Friday, January 10, 2014

New Year, New Goals, Same Amount of Sweat

With the coming of the new year I have passed my halfway point of my time in Ghana and I took the opportunity to reassess what I am doing here, what I have accomplished, and goals I need to get started on before my time runs out.  As an aside, I haven’t made nearly a many blog posts as I would like, so readers: get ready for a whirlwind. 
            All of the volunteers who were here when I arrived have left, making me the (self-appointed) veteran of the group and putting me in a position with slightly more freedom to make my own mark on the orphanage (just like everyone else).  I find I have an easy time totaling the cash I have given, directly or in the form of goods, and seeing the dollar amount as my total contribution as a volunteer.  While this may earn me a pat on the back, giving money wasn’t the reason I came here, I could have done that just as easily from my couch back home. I came here, among other reasons to share knowledge, build relationships, bring joy, and lend time and energy and while material possessions and money are both clearly needed, I would prefer not to have ‘stuff and things’ left as my legacy. 
            With this goal in mind, I plan to take my last couple of months here and teach English and Math in the school for grades 3, 4, and 5.  I hope by helping to improve these skills, I can give the kids lasting knowledge which will continue to help them throughout their lives, and enrich the lives of those around them.  Our kids can all communicate well and speak fluent English, but I hope to work on basic grammar skills, tenses, and verb conjugation to help their speech and writing become more cohesive.  I am looking forwards to this next job in my volunteering quite a bit and am hoping it will bring the bit of fulfillment I have been trying for lately. 
            Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or would like for me to write abut any specific topics for my posts let me know!
Stay warm, everyone!


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