There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

All | Ashley | Jonathan | James | Fiona | Emily | Dana | Selina | Lucy | Sally | Lucille

Monday Sep 21, 2009

Religion

In the taxi journey on the way to Tamale where I lived, it was written on the rear windscreen, ‘Remember God’.  The shop names in Tamale, were faith based praise more often than not for example, ‘Christ the lord clothes’. Religious practices are public and affect every aspect of life. You constantly see people praying with their heads to the ground, the mosques it Tamale are as common as Starbucks and McDonalds are in England.  The way of communicating is always linked to God, ‘how are you, Thank God good’ .Tamale is 70% Muslim, 30% Christian, the different religions communities I was told co-exist really peacefully.

Christian missionaries’ impact from colonisation until today can be felt in Ghana. The NGO I worked in was founded by a female Christian missionary from America.  The director of the NGO was born in a small poor rural village and a male missionary picked him out of all the children who didn’t go to school, to get an education and changed his life completely.

We visited a Muslim rural community and the people told us the village had resisted education when an American volunteer came and wanted to build a school. They didn’t want a school, as they linked schools with Christian missionaries and did not want to convert.  Religion is in Ghana’s history and present and is intertwined with many of the issues of development. Power, wealth, education and religion are often inseparable.

Traditional beliefs are often still held at the same time someone is Christian or Muslim beliefs which I found really interesting.  Witchcraft here is a common belief, many believe a woman giving her opinion three time shows she is a witch. I definitely know a lot of witches if this is the case! It was interesting to me to see the different ways Christianity and Islam were practiced here compared to what I’m used to in England. It makes you realise how religious tradition is greatly affected by culture.

Visiting ‘Paga Crocodile Park’ , the guide explained the crocodiles are friends with the villagers so don’t eat people. We saw and touched them, which apparently is a compliment as they only come out the water for honest, God fearing people. The guide was told me how they didn’t come out for a group of Ghanaian politician.

The majority of the Ghanaians I met were very religious people. One of my NGO workers fasts every Wednesday to ask God to improve his fortune. I wonder how the individual benefits from faith in a place where there is so little you can count on. Religion is  a key part of life and to be honest I was a bit jealous, I wish I could have the complete faith so many had. I was envious of their worldview in some ways.

Religion and community are extremely interlinked. The church or mosque is the central part of the community. The religious leaders often lead the community in every sense in their public and personal life with a great deal of power over the individuals in the community. The religious groups are the only real groups that can fundraise in Ghana. Religious leaders have so much power over their community even in the poorest of communities they can gather funds. It’s quite scary to me, the power many community leaders hold. My friend who went to church was shocked by the religious leaders openly sating I want to retire in wealth, give me your money and everyone like robots just gave it.

Religion was also a big part of my trip, ‘Tzedek’, the charity I went with is a Jewish organisation, which is motivated by Jewish values to do social action. The group was made up of sixteen British Jews and we discussed how Jewish texts and values give us an obligation to try to combat social injustice.It was interesting how people often only associated Jews with the biblical tribe ,as in Tamale everyone has a tribe, it amused us how people would say 'oh yes you are the hebrew tribe',

Religion , as I experienced it in Tamale, a force for positive social change and in my view, a force for oppressive social conservatism. Religion was liberating and subjugating to the individual. The really interesting question is what religion is and what is culture? How do you separate the two?

Posted by Lucille ( 1:53 PM )
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Friday Sep 18, 2009

Change is in the air

Tamale, where I lived in Ghana is apparently the fastest growing city in West Africa. In Tamale change and development is in the air like the mosquitoes. The issues of politics and development are apparent everywhere. You get into a taxi and invariably the program on the radio will the talking about development, often about really specific policy issues, people obviously care as this stiff really impacts them. It felt so different to the average British apathy to politics. The charity signs fill the edges of the streets. Advertising obviously echoes the psyche of the target audience, in Tamale the advertising is about development. The soap powder promises to be 'the one for development!' as if their clothes magic you out of poverty. The books I noticed were all comically rubbish get rich quick schemes because of course thinking positively will get you out of poverty.
 
