Ghana 2017

Ghana 2017 ❤
Returned home with the fullest of hearts and most incredible memories after the best adventure in Ghana with PMGY. Although there were times which were challenging, even heart-breaking, I was so fortunate to be surrounded by the absolute best group of people and any hard day always ended in laughter.
Ghana is the most beautiful country, full of culture and natural wonders. Sitting under a waterfall or being charged at by an elephant, moments like those are once in a lifetime, heart stopping, jaw dropping experiences that will stay with me forever and the biggest thanks to Seth for taking us on the best weekend to Mole so we could encounter sooo many cool things!! The native people are so friendly, everybody wants to be your friend and give you their number. If ever lost or in trouble, there were so many people that wanted to help and there was never a moment I felt unsafe.
My trip was made by the life changing teaching project I was working on. I’ve fallen in love with Divine International School and the amazing students and staff I had the privilege of meeting and working with (Madame Florence being one of the most incredible women I have ever met) and not a day will pass when I won’t think about those children, who were so full of light and energy in the face of adversity. A highlight of the entire trip was teaching a class of 10 year olds ‘Oh When the Saints’, a song I sang with my friends at Primary school and hearing them sing it around school, put their own native dance to it, even turn it into a skipping song!! The abundance of joy the children had was mesmerizing. Many lived in the slums that could be seen outside of my classroom window, were without a parent, or both parents and lived in absolute poverty - no bed to sleep on, many came to school without having eaten any food that day, children as young as 9 working on the streets to pay school fees, yet in the classroom singing and dancing it would be hard to believe these children lived a life of any pain or suffering. The sponsorship programme that we have started to formulate will hopefully enable some of these wonderful children, who are in most need of support, to keep attending the school, to give them a safe place to be a child who loves to sing, dance and play and equip them with the necessary qualifications and education to leave school with better, fuller prospects for their future.
Thanks to my time in Ghana I have such an extended appreciation for life, how fortunate we are to have been born into a society of free education, health care and security, our sewage runs underground, our taps run with safe water, power cuts are a rarity. We mourn the loss of a child dying and celebrate births free of fear the baby may not live past the age of 2. There is so much hope for countries like Ghana, abundant in natural resources, with large workforces and a population longing for prosperity and with my whole heart I hope that one day children will have lives as provided for as ours in the developed world.
The biggest thanks ever to Seth for being the coolest bro, keeping us safe and going above and beyond for me when I most needed it and to the other volunteers. To go to a completely different part of the world and meet the coolest people who I feel like I’ve known forever, was unreal and I’m gonna miss them all and this amazing experience, so so much