My Recent Distings.

Global Youth Service Day, 15th April 2011

Today the youth in my community helped celebrate and contribute to the largest service event in the world, Global Youth Service Day.

With the willingness of over 100 kids, double the amount of helpful hands, and two trash buckets, we set out to clean up the market as our service activity. For one hour, we walked around market picking up all the loose rubbish, including hundreds of pure water sachets, maybe even more polytin bags, and whatever else we could get our hands on. Tingbani followed the large mass of school kids as the ‘fireman’, lighting the numerous trash piles on fire. The market looked great after all their hard work and the market women even made comments to the kids about the great work they were doing and they also helped add their trash to the burning piles.

After we finished the service aspect of the event, we gathered back at the primary school to celebrate with some fun games and prizes. The kids split into classes to participate in various activities. The Kindergarden kids played the bucket fill race; they carried small cups of water on their heads while racing to fill a bigger bucket at the other end. It was one of the most adorable things, and the older kids definitely had a good laugh watching the small kids spilling water everywhere. Next up the P1, P2 and P3 kids played ‘The Bozo Bucket Toss’, and a few students got the homemade bean-filled sock ball into the last tiny bucket! Next race: Wheelbarrow! The P4, P5, and P6 kids learned the wheelbarrow race and wheeled their way down and back in between many laughter spills. Finally, the entire group played a big game of Sharks and Minnows. It was so fun to watch these kids having a blast, earning fun little prizes (stickers, suckers, pencils) to reward their hard work cleaning up their community!


Soak-Away Pit Construction


Construction of soak-away pits is underway around Kulkpong! With the wonderful help of Ting, I went around to educate compounds about the importance of digging a soak-away pit. We educated them on how they work, what they prevent, and showed them how to dig a proper pit. We have a long way to go still, but many people in the village are very motivated and there are some great pits already constructed. Next we’ll be head to some of the surrounding villages to spread the word.

Upper West Girls Leadership Camp


The Peace Corps’ Volunteers of the Upper West came together to host a leadership camp for girls. PCVs brought either Junior High girls to be participants or a Senior High girl to be a student leader. The camp was focused on HIV/AIDS education, leadership, girl empowerment, and the importance of staying in school. Despite my being sick for the first 2 days of the camp, everything was perfect. The girls, the sessions, the crafts, the dancing, everything. I know I enjoyed myself, and by the smiles on the girls faces, I know they had a fabulous week away from home. They were able to learn new things, make new friends, and for some girls stay away from home for the first time. While I, as a PCV, am always learning new cultural things, these girls were also able to see some of the different cultural songs and dance from different tribes in their own region.

The days were filled with sessions about the transmission of HIV, anti-stigmatization of People Living with HIV, delaying sex and ways to say no, leadership, communication, and many more topics. The girls also played sports and had daily craft activities; including football, hiking, yoga, tie ‘n dye making, calabash painting, jewelry making, and poster designing. It was a great experience for girls from all over the Upper West Region to be able to come together, meet each other, and exchange stories and learn from each other’s experiences.

The best part of the camp for me was in the end when we surveyed the girls about what they learned at the camp and they were to write who their role model was. A few of the girls wrote their Peace Corps Volunteer’s name, their father or mother, or a teacher they’ve had. I was extremely proud when a few girls wrote ‘Naama’, which is such a compliment to me. It definitely made my heart smile to know that in just a few days one can have such an impact on a young girl’s life.