Ghana Reflections: what we did & what I learned

Coming to America.

No matter when you visit New York City, Times Square is an overwhelming spectacle. Skyscrapers, lights and sounds, great (expensive) food and restaurants, and a sea of people each engrossed in their own world. As I passed through Times Square walking from Penn Station to Grand Central last Sunday, I felt worlds away from Ghana. I spent the one hour train ride back to West Point reflecting on what our team did this summer, and what I learned along the way.

What we did.

Seven weeks in Ghana allowed our team to support a local non-governmental organization, Madamfo Pa, by teaching in the local schools, doing construction work to help build a library for the community, and sewing quilts that Madamfo Pa would sell for funds to support their projects.

During the first couple of weeks our team observed where best we could serve. I found my niche teaching grades 1-3 in the local school. With no formal training as a teacher, my greatest contribution was simply to encourage the children to love learning and enjoy school. Ghana's cities are developing rapidly, but the education system will prove inadequate if the rural areas don't keep pace in terms of education. Our team's parting gift to the village's primary school was a mural of the world painted on the side of the school building.

One of the summer's highlights was the Crossroads Cup, a soccer tournament our group organized for the community. Six teams from different villages participated in the event, and hundreds came to watch the action. It was a great exercise for me in terms of working with community leaders. I outlined our vision for the tournament, and the head-teacher took it from there, putting together a successful event.

The Crossroads Cup Penalty Kick Shootout
Marfokrom, Ghana

As a group we worked to educate the community at large on sanitation and health. In our final days in the village we donated trash cans and talked to the local leaders about the importance of disposing of waste in environmentally friendly ways. Ghana, like much of Africa, has a trash problem. Streets, neighborhoods, and almost every public area is littered with waste from water satchels to food wrappers. It will take years to clean up the country, but in the village of Marfokrom small steps of progress are being made.

A few of us branched out in other ways, too. One afternoon I taught one of the children how to use Microsoft Word at the nearest internet cafe, and at church one Sunday I had the chance to speak at a local church service with the support of a translator. Soccer proved to be my most effective means of making friends (with ping pong a close second), as I coached a team at recess, helped organize the soccer tournament, watched a professional match in Kumasi, and played for the local team in a tournament.

And, of course, we travelled. We spent a weekend in Kumasi experiencing West Africa's largest market, a weekend in Cape Coast re-tracing President Obama's footsteps and visiting Africa's oldest European built castle, and a few final days on the beach.

Along the way I ate goat and banku, got around in tro-tros, received treatment through Ghana's universal healthcare system, learned some 'Twi', and even gave a sworn statement in a local police station. The seven weeks went by all too fast.

Our team's last dinner in Accra.

What we learned.

When you live in a village where the richest still make less than $1.50 a day, you learn a lot about poverty, life, and what's truly important. The lessons that we learned are many, but a few stand out above the rest.

First, Africa - and Ghana in particular - is a rich country. Despite the oil and resources, the country is not rich economically; the majority of their citizens make well less than $2 a day, and corruption creates a headache for a national economy with unlimited potential. Even so, Ghana is rich in hospitality, and its people are rich in their zeal for life, community, and God. After spending five minutes with a Ghanaian I would typically conclude that they're much better off than most Americans, as most Americans would surely envy their contentedness, value of family and friendships, and humility.

Fun with rocks: "San San Kro Ma"

Spending time in the school we learned that the problems with education in Ghana are mainly institutional. Despite the promise that the children show, their potential is unlikely to ever be met without teachers who are better trained and better paid.

As a group we also learned about each other. A group of nine foreigners working with five Ghanaian counterparts, we learned how to adapt to difficult living conditions, budget and plan an operation according to the group's mission, and overcome challenges we faced through group conflicts, individuals leaving the group early, and sicknesses. After seven weeks together, the people who were strangers to me in June now feel like family.

We learned how to carry water on our heads, how to cook meals over an open fire, how to wash our clothes by hand, and how to shower with just a bucket of water. And perhaps best of all, we learned how to make much of little, use minimal resources for great undertakings, and become a part of a true community where life is public and possessions, joys, and hardships are shared.

It was a summer I hope to never forget, and a part of the world I look forward to returning to some day. Thanks for reading.

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The best of the summer's pictures

All 600+ pics on Flickr

Our Living Conditions

Bucket showers, cooking over an open fire, mosquito nets... this is the way we live. Our 'compound' is a quarter mile down the road from the village of Marfokrom, the community in which we teach. So far we've established collectively that the compound isn't as nice as the hotels we've opted to stay in during our weekend escapes; nor is it malaria-proof, as multiple members of our team have been side-lined with malaria-related illnesses (maybe myself included, though the nightly 103 degree fevers have gone away thanks to antibiotics).

A few small inconveniences notwithstanding, our living conditions still far exceed those of the children we work with. Keeping this in mind helps most of us keep the complaining to a minimum. Some of the nuances of village life in Africa are worth explaining:

The bucket shower was surprisingly easy to get used to. The picture displays all of the necessary equipment needed to indulge in one of these cleaning rituals: a bucket full of water and a smaller bucket or bowl. The idea is to recycle whatever water you can over the course of the bath. Starting with your hair, you wash yourself over the bucket, reusing much of the then soapy water for arms, legs, etc. The girls with longer hair definitely have it the worst.

