When most people hear about Africa they think of the children and poverty that is portrayed on the TV commercials that are trying to raise money for the starving children. The Africa that I saw though was nothing like that though. I saw children that were thriving in life with education, a balanced diet and a perspective on life that was better than mine. I saw communities and villages working together for everyones success and loving anyone that came their way. Although this trip was nothing like I thought it was going to be, I learned so much from a little village in West Africa than I would have ever expected to. It is a common theme in mission trips that I have found; you go to a third world country where you expect to teach those who are "less fortunate" than you and you end up learning more from them about life and how to follow Jesus with everything you have. As American's, we see people who are "less fortunate" than us as lesser humans, that they need our help, but really we are the ones who need help. We may have more than we could ever need in America, but we fall short in the spiritual aspect where these people strive. We may seem rich to them in the monetary aspect, but they are rich in life and love for others.
While in Africa we stayed in a country called Ghana in a village called Village of Hope. On Village of Hope's campus there is a primary school, high school, preschool, hospital and around 17 homes for children, administration and guests. Most of the children enrolled in the primary school are orphans who live at Village of Hope. For more reasons than one, they were taken off of the streets or away from their families who could not care for them any more and given a second chance at the Village. These were the kids I worked with. These were the kids who had so much love pouring out of them; for the Lord and for others.
During the day I worked in the school helping out teachers and the social worker at the school with students who may have intellectual or behavioral issues. The teachers welcomed you into their classroom with open arms while students would give up their chair so you had somewhere to sit. The hospitality that everyone in the country possesses, not only where we stayed but in the community too, was phenomenal. At night we would go to each of the houses and do a devotional with the children in the houses. I traveled around to three different houses each night to see all of my friends. I stayed at the CDH house to do devotionals with them and stayed help them with their homework after. I was always welcomed with watermelon by Da Felix, the house dad of CDH. He stayed with his family in the home raising and caring for the other boys who also live in the house. His wife, Ma Regina, along with caring and cooking for her two children, Mame and Nana, cooked, cleaned and cared for the boys like they were their own. All of the Ma's and Da's at Village of Hope have picked up what they were doing before in their lives and moved into the village to care for the children and help run the village smoothly. Along with having the title of Da, Felix also went around to each house to see what food and other items they might need for the month and made a list for each of the houses and sought that their needs were met each month. Being a Ma or Da is a full time job with very little time for rest. One night during the week after devotional, we had all of the Ma's get together for a spa night where we pampered the ladies with manicures, pedicures, massages and sent them off with little gift bags to show our appreciation to them and to get to know them a little better. All of the Ma's loved it and were so filled with joy which had all of us girls leaving with the same joy they possessed.
With the work we were doing, we were also rewarded with some play:). The first Sunday, we walked to the beach and got to do some swimming and played beach volleyball. We also got to tour the Hope Training institute, which is where they take older children off of the streets and train them in a vocation that they can then can go out into the community and do to work on their own. They have a mechanics school, a sewing school, textile school and catering school. The students were eager to show us what they had learned and become our friends.
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| Beach day |
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| Catering school girls |
We also got to go to the rainforest and did a canopy walk in Kakum National Park and visited a slave castle that was used by the Dutch and English for various uses.
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| Rope bridges during the canopy walk |
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Elmina Slave Castle
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Overall this trip was amazing. So many experiences I would not have had otherwise and so many realizations I have had not only about other cultures, but our own. I have been trying to apply this trip to my everyday American life and it hasn't been easy. The American culture is self-relying and sufficient. It relies on others approval and not the approval of our Father in Heaven. It focuses on selfishness and doing whatever it takes to succeed and become successful. The American dream is still alive but instead of helping each other reach the same goal, it creates division against one another. In Ghana they work together to push each other to success. They rely on God and not on others or themselves. They put others happiness and success in front of their own and only seek approval from their Heavenly Father. God's greatest commandment is to love one another and the people I met on this trip were true testimonies to that and that is what I hope to do with my life.
