Experiences: Tintinto

Greg Benson, from the US, volunteered in January 2006 for a month:

All in all, this was one of the most fascinating, interesting (and sometimes difficult) trips I have done. I would highly recommend this project to anyone who is motivated to learn about life in Ghana or West Africa. It is both an excellent starting point if you have not done an international volunteer project before, and a good challenge if you do have experience.

A typical day volunteering in Tafo consisted of waking and teaching at the local junior high or elementary school in the morning. What you actually do during this time is very flexible, and if you have specific interests you will be encouraged to act on them. Some usual options included teaching or assisting the teacher with reading, math, science, or physical education lessons. All of the classes except for Twi lessons are taught in English, so any native-speaker assistance is useful (Twi is a popular local language in Tafo). Classes usually end around or soon after lunch, at which time you will probably have an hour or so to relax or do whatever you'd like.

Later in the afternoon, the football academy boys begin their practice. This provides a great opportunity to work and play with the kids, helping to develop their already excellent skills. Practice usually closes with an hour-long scrimmage, which is always fun to watch. The academy boys are exceptionally
good football players.

After dinner, in the evenings, there is also an opportunity to help the boys with their studies or do some extra language work. Although English is the official first-language of Ghana, your help and instruction as a native speaker will be very helpful in their learning process. If you are interested, evenings also provide a time for you to do more language lessons but the other way around - learning Twi.

The people who were volunteering at the Tafo cultural center had a very similar schedule to us, except instead of working with the boys during soccer practice, they would instead work with different children at the cultural center.

All of our meals were home-prepared by a very caring member of the academy
family, which allowed us to try a highly palatable sampling of local foods. All of our meals were very good. There is not a huge amount of variety, which mainly stems from the kinds of foods that are available in the area, but it was always sufficient to energize us, and always tasty enough to keep us looking forward to more.

The people I met in Tafo are certainly one of the reasons that I think about Ghana so much. While the kids were also great to be around and spend time with, the local volunteers that we worked with gave us the best insights into the culture and life in Ghana. There are many people that you will meet in this capacity, from other teachers at the school, to the close group of support staff who take care of and coach the boys, to the program director, and his family. You will meet so many people just strolling through the village that it would be almost impossible not to meet someone with which you have a good relationship within a few days of being there.

There were many other fun activities to do in the area during the weekends,
and there is also lots of time to just relax and enjoy the foreignness of being in such a different place.

One weekend we woke up very early at
sunrise and hiked up a large rock formation near Tafo. It took about half a
day to go all the way up and get back again, but it was a very memorable
part of the trip. The views of the area were great, and the whole atmosphere on the trip was a lot of fun.

In Ghana, my time was always well-balanced between being spent with other western volunteers and with local people who were with us in various capacities.

Sometimes the prospect of going so far abroad to a place that you know very little about can be daunting. However, I have not yet found a person who has done a program like this and not found it very rewarding. Some parts of the trip can be difficult, but hopefully it will challenge the way that you think about some issues both at home and in the world in general.

Kids Worldwide was a great resource to find because of how they choose local agencies to work with, and you don't have to worry about paying a large amount of money to a western company.

If you have any further questions about Tafo or the Tintinto Academy I would be happy to respond with more details. I can be reached through the Ghana discussion group, which we encourgae all volunteers interested in going to Ghana to subscribe to. Hopefully one day I'll be hearing about your experiences in Tafo as well!