The traditional ways are being questioned, the change of economics brining the change of culture. Technology is impacting cultural change.The phone companies are having a full out war for the Ghanian mobile monolopy. Vodaphone has just done a huge campaign, every street covered with Vodaphone red. People even have vodaphone T-shirts.Like a tribe or a football club the companies fight it out with their colours like war paint.  The same technology exists but can be used in very different ways. Apparently it is custom not to call someone who has a senior status from you, is its sign of dis-respect. The customs is still to physically visit someone who you deem as important not ring them. It was interesting to see how the same technology can bee appropriated so differently by another culture.  Internet cafes are common with face book and porn being their main uses, maybe some things are cross cultural!

I loved the little unobvious changes. Mud huts are still common but even those are changing. I was in a village and someone showed me their hut with not just mud but now cement!!!!! is being mixed in with the mud . To be honest don’t find cement that radical but then I realised maybe  him this was revolutionary to them. The traditional mud hut for hundred of years the same, now changing.

There is a mixture of shopping here, most clothes are hand made, and you buy material and take it to a seamstress. There are some western style clothes with jeans etc. I wonder in five years what people will be wearing.

Ghanaian music was three main categories, Religious music with Allah and Jesus being a main focus. There is always a spiritual message and lots of praising. The Ghanaian ‘R and B’ music had lots of praising too, with ‘big booty girls as the main object of worship. Thirdly my favourite cheesy pop was very popular, west life and Backstreet boys are big. On our way to safari the forty year old driver with a long beard played spice girls again and again to our delight. I’m pleased to say I still know every word of their first album.

Marriage is a really interesting issue for me with when looking at change and their gender roles. It used to be very much the girl had no choice in marriage, but a village woman told me things are changing. A guy asks a girl to marry first, they go on a lot of dates and if she likes him after a year of dating they marry. Apparently this is ‘because of human rights and things’. The traditional marriage gift used to be a special traditional drink but for some reason this has changed to Schnapps, why Schnapps I have no idea but it’s presented to the boy’s family. Same drink we drink in England very different context and way of using it. Has advertising of Schnapps reached even the village psyche?

Change is happening, but I would love to understand the relationship between economic development and cultural change. People were telling me about the fast pace of change and the New Ghana some liked it, some didn’t. What in ten years will Ghana look like?  Is Ghana driving the change or is it outside companies?

Is this the Ghanian dream or the American dream? Most importantly, is it the Ghanaians that are benefiting, or the multi-national companies?

Posted by Lucille ( 10:58 AM )
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Friday Sep 04, 2009

Making a difference?

Telling people I was volunteering in Ghana, I would cringe inwardly. People would inevitably react in one of two ways, both of which made me uncomfortable:  ‘You’re a naive idiot who thinks they can change the world in two months’ or ‘aren’t you fantastic, a wonderful person, so giving’. Neither is true.

The question is why did I go to Ghana? Obviously, I went for a number of reasons, but I certainly didn’t go to Ghana because solely because I wanted to make a difference. If the only reason I was going was to help others then I could have spent the summer in England volunteering and donated the flight money to Ghana.

I’m not saying for a second that I didn’t want to help, but it would be delusional to pretend like it was my only motive. My motives were to learn about development, another culture and have an experience of a different way of living. I wanted to explore the world and have a challenge. As a career in the long run I want to work in NGOs [Non Governmental Organisations] and development so this summer was an experience for learning about the NGO world.

The story I hear from friends again and again is they went to a developing country to make a difference. The reality was they came back frustrated, disappointed and questioning why they went.

The charity I went with ‘Tzedek’ told us again and again making a difference is for when you come home .The time in Ghana is to learn. Ten months volunteering with the charity in England is part of the program.  The charity is almost entirely volunteer run, so they want you to stay involved for a lifetime ideally.

Making a difference in a foreign country isn’t simple; who is some twenty-year-old volunteer to know how to help people they have just met, from a different culture.  The advice we were told on our orientation is, try not to do any harm. The question when volunteering is always, what happens when you leave? Is this action sustainable? Someone gave me some useful advice for volunteering, never presume you know the problem and never presume you know the solution.

Teaching skills to people who do a job is always better that doing things yourself, for example teach the school’s teachers to improve. Rather than working on documents, teach the NGO workers computer skills. Little things make a difference; my proudest moment was with the introduction the magical to do list. A concept my co-workers loved and put proudly on the wall, smiling broadly as they crossed things off. It took me two months to see it might be useful. The problem is that by the time you have settled in and worked out how to help, you leave. Any changes you do make also might not last, I have no idea whether they are still making to do lists, but realism tells me probably not!

