Children of Africa: Anloga, Ghana

This summer, I travelled with Global Leadership Adventures to Anloga, Ghana with the Children of Africa program. It was honestly the most amazing experience I've ever had. What made the program so great was the perfect balance between service, cultural learning, reflection, and free time. In the mornings, we would break into our two "mentor groups" and visit separate schools. There, we made bricks that would go towards building a new classroom for kindergarteners and we also taught the students. Teaching was a completely new experience for me. We taught the same class of students everyday which was helpful because we were able to begin building relationships with them. It was difficult at first to figure out how to approach it, but we were all partnered with another GLA student, so we learned how to work together. The teaching was definitely one of my favorite things that we got to do in Ghana. In the afternoons, we did different activities everyday. Sometimes we visited local chiefs, or went shopping in street markets. We bought traditional fabric and had extremely talented seamstresses sew clothing for us. Other times, we had leadership workshops lead by the mentors that helped us reflect on our activities. When we had free time, there was no shortage of fun to be had with the local children who came running from school to hang out with us. The GLA staff was incredible and they were always there when we needed them. There was no time where I felt unsafe in Ghana. It was very cool to have Ghanaian staff working on the program because it gave us more of an inside view. Overall, this experience inspired me to learn more about global issues and different cultures around the world. Everyone we met was extremely welcoming and glad we were there to experience Ghana.