Volunteers traveling to Africa with Operation Crossroads Africa
Originally Posted June 2011
I am on my way to Ghana! A two-month volunteer summer trip; an experience of a lifetime!
The organization I’m traveling with is Operations Crossroads Africa, the progenitor of the Peace Corps. During this trip, I will be volunteering and of course working on my photography portfolio. We will be working with elementary schooled children in Cape Coast, Ghana, teaching them and helping to build a (better) school for them. Besides that, we will also get to experience hands on the culture while living with Ghanaians.
There is a group of 9 other very diverse people I will be living with for the next month and a half. There are two males from West Point Military Academy in New York, one female from Canada, one female from Texas, a female from New York, one female raised in North Carolina but resides in Atlanta, one female from Wisconsin, and one male from South Carolina. We started out meeting each other at Adelphi University in Long Island, NY for a two-day orientation to prepare us for our trip. At this orientation, I met the other 40 or so people that are traveling as well. There are 5 trips: Gambia, Kenya, Northern Ghana, Central Ghana, and Southern Ghana (my group), each consisting of no more than 10 people. They are all truly amazing, kind, and open-minded intellectuals, all determined, ready to travel and make a difference!
This trip is definitely going to be life changing, as we are living with the people we just met two days ago and living outside of our usual comfort zones. But as communication is the key to successful living, my group seems to have no problem with that, thankfully!
I am superbly excited to be making a difference in my international community, extending my network of extended family members, growing and learning about myself, along with growing my “resume” of places I’ve traveled to in the world. 🙂
We depart for Accra, Ghana (the capital) tonight via Delta airlines at 9:30 pm. Throughout the time, I will be updating you on my experiences.
Until then…
Peace!