Serving Abroad in Senya Beraku, Ghana

My STEP Signature Project was travelling to Senya Beraku, Central Region, Ghana, with Buck-I-Serv and The Akumanyi Foundation to serve in local humanitarian efforts. Our trip revolved around Becky’s Children’s Home, where we served local orphans by helping with day to day chores, helping the children with the homework, and just loving on them!

This trip to Ghana really challenged ignorant beliefs I held about Africa, orphans, and the poor. As part of our pre-trip activities, we were challenged to read articles about African stereotypes and become aware of what we truly thought about the continent. It was really easy for me to imagine Africa as a place with widespread famine and war, a place where families live on cents a day and girls are kidnapped from schools daily. While parts of Africa deal with each of these things, it is by no means a complete picture of what Africa looks like- it is just a single story, as we would say. When I arrived in the country, I was shocked to see the prevalence of technology, such as wifi, the huge amount of cell phones, and even the extremely westernized malls. These things, and even more so the people I will mention in the upcoming paragraphs, helped me to realize that there is no one story for Africa. On one hand we saw a family sleeping outside of their home on the dirt floor, but we also saw multiple people carrying two cell phones, or driving their private vehicle. Sure, people might not have as much money as the average American, but that doesn’t mean they are any less happy than Westerners, or that their life is worth any less.

Most of my transformation during this project happened because of the people I interacted with- namely Dr. Mull, Hannah Bonacci, and the Akumanyi Foundation’s Ghanaian staff Prince and Tina. Dr. Mull is the assistant vice president of student life, and we had the honor of having her as our faculty mentor for the trip. Going into the trip I had little knowledge of racial struggles in both the US and across the world, as a straight, middle class, white male racial issues never personally affected me. However, Dr. Mull, through our multitude of conversations throughout the trip, challenged me to really wrestle with these issues, through which I gained a whole new perspective on the need for diversity in the US. Her conversations helped solidify the fact in my head that different doesn’t necessary mean better or worse, it just means different.

The second person who supported my transformation during this trip was Hannah Bonacci, the co-founder of the Akumanyi Foundation who accompanied us on our trip. The part of Hannah that most resonated with me, as well as most of the participants on the trip, was her heart for Ghana and the Ghanaian people. She didn’t look down on the people or feel pity for them, but instead empathized with their struggles and sought out long-term solutions for problems in the community. She didn’t try to just throw out money and fix problems, but came alongside locals working to improve their towns, hoping to build great relationships with everyone involved. She didn’t even really see herself as American, but more of a white-skinned Ghanaian, and she loved nothing more than to be among the Ghanaian people, having fun and creating friendships wherever we went. Hannah set an amazing example for me and pushed me to see Ghanaians not as people to be pitied, but instead fellow human being with hopes, struggles, dreams, and a desire to just have fun. Through watching Hannah interact with people, my way of interactive with people of different cultures was transformed.

Of course, Hannah couldn’t do everything herself in Ghana, so we had two Ghanaian staff members- Tina, our chef, and Prince, our interpreter/bodyguard/best friend. These two people were the ones who caused the most transformation within me. They were both around 20 years old, and Hannah had known them for many years. Tina had just graduated culinary school and was looking for a way to start cooking for people, while Prince had just graduated from high school and was waiting to hear back about his exam scores to see what future path he could take. Since they were both very close in age to us Americans, we all became very good friends very quickly. Throughout the trip we would hear about their lives, like how Tina’s family used to run an orphanage, or how Price is the youngest sibling and dreams of going into the military. They both had lost parents and had various struggles growing up, but they were full of joy to live life, and were determined to meet any challenge with a smile. By getting to know them, I was struck by how we all had so many more similarities than differences, even though our upbringings had been completely different. It’s hard to quantify exactly how they changed me, but all I know is that I now have Ghanaian friends for life, and that them growing up with less money than me doesn’t mean that I have any reason to look down upon them. They will forever be two of the most kind, loving people I know.

I am dead set on becoming a physician, specifically an oncologist. As a doctor I won’t be healing only people that look, talk, or have a similar life to myself, I will be treating people from all kinds of economic status and cultural background. I will have to be able to empathize with all of my patients and know how to talk to them, no matter what. Through this trip, I was able to not only make an impact on a community within Ghana, I was able to learn communication and relational skill that will benefit me for the rest of my life. It challenged me to see every single person I will meet as a unique human being, no matter how different from me they may seem. I must treat every person with love and respect, and this trip, through the people I met on it and the breaking down of my African stereotypes, has imprinted that lesson on my heart. I am so thankful that STEP gave me the opportunity to go on the trip, and I look forward to the day I can return to Ghana to learn all over again!

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