Having looked at a number of organisations, I stumbled across a report written by a former volunteer on the Africa Trust website and it really spoke to me, so much that I thought, “this is the one for me!” The Trust offered projects in a number of countries in West Africa but I decided to apply for Mali, as it is a French speaking country, to tie in with my degree in French and Marketing. I was successful in my interview at the end of March, which meant that all I had to do was concentrate on my finals and the small matter of raising £3,250 to cover the costs and project money needed for the six months.

This was not an easy task. However, with a lot of letters, a few generous contacts and some perseverance and a little patience, my efforts were rewarded. I managed to obtain the full amount required by the Trust, plus an additional amount, which would be added to the monies designated for the projects with which we would become involved.

Of course, nothing is quite that simple. Just before Christmas, I learned that it was no longer possible for me to go to Mali due to some accommodation problems that the Trust were having out there. This really threw me and when the Trust offered me a place on the team going to Ghana, I didn’t know what to do. Reluctantly, I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be going to a Francophone country but I clung to my original objective of trying to offer myself in the hope of making a difference and so I prepared for Ghana.

However much you read, whatever people tell you and no matter what ideas you already hold, nothing can prepare you for the experience of living in a country such as Ghana. In a way, reading this report is a bit like looking through somebody else’s photos. You can see what it is like and imagine and almost pretend you were there but unless you actually go and experience it, there will always be that vital dimension that remains unknown. Obviously, every individual experiences life in their own personal way, so I will attempt to detail my experiences as fully as possible to give you a good idea of what it really was like.

I am willing to bet that when I told a lot of people that I was going out to Africa, images of starving children with pot bellies and flies all around sprung to mind, maybe mixed with a war zone and a lot of need for aid. I should perhaps admit that this media-perpetuated image of the continent is quite a difficult one to shake off and if I am really honest, there was something about this need for help, which attracted me in the first place.

Having lived with and among the people of Dunkwa-on–Offin, an old mining town in the Central region of Ghana, for the past six months, I can tell you that whilst there was an obvious disparity in our material wealth, the people are the most generous spirited people you could hope to meet.

Many aspects of life were different for us. We had to get used to boiling and filtering all our water instead of just being able to turn on the tap. We always had cold showers on a morning – providing that there was water at all. The range of food available to us did not extend as widely as you might find at your local Sainsbury’s, but we had enough to eat and it was good. There wasn’t always electricity, but we had fun using candles to light our way. There were no cinemas or other places to go to be entertained, though we had lots of time to appreciate the art of conversation and catch up on all the books we never usually had time to read. The things we missed were material and yet we gained so much more by not having them to clutter our lives.
The children in particular treated us like celebrities. They were always chanting their famous rhymes, “Oh Boronyi how are you? I am fine, thank you!” They didn’t even await our response and it wouldn’t be unusual for us to be asked several times by the same children, it was just their way of trying to be our friends. They would also permanently pester you for your address – collecting Boronyi addresses seemingly is a highly competitive activity! In fact, the adults were just the same – it would be impossible to just “nip to the shops” – the normally five minute journey might take twenty minutes as greeting people is very important in Ghanaian culture and being the only white people around, we were easily spotted from quite a long way off (I am sure the children had special radar!)