Building Healthy Villages

I had the time of my life in Ghana this summer building an eco-compost toilet for one of the local villages! I came home wanting to go back and I truly miss it every day. The lively spirit and the welcoming nature brought a smile to my face every single day that I was there and I made the most incredible friends of whom I still talk to all the time! If I could have spent my entire summer in Ghana I definetely would have and I hope to return next summer, as do some of the students from my trip! Everywere you go when you leave the home base you recieve warm welcomes and I have never felt so happy to be somewhere. I found wholesome comfort in a situation where I least expected it and I truly wake up every morning wanting to be back. We learned the local language there, "Ewe" and picked it up pretty fast so that we could communicate with all of the kids and people outside the village, which I thought was so important. Coming back to America and knowing the basics of Ewe after two weeks felt incredible and I was so excted to teach some of it to my family. The part of this trip that meant the most to me though was how much I was contributing to a community. You get to meet the people and play with the kids of which will be benefitted by his toilet for decades. I think before going on this trip I knew that public health was a huge issue, but seeing it firsthand absolutely changed my life and I plan to actually study public health and work on projects similar to this in my future. This was the most incedible experience of my life and everyone around me can see the change it made in my life. I hope everyone who is considering going on this trip next year goes for it- you'll be so happy you did!