At the end of the day it is difficult to know what’s changing another person for the better and even more difficult to actually implement the changes in a sustainable way. Positive change takes time and thought and is difficult to do in two months, not impossible but unlikely.  The only thing for certain that can be meaningfully changed is yourself, in the hope you will be able to give in the long run and in my view that’s a worthwhile and legitimate reason to volunteer abroad.

Posted by Lucille ( 2:28 PM )
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Tuesday Aug 11, 2009

Changing norms

It seems strange to me that it took just three weeks of living away from home for my new surroundings to become 'the norm'. The children shouting 'silly minger' (meaning white person) and the goats and cows who casually roam the streets while the cars politely wait for them. The women carrying loads on their heads ranging from water to kitchen tables.

Every day I work from 8am to 5pm at an NGO The Centre for the initiative against human trafficking (CIAHT) .My work with CIAHT involves visiting rural villages and speaking to victims of trafficking. Yesterday a women with wrinkled skin and brightly patterned clothes told me about her child who ran away because of lack of food. These stories are now as normal to me as the women carrying portable shops on their head.

It's not an uncommon story, trafficking is a massive problem here.  Children run away from home or are taken by traffickers promising a better life than their poverty stricken villages. They arrive in the richer areas of Ghana to become virtual slaves and prostitution often becomes their new existence.

Extreme poverty here is a normal part of life. These stories no longer shock me like they did at first. I, like most others saw poverty through the lens of Oxfam adverts and political statistics. I find it very different seeing the daily details of poverty and meeting real three dimensional people.

While I confront the symptoms of poverty on a daily basis, I am also starting to wonder whether the reactions of the people I meet show a part of the problem. When any Westerner walks down the streets of Tamale the attention they receive is of a celebrity.White skin is so different that some children cry in fear. Sometimes it feels like when people look at you all they see is money.Your status here as a Western person makes you feel a bizarre sense of power.

I treated the reactions of the Ghanian people I met at first as comical. The marriage proposals for the girls have become a daily occurance. It all seemed like such a pantomime,such an illusion. The reality is that I have the money and therefore the power to change these peoples lives. I feel the way we relate to each other as individuals has  parallels with the way our countries relate to each other in terms of power. Power in the world is not equally distributed. I'm starting to see the power and therefore responsibility I have in my living room or in the streets of Tamale its just here its real and measurable.

CIAHT works to prevent trafficking and rehabilitate victims. After a few days of working with CIAHT I was writing a document and needed clarification on the amount of time CIATH provides to victims in terms of counseling . I asked my boss  and the reply was CIAHT provided one hour .He explained there are no facilities for counseling in Tamale and there are no government services at all to  rehabilitate women. I asked my boss if money was the issue could we not train volunteer councilors.This led to my boss researching and the creation of a new organization was suddenly on the agenda!

Three weeks in and I have embarked on a massive research project on what currently exists to rehabilitate victims of trafficking and what we think the new organization should look like. A number of Tzedek volunteers are involved and its early days but its coming together. Its been amazing to meet and speak with numerous government officials and victims of trafficking as part of the project. I do not know where the new research project will lead  but it's exciting.

My whole experience with Tzedek has meant  my way of looking at power and responsibility has changed. Studying politics it was systems and theories, now I link the statistics to individuals. When I go back maybe my life wont be so normal,such a given.

Written by Lucy Newman and edited by Talia Chain.

Posted by Lucille ( 4:49 PM )
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Tuesday Aug 04, 2009

In the office

I work a lot based in the CIAHT office. Its three small dark rooms in a construction site where unemployed men hang out all day. It has no internet and the stained moldy walls are filled with different social issue posters and newspaper clippings of the organizations great work. The employees come and go they are all really friendly. They have comic Ghanaian music videos playing in the background and employees taking naps on the floor is a normal occurrence.

My first task was to look at a  proposal for money from Finland, for a project to find and rehabilitate trafficked women. There was a lot of problems with it and although I was a bit nervous to speak so boldly. I explained it needed (in my opinion) re-writing a better structure and the English was awful. I was a bit unsure, who was I to come into their organisation and give advice? My logic was that If I couldn't understand things , the people in Finland wouldn't either.We re-wrote the whole thing in more detail.

