vvocf education fund

17 June 2008
Sphe and Nhlanhla helped me learn some more Zulu today with even more Swahili similarities coming to light. The Bantu peoples spread from central to east and south Africa, thankfully they kept the same language structure and vocabulary similarities.

Today we began the VVOCF Education Fund! We had the idea of collecting the 5 cent pieces that everyone throws on the ground to be collected and used as a way to provide educational scholarships for the VVOCF students. The four teams will have a competition with the winner getting some prize determined later - the students in secondary will be able to apply for the scholarship later. This will be a way for the children to invest in their own education while providing ground to approach other investors overseas or in more wealthy neighborhoods/ SA businesses. Funding cannot solely come from the outside so this is a great start. "Our future is in our hands" education campaign begins today!

The on-the-ground of running a project and NPO is exciting and a great experience for me to see to be able to find out how SCOUT BANANA can be most helpful to our own projects later. Linking education with health development will be important. Giving youth a voice in-country is just as important as giving developed youth a voice to help other youth.

when in ghana

This is just a brief note before I leave Ghana from my six week study program. Our group is leaving for the airport in less than an hour and the despicable aspect of time and its restrictions have come to hit me full in the face. While in Ghana you come to forget about the importance of time - nothing is too fast (some would say that everything is too slow), there is no defined tiem to meet or eat or finish, everything is done as it comes and finished in whatever time it takes. This I have come to love and I dread the jump back into the society of extreme time management. I stopped wearing my watch 4 weeks ago and I stop asking for the time. I do things when they present themselves and never do I rush.

I have learned a lot in Ghana, not so much about myself, but more about other people and the way the world works. More importantly I have been able to think about and study how the world should work (obviously my opinion). I have loved my time here, but I do not want anyone to think that it is over. I will be back someday and I stil have much to write about related to Ghana, when I return. One of the most painful things that I have learned in Ghana is that here sunscreen doesn't work. No matter how many times I apply SPF 50 to my body, especially my nose, I get a nice burn and peel. Sunscreen just has no place in Ghana - I would hate to think what would happen if I just didn't wear any at all - I might have lost a limb.

At any rate this is goodbye for now from Ghana. I will resume with the regularly scheduled blogging about when I am not in Africa as soon as I get a nice long night's sleep, some Mexican style food, and a tall glass of cold cow's milk with a box of cheez-its. America here I come, you'd better be ready. Be sure to check back for some awesome videos of traditional drum and dance and other interesting thoughts on issues. I am sure I will have some interesting reflections on being back in the US after a month and a half in Ghana.

Signing off from Accra, Ghana. . .

Index of blog post series on Ghana.