I had started telling my kids about the coming exams three weeks in advance. Nevertheless they all looked at me with wide-eyed astonishment on the said Friday before the begin of the examinations: “Next week? Ah Madame!” It wasn’t entirely their fault. The wet season had started and the torrential rains poured down more frequently […]
Category Archives: Volunteering
Coming to Ghana to teach in a primary school was like being thrown in at the deep end – in two different respects. First, I had never taught school kids before. Second, it was my first visit to Ghana (not to say to an African country altogether), so I also had to cope with a […]
It’s 8:30 am, Monday morning. I walk towards my class, eight kids sitting on benches, their pens and notebooks in front of them on a wooden table – well, it should be eight, but Shawn is missing: He takes every opportunity to climb up into the Mango trees and plug the green, small fruits (although […]
Water in Ghana is scare. Despite plenty of natural water resources, large parts of Ghana’s population still don’t have access to clean water and everywhere in the country you’ll see men, women and kids carrying water home, balancing the huge plastic bowls on their heads. The factors leading to this situation are diverse: Often the pipes meant […]
I’m sitting underneath a mango tree on a wooden bench, sweating in the humid, tropical heat of Ghana, in a small rural neighborhood at the outskirts of Accra. Next to me at the table are sitting four kids in partly worn-out school uniforms, two boys and two girls, between 8 and 13 years old, watching […]
Volunteering remains a controversial issue and there are no final answers or solutions to the numerous well justified concerns. This is, however, no reason to dismiss the whole thing altogether. If we approach volunteering with the necessary humbleness, self-reflexivity and openness, it can be a great way to learn, to exchange ideas and skills, and […]
I am here to suggest that you voluntarily renounce exercising the power which being an American gives you. I am here to entreat you to freely, consciously and humbly give up the legal right you have to impose your benevolence on Mexico. I am here to challenge you to recognize your inability, your powerlessness and […]
