Ghana – Reflection (2018)

Mia Feist

Education Abroad

  1. Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.
                                       Pictured above: Myself attempting to carry water from a stream a half mile from the family’s home

My STEP project began by spending the semester researching the country of Ghana, Africa. More specifically the water issues that plague the Kpando community in the Volta region. This was followed by a ten-day immersion in country. While in country, my team interviewed people and families from many different surrounding communities to help better understand the common issues within their communities.

  1. What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.

This isn’t my first experience with a developing country; I spent this past summer (2018) Living in Guatemala. I had an idea of what I was walking into, but the raw sight of everything brought back a familiar anxiety mixed with amazement. Amazement at how these communities’ function. That these places are pretty developed for developing countries. Sure, they don’t have computers, laptops, high tech phones, or movie theatres, but they still function. Anxiety, for how I was supposed to help them. While their branches have stemmed, long and strong, their roots are weak. Their education system is short coming, and their water supply is horribly contaminated.

I know I can’t change the world in a week, I know that there is no perfect solution that will fix every water issue out there, but I want to help. This trip helped me better understand the importance of research. I love researching countries, but with so little information on many of them, it gets difficult when it comes down to the details. So, by immersing myself in these communities I was better able to understand some of the data I had previously collected and compare it to what I was finding now.

  1. What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.

The first thing that pops out to me is the water issues. Many of the communities I visited did not have access to piped water, like what we are used to in the states. Many had a Bore Hole, basically a water pump that is treated with chlorine, or collected all their water from a stream. This includes drinking, bathing, cleaning, and washing clothes. Many even choose to do this over the water pump because of the metallic taste caused by the chlorine. I had to re-evaluate what I consider a solution at this point in my research. What good was a water pump, with clean water, if the people refused to use it. We can’t expect them to immediately by eternally grateful if they prefer another option.

Another moment that stood out to me was when I was playing with the children. I had sat down with a group of 10 or 13 children of a variety of ages. Originally the language barrier was an issue, but I found other ways to speak with them. They knew a few words of English from their studies and I had a rather large stick and some dirt. So, I took to drawing on the ground. I drew a fire, moon, bird, cat, etc. With every picture the children would excitedly shout out the name in English, then tell it to me in Ewe, their first language. I was later quizzed on this by the very excited older children.

                                                       Pictured above: Myself with a few of the children in the Kpando-Adolfe Community

Many of these kids went to school in a small building just down the walkway. Once they reached the equivalent of 6th grade, many had to find another school or just drop out entirely. The closest school with higher grade levels was about a 45-minute walk. They walk 90 minutes everyday just so they can get an education. Then they come home to fetch water, do the dishes, make dinner, and finish their homework. That is a lot to deal with as a young child. The joy they had at someone coming to play with them, to focus on them purely, was heart breaking. They don’t always get that kind of attention.

  1. Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.

During my first year, I added a Humanitarian Engineering minor to my degree. This minor demonstrates what I want to be able to do with my major, the people I want to affect. The people around me have so much. We have so many studies dictating the best materials to use for bridges, buildings, roadways based on climate, height, natural disasters. Which is extremely helpful, not to mention the budget and resources we have to acquire these materials. But what I want to focus on is creating these items with materials that are less than ideal.

Many of the homes I visited in Ghana were made out of a mud and clay mixture that coated simple wood walls. My future goals are to be able to find an affordable and accessible option for housing and roadways in these types of communities.

One thought on “Ghana – Reflection (2018)

  1. Mia, it sounds like you had an amazing and enriching time in Ghana. It is great that you were able to get insights and better perspectives on something as simple as a water pump, and beneficial it might actually be. And the opportunity to work with the children and learn how different their daily routine is, that is quite an amazing opportunity.
    I am pleased that this had such a profound effect on so many aspects of your life, especially some future work on the infrastructure in these communities. I hope you continue to develop your passions and keep up the adventurous hard work on the future!

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