Experiences: Triumph

Projects > Africa > Ghana > Triumph

My name is Shane Foley and by the time I leave will have spent a month at
Triumph. Not having traveled for a number of years I found my experiences in
Ghana to be most enlightening. The differences between where I come from
(Canada) and Ghana were not nearly as extreme as I thought they would be.
Part of this has to be attributed to the Oduros and the people in their
household. Always friendly, helpful and kind they made my stay a privilege
and something I will never forget.

Most of my time was spent working with the youngest children which I enjoyed
very much. The children are very loving and fun to try and help. My one
recommendation would be that the seating arrangements need to be changed.
Individual desks are in my opinion almost a necessity. I realize this is
easy to recognize but both money and spacing concerns make it next to
impossible.

This leads me to my next concern. Children in this type of close proximity
to eachother have a natural tendency to rough house and hit eachother, but
the lebvel it occurred was surprising to me. There seems to be a culture of
hitting in Ghana and I am not sure how effective the resusls are. Once again
it must be realized that Ghana of course is a different culture and things
are done differently here and that the parents approve of this system. When
it was necessary I found the most effective solution to be removing the
child when he/she seems to be involved in numerous incidents (although
eventually all the children seen to be involved in numerous incidents) and
have them sit on their own for a while.

Into my third week at Triumph Nancy arrived (the volunteer who will be
writing in this book next) which made my trip most enjoyable. Not that the
people in the house were not great it was just nice to have someone from
North America to talk with…Which leads me to my next point. I think the
school is better served and the volunteers more content when there is
someone of a similar mind to share ideas and experiences with. If there is a
way to coordinate multiple volunteers at the same time – this, in my
opinion, would be beneficial to all parties.

To sum up, my experience was one of great significance to me. The world gets
smaller every day and in my opinion, countries like Ghana will be the next
frontier in that reality. I must thank the Odoros, the children in the house
and the supporting staff for their time, patience and understanding
(especially in terms of personal injuries- 3 soccer games and 3 fairly
serious injuries). The last statement I reserve for the students at Triumph.
Thank you for teaching me more than I could ever have taught you. Good luck
in whatever you set out to do.

SHANE