Giving a blank page to the unheard.
Partnering with an international community to build something is a lot like an interpersonal relationship: you both have to make compromises to make it work. You don’t compromise just to keep them happy; you do it out of a genuine desire to see them get what they need. For example, the village of Asisiriwa really wants to steward the money …
Kaitlyn and I arrived back in the village of Asisiriwa, Ghana on Saturday with our liaison, Professor Agyekum. We made our way first to the chief’s house where men had gathered from all over the district to see what tidings we had brought. The council meeting opened in a similar fashion as last time. We walked counter-clockwise around the room …
According to the CIA World Factbook, the 2015 estimated global literacy rate is 86.1%. Upon first hearing that, it doesn’t sound so bad. Here in the US, that’s a solid B grade in school—perfectly passable. But if you zoom in on that number and realize that 13.9% of the world is still illiterate largely because of poor access to education, it …
I want you to tell me a story. One of the things I believe wholeheartedly, and one of the core tenets of our mission, is that storytelling brings people together, and helps people get to know not only one another, but also themselves. The act of telling stories is itself, fundamentally, an act of communion–of coming together and sharing pieces …
I’m not sure if everyone does this, but I often find I have to shock myself out of a train of thought that might be painful, degrading, or just embarrassing. I have to interrupt myself with words, or sometimes even noises. For instance, when I think about the time I stupidly asked a female friend of mine, “Do you wanna …
I don’t know if you listen to Coldplay, but I have, and there is a lyric that’s been stuck with me for weeks now: Nobody said it was easy; no one ever said it would be this hard. I’m sure Chris Martin wasn’t singing about creating a nonprofit from scratch when he crooned those words, but they ring true. When we started …
Nestled in the Bosomtwe District of Ashanti Region, just a few kilometers away from Lake Bosomtwe, the water-filled crater left by a meteor some 10 million years ago and the legendary site of the god Twi, for whom the traditional lingua franca of much of Ghana is named, lies the proud and newly paved village of Asisiriwa. Boasting a quad-shaped …
A professor at Regis University recently told me, “I love your vision. As you’ll soon learn in development work, about 5% of the overall effort is the vision and 95% is the delivery and refinement of that vision. No exaggeration here!” I had a feeling that he was right, but could do nothing to refine the vision than to brace …
It was hot the day we arrived in Adaklu Helekpe, a small town in the Volta Region abutting Adaklu Mountain, said to be the tallest free-standing mountain in Ghana. We came first by tro-tro to Ho, then took a shared taxi the rest of the way to Helekpe, after being informed that the town we originally intended to visit had …
I once wrote a poem to encapsulate my study abroad experience that began with the words, “What did we expect to find in Ghana?” That rings as true now, finding myself plodding along these same pedestrian-hostile streets I knew so well two years ago. What did I expect this time? What can I expect from Ghana, even having lived here before? Heat, …
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