Cooking over an open fire has been an adventure for all of us. After four girls on our team went to the hospital with food poisoning caused by improper cooking a few weeks ago, we've taken the practice quite seriously. We cook our meals on what the locals call a "kropot," taking turns sharing the duties. The first picture shows Solomon, one of our local counterparts, helping me prepare omelets for the group a few days ago.

Mosquitoes feed at night, which makes sleeping under a mosquito net imperative. This picture of the mat I've slept on all summer captures the essence of my bedroom. It's not memory foam, but it gets the job done.

Ghanaian Ping-Pong

I've learned that playing table-tennis here is a good way to make friends, earn trust, and learn about Ghanaian culture. But it's not quite the same as it is back home.

In Michigan, I have a ping-pong table in my basement. It's a beautiful table with hardly a scratch on the surface. Our paddles are well kept, and if they ever started to tear I used to drive out to a local sports store to replace them with the new, cool, professional-style paddles. My basement's floor is also flat.

Over here in Ghana - where I'm convinced that 'table tennis' (not ping-pong) is the second most popular sport behind soccer - the playing conditions and equipment are a bit different. The table wasn't bought, but built. The paddles, some of which are wrapped in black electric tape, have been used for an endless number of hours on every day that it hasn't rained (and on some that it has) for over a year. And the wooden surface (rotted and slanted in some corners) sits upon a slight hill next to the main road through the village, requiring players to alternate sides at the end of the first game, and halfway through the third game, to be fair.


Over the course of the last few weeks, I've played more than a hundred games of table tennis, and count each of the more than 20 competitors I've faced as a new friend. Initially, most were surprised to learn that the 'obruni' knew how to play the game at all. But after watching me win more than I tend to lose, and do it with a smile and a handshake after each match, the guys in the village now count me as a respectable opponent.

Because of the emphasis on community, trust and integrity are the backbone of a Ghanaian's reputation. Playing table tennis allows me to prove my value of fair play, honesty (did the ball hit the side or top of the table?), and integrity over time.

And the greatest part of it all? The players are incredible. Playing in basement ping-pong tournaments back in the day prepared me somewhat for the talent pool here. But, for better or worse, while American children are studying, riding bikes, going to organized sports practices and dance recitals and heading off to the mall, the children in Marfokrom (who aren't playing soccer) are playing table tennis. This accounts for why it took me over a week to beat the 12 year old boys here, and why I'm just now getting good enough to win consistently with some of my peers.

The Crossroads Cup

While the arrival of President Barack Obama to Ghana may have been the primary focus of most Ghanaians last Friday, the Crossroads Cup was the main event in Marfokrom. The Crossroads Cup was a "football gala competition" (or, as we put it more simply in the U.S., 'tournament'). The event was a smashing success, despite the consistent rainfall throughout the day (reminiscent of the Midland Invitational Tournament back home) and the home team's heartbreaking second place finish.

The planning process stole most of my attention on Monday and Tuesday, as we invited six teams from local village primary schools to participate in the event held on Marfo's pitch. Tuesday we met to discuss rules, prizes, and 'balloting' with the school headmasters and the coaches. I explained the organization of the tournament: two groups of three, winners play for the silver Crossroads Cup, second place in each group play for 3rd place. A total of eight matches would be played starting at 11am. We agreed on 20 minute halves, a 36kg 'weight limit' for players (weighed before the matches), and that every team would get a prize for participating, while the winners received footballs and the cup. After the intense meeting came to a close, the men balloted for which group their schools would compete in, and left to inform their players to start training.

Friday morning school was canceled in Marfokrom for the event. The kids made final touches to the field with their machetes, built a shelter using bamboo and palm leaves for us to sit under, and put the nets on the goals. Meanwhile we tied the banner that our group painted to bushes next to the main entrance. All was ready for the arrival of the players and the opening kickoff.

Once the tournament itself was underway for a few minutes, I got goosebumps for the first time since my arrival here. Making this soccer tournament a reality for this community was one of the most rewarding things I have ever been part of. The games were close, the kids were soaking wet but still excited, and the spectators were so jittery that they encroached well onto the field from all sides.


On the sidelines, children beat drums and sang chants as the home team played its matches. The adults yelled out Cedi (dollar) amounts to the players, essentially offering bribes for the first goal, and yelled in the tribal language. By midday, the entire community and many members from the surrounding villages had shown up to the field to watch.

Fortunately for the spectacle, the home team emerged as the winner of the first group, which put them in the final match. The finish could have been taken right out of a movie's script, as a 0-0 tie forced the teams to resolve the match in a penalty shoot-out. With hundreds surrounding the goal and the 10-12 year old players, the shoot-out was quite the scene. Unfortunately, the home side lost, forcing us to let another village's team hoist the cup we purchased as the first prize.

Hugs, tears, high fives, smiles, and thank-yous were all shared with us as the prizes were presented. These kids aren't likely to ever make it to play on the world's stage with Ghana's great football heroes. But thanks to the Crossroads Cup, these kids had a chance to experience the thrill of competition to its fullest in Marfokrom on Friday, just like I did in the 'glory days' in Petoskey, Midland, and Ann Arbor.