I asked my boss a lot of questions about the project, so I could put the details into the proposal I felt he'd left out. He said they wanted to rescue 150 women from being trafficked ,many would have been forced into prostitution. The organisation then give them economic, medical and emotional rehabilitation. He said that they get one hour with a councilor for the emotional rehabilitation. I was in shock. Just imagine one hour ,then on your way, 'sorry about the ten years of prostitution and abuse but that's all we've got time for, have a nice life!'. I asked why so little and he replied it wasn't ideal but there are no counseling services in Tamale. I suggested they start mutual support with group therapy, or maybe train victims to volunteer as councilors. One of hand comment was turned the next day a step closer to reality as my boss found someone willing to facilitate the support group and do the training for free.

The idea then took shape as a friend suggested that a research project should be done about counseling in Tamale. I didn't know what this was but apparently its before an NGO makes a project of action an in depth study is don't to look at the current situation and what should be done. Talia (a friend on the program) and I are gong to work together on it. It will consist amongst other things of asking what are the counsellings provisions now? Interviewing women to see what they want and suggesting what could be in the future.

My organisation is confident funding can be secured and even wants to start a new organisation for victims of human trafficking! Its really overwhelming and exciting and two months suddenly doesn't seem like enough. Theres too much to be done.

Posted by Lucille ( 2:16 PM )
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Monday Aug 03, 2009

In the villages

After two weeks volunteering in Ghana I have been assigned a really interesting range of tasks by my NGO which is called CIAHT (Centre for initiative against human trafficking)

I have visited rural villages the NGO works with. Compared to urban Tamale (the main city in the north where we live) it's a different world. The villages are my cliche picture of Africa, mud huts and thatch triangle roofs.  When we arrive at a village we must greet the chief , sometimes bring a live animal as a gift.

CIAHT knows that a lot of children have been trafficked from the village so works to address the root of the problem, poverty.(see previous blog for what trafficking is). A  Shea butter farming schemes was set up to give the village a livelihood. We were in the village to see how the scheme was going.The results weren't good. Snakes biting them as they farmed it, the market was to far away to sell it the list ran on. It was my job after returning to the office to write up a report on the day, CIAHT will work with them to overcome the problems.
 
It makes you realize a development project is successful  because of the detail. An example we were told was the well meaning UN gave thousands of mosquito nets to Ghana.The problem was they were red, which in Ghana means death so no one would use them. We are all seeing the difficulty of translating well meaning intentions into successful results rather than often doing more damage.

The next day I went with an NGO from Holland and my NGO to another rural village. We were there to review a school feeding program . The community was taught farming skills,they then made food which was sold to the school for the lunches. The hungry children got lunch and the unemployed  parents got a job! I liked seeing how my NGO was working with bigger organization. My NGO based in Ghana, were working with the village community with money from Holland. It seemed like a good model.

The village reaction to me was a bit overwhelming. I made little children cry as they were so scared ,by this white person! Every pair of eyes fixed on my white skin I could feel them scanning my every detail. Children would brush my arm as if to see if the white came of on their hand, like a paint.

I also got some really uncomfortable questions. One older lady with colorful clothes and a baby wrapped on her thin back asked me why it was I was rich and they were poor? I didn't really have anything to say. Another women without malice or venom asked if I pitied them. I wasn't really sure if they wanted my pity or not,so I told the truth. Their economic situation did make me feel very sad for them. I was also  true i was in awe of their warmth, hospitality, constant jokes and laughter in spite of their poverty. I loved their colorful clothes and their community and deep spirituality. I realized after, it made have been a bit offensive. 'Sorry you're so poor you can't afford food and your children are in slavery  guys, but by the way, I love your dress!' I'm still thinking about it am not sure. They seemed so amazingly happy and free. I have no idea whether this is human natures response to suffering, I have no idea what they really feel before they go to bed at night but they seemed so happy. They seemed much happier that the average person in Britain. Maybe the whole rich in other ways thing is a true cliche.Maybe not maybe you can never  be truly happy in poverty. I have no idea.

On they way back from the village in the land rover, the brown dirt roads were like an awful roller coaster. All the Ghanaians in my NGO were quite chilled, fine ,relaxed. I closed my eyes in discomfort thinking of never again taking the miracle that is smooth tarmac for granted. A minute later to the amazement of my colleges, I was retching by the roadside, my breakfast decorating the road. Being in Ghana sometimes makes us all feel very weak, the Ghanaians seem so tough in comparison. From the village to the road, being in Ghana I have definitely left my comfort zone.

