conversation we said goodbye and then I started to text my dad. Then a boy ran up and snatched the phone from my hand. It was horrid. I ran after him shouting that I would give him money if he gave me the phone back. I was shouting so loud, but nobody came to help me. He ran into a very dark field and I had no idea whether he had other bigger boys with him, so I stopped and ran back to the spot to get Lawrence to chase after him. We spent about two hours combing the area for the boy, but he got away. Lawrence and Sly were so angry at the boy and did everything within their power to try and find the phone, but it was gone. It was a horrid experience, especially since I had said to Caroline the previous week that I felt safer there than I do in the UK. Never mind, these things happen for a reason. My dad believed that it was so that I could try living without my phone for the last two weeks. Which in hindsight was a good thing. It taught me to stop relying on western technology.
Saying goodbye to everyone at the hospital was hard. I couldn’t believe that I may never see some of them again. They had been so kind and welcoming to me. I am so grateful to have met such amazing people, the nurses get paid very little, but they still work very hard at their jobs. It really impressed me.
When it came to the last couple of days at school it was heartbreaking. I had got so close to the children, I knew all their little quirks. We made masks on the penultimate day, which was great fun. We gave them a cut out mask and got them to colour and paint them with pens and paint that we provided. I don’t think they had seen so many pens before. They were so engrossed in what they were doing, I wish they were like that during normal lessons! It took us a while to get them to be creative and not copy our masks, a thing that has proved a problem when teaching. The children were so used to learning everything by wrote and not using their minds.
On the final day of school we let the children do drawings and play games. I gave the boys a new football and some toy aeroplanes and the girls some stick on earrings. I was so touching to be able to make them so happy. When it came to saying goodbye to the children I was in tears. If I come back in a couple of years as I intend to, all the adults would be the same, but the children would be so different and I would have missed so much. They are such lovely kids. I will really miss them.
 Lucie, Caroline and me in our CEJOCEP outfits On the Saturday before we left, CEJOCEP gave us a goodbye ceremony/party. I was amazed at how many people turned up. Even the elders of the village came. They did speeches and dance performances for us. It was so touching that they had gone to so much effort. They had also organised for some clothes to be made for us that had the CEJOCEP crest on them. I will treasure that dress for the rest of my life along with the millions of memories I have.
When it was time to say goodbye to everybody in Kakumodo I cried. I took as many pictures as I possibly could, which I needn’t have as they are all solidly imprinted on my memory. I will never forget the people and the places. It has been an amazing experience, yes there were some very low times, but there were also many amazing times. I have learnt so much about Ghana and its people and also about myself. I also hope I managed to make a difference, even if it is small to the lives of the people of Kakumodo.
I am truly grateful to everybody who made the trip possible. Thank you.
 Africa Trust Team Ghana 2006 – Debbie, Lucie, Caroline, Matt and Me. Heathrow airport at the end of our trip.
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