Posted by Lucille ( 8:57 AM )
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Monday Jul 27, 2009

The power of one

Volunteering and traveling obviously opens your eyes to different things. The biggest thing I keep feeling is the power of one person to change things. We met Molli from New York, now in her thirties. She volunteered in her twenties and saw need for the diagnosis of autism in Ghana. She then started her own NGO, single handedly and currently helps people starting their own NGO's. An American women in the market queue in front of me I randomly met, with blond platted hair that couldn't have been more then twenty started an NGO  for little girls to get an education. They make social change seem so within reach.

The people making a difference aren't just foreigners. I sat waiting with my co-worker (as its Ghana and waiting is a big part of life!) I asked him about how he came to work at the NGO. He told me his story. Born to Sixteen brothers and sisters, with a father with many wives and children and little money. His mother didn't encourage him and his siblings didn't go, but for some reason he wanted to go to school. There was the obvious problem, money, but he told me that as a little boy did laboring work to earn his schooling. He then worked this way through university. At university he attended lectures that started at 6.30 in the morning (but to get a seat you needed to arrive at 4.30 am as the 300 capacity lecture hall was filled with 700 people).The lectures lasted six hours with a five minute break, people regularly collapsed from heat and hunger. I couldn't relate it to my lectures at Manchester with the awful levels of attendance and student apathy. He is now working in the NGO to change society. He was so softly spoken and humble and didn't seem to feel any great significance to the story, barely worth mentioning. It was a normal one apparently. The normalcy shocked me more than the story itself.

Ghana is full of NGOs and volunteers trying to make a difference. It's a mixture of empowering and dis- empowering and overwhelming  to be here so far. It seems like theres so much work being done by amazing people and organizations to improve things, but looking around walking in the street, there's just so much injustice that needs to be changed.

Posted by Lucille ( 8:56 AM )
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Monday Jul 20, 2009

Volunteering in an NGO

In Tamale our new home, the group of 16 of us here with Tzedek live in two houses and have placements. We have teachers, nurses and NGO workers. I'm working in an NGO, a Non governmental Organization which works to combat Human trafficking.

Human trafficking (something which before arriving here I knew little about) is a form of modern day slavery. Children and young adults are sold from their homes in rural villagers to traffickers. The traffickers target the poor uneducated rural north. They tell them if they sell them their children they will find them good jobs in the prosperous south. This is a lie. The reality is they are made to work but receive little money .They live in diabolical conditions and are often forced into prostitution and  develop AIDS. They are taken to the South of Ghana for example Accra, or the neighboring countries. There they enslaved until old age. I spent a day at my placement in utter shock. I couldn't compare my world in England to this story from some horror movie. There  are communities so poor that selling their children seems like the best thing for the child. It was a bit too much to handle, I couldn't begin to react.

The Center for the prevention of Human trafficking works to address the root of the problem lack of education and poverty. They visit the rural villagers to educate them .They also try and help the villagers develop skills so they can earn a livelihood and therefore not need to sell their children.

The NGO also helps to track down the traffickers. On my first day my boss after being absent all morning, showed me an article about an arrest of two Nigerian traffickers in the capital of Ghana. He had reported them to the police and helped with their arrest. He sincerely apologized for missing my first day .I had to laugh at his apology I told him I thought it was fine, he was doing something ever so slightly more important than greeting me.

I work in the NGO five days a week, but the staff work seven days every day of the week! We work from eight to five with a lunch break. While the electricity does work my first job has been to edit a proposal for a grant for money from an overseas donor. Its really interesting to learn how an NGO works and be part of it. Working in the NGO is different that other offices. The electricity cuts out every now and again. Just like that the computer monitor turns off and we have to wait until who knows when. The first time it happened the shock on my face obviously showed .'Its Africa' laughed my co-worker, 'get used to it!

Posted by Lucille ( 9:17 AM )
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Monday Jul 13, 2009

Rabbits in headlights

Stepping of the plane and queuing in the humid airport, the first signs of the social issues in Ghana were visible. The sign on the Airport wall read clearly: "Visitors are warmly welcomed but paedophilia is illegal in Ghana and anyone coming for illegal sex is not welcome".

The passengers (a mix of Ghanaian people dressed in bright prints and cliché travellers wearing the obligatory 'individual uniform' of baggy clothes and bracelets) walked through to  went to collect their bags.

Our first experiences in Accra were quite comic as we were like rabbits in headlights. The women carrying heavy loads were fantastic (the novelty has since worn off). The sewage running down the streets and the people sleeping rough made me feel far from home.

Ghana is very religious and it's visible in the streets. Everywhere comic shop names with God in the title make me laugh for example' God is with you hair Salon' and 'grace and glory cold store'.

The 14 hour bus ride from Accra to Tamale, which is where the 16 of us will be volunteering for 2 months was great fun. We watched Ghana change from the urban city of Accra to rural villages with traditional mud huts in mountain settings. The loo stops were an experience in themselves. Our toilet experiences ranged from a hole in the ground [which we were charged to use] to a kind of communal drain. I will never take a toilet seat for granted again they are wonderful creations that make me very happy.

Tamale, our new home for two months is quieter and the poorest part of Ghana. The poverty is very visible in big and little ways, from shoeless children to lack of infastructure. As much as the poverty has impacted me the friendliness also is so overwhelming.  The way that every person greets you in the street and smiles really makes you feel welcome .The little children mesmerized by our strange white skin enthusiastically greet us with 'silly minger' meaning white person. Apparently its 'dugbani' a local language but I'm sure some joker tourists must have started a trend.

We have been in Tamale for a week and a thing I am still adjusting to is the contrasting view of time in Ghana. They are very laid back, for example, a meeting scheduled for two can be attended at four. Life in general is much slower (including the internet of the computer I am currently writing on in a local internet cafe) .Talking to a Ghanaian man whilst I was waiting for someone (who was late, surprise, surprise), he mocked the western view of time. 'Time is money' to you he chuckled at this laughable concept. I see him sitting on that bench every day, doing as I can see nothing with his time. I'm not sure why.

Posted by Lucille ( 11:21 AM )
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Tuesday Jun 23, 2009

Will I miss tomato ketchup?

I am Lucille, a politics student at Manchester University. I am volunteering in Ghana for two months with Tzedek - a Jewish charity which works abroad, regardless of race or religion, providing direct support to help local people, so that they can help themselves.

I'm going in under two weeks and currently I'm preparing for my trip. I got this email from my friend Josh and thought it was worth sharing. I don't think they included this advice in the Brandt guide to Ghana I was reading on the train to Leicester today:

Dear Lucy

By now you will have been blasted with ideas, suggestions, rules, regulations and requests.  Much of it is very important and valuable; a whole load of it is just crap. Based on my trip to Vanuatu I offer you the following...

1. People will make judgments about you based on the colour of your skin - never take it personally.

2.Learn the local language early or at least key words

3. Get 'British presents' to give to people at the end of your stay

4.Use silver foil to cover your dishes when you cannot be bothered to wash up

5. Write a diary – even if it just activities with no thoughts or feelings. Do catch up if you get a week behind it will be worth it

6.Write a full A4 list of reasons you are volunteering in Ghana this summer– keep it secret

7.  Before you go write down a list of what you expect to miss and then during your time away what you actually miss. (interesting afterwards)

8. Don't get too upset if you can't read all the books you planned on reading

9.  Keep a recipe book of all the weird foods you make and Keep a quotes page

10.50 amazing photos that are well thought out are better than 500. No one wants to sit through 500

11. Have loads of plasters – they are amazing for fixing holes in mosquito nets

12. Try local food even if it looks nasty

13. Enjoy every day and don't feel pity for local people.

14. Do sketching!

15. Use the postal service rather than pay excess luggage when you want to bring loads of cool stuff home. Pay it even if it is loads it will be worth it in the end. Surface mail doesn't actually take 2 months.

16. Mantra: It could be worse

17. You can't save the world and you are not a selfish colonialist for going to Africa to try

I have been asking lots of friends post- gap years in Africa for advice on what it like to live in Africa.  Their responses were surprising and always interestingly detailed. Apparently in Africa, I'm going to look forward to having clean feet, something I have previously thought very little about. (As however much I shower my feet, I will still feel dirty) Apparently, I will be missing tomato ketchup and other random food items. They all say Volunteering in Africa was the most difficult and rewarding they have ever done. It feels strange for me, sitting in my PJ's on my comfy sofa in suburban Leicester, with my mug of tea, in a week I will be far from my world. These descriptions will be my real experiences and no longer just 'apparently'.  (But apparently it's normal to be a bit nervous too!)

 

Posted by Lucille ( 11:13 AM )
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