As a child my favorite question, like most children, was “Why?” I remember asking it repeatedly to anyone that would listen. Car rides with my parents were filled with questions like: “Why is the sky blue? Why is it called ‘lime light’?” or my favorite to ask, “Why did that person do that?” With my […]
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And there I was, riding in the back of a flatbed truck through the bush in north central Ghana. I was precariously perched upon one of the twelve 100 kg sacks of charcoal we had just loaded up into the truck bed as red dust, and charcoal soot swirled around me with each bump that […]
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Recently, my 4-H Club held its Handing Over Ceremony to honor its past officers and induct the new ones. It was a brief ceremony and I kept it simple—it was the Friday of Sports Week, and I managed to secure a sliver of time between the morning footraces and the Friday prayers observed by Muslim […]
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As I walked down the dusty road towards the AgriCorps house I could hear the young children playing before I could see them. It was the first week back in school after the winter holidays and the students at the Tamale International School were running, swinging and catching up with their friends. Because this is […]
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They say ask and you shall receive. In Ghana, it’s more ask, then ask again, and again, then you shall receive. Recently, I found myself wandering through a market with the president of the Kumbungu 4-H club searching for a jerry can to convert into a nursery. If you don’t know, a jerry can is […]
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Sitting in the barber seat again in Begoro, I can’t help but recall the fact that despite being in an African country, amongst my peers group technically speaking, I am a minority. During one of our monthly in-service trainings in Tamale, the busy and desert like city in Northern Ghana, my colleagues expressed some of […]
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I will be the first to admit that I have a ‘guns a blazing’ attitude towards life. I like to get into a situation, put everything I have into it and get out. I came to Sankpala, my community, with this same attitude towards this new adventure. I thought by month two we would have […]
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I suppose one could make a case that teaching is in my genes. My mother taught high school English for 38 years, my brother has lectured at the university level and even my Grandma Rippke was a teacher. Despite my bloodlines, teaching was the activity that I looked forward to the least before coming to […]
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I rinsed off my hands and feet under the hydrant in the school garden. After an afternoon spent planting some green beans, squash and okra with some students, I was tired. I heard footsteps behind me and a voice say “Madam, please, I need your help”. I turned around to see Baba, one of my […]
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So imagine just for a moment with me. Ok…one two, three. It’s probably 80 something degrees outside and feels like 90. You’re using your iPhone to create a blog post in the front seat of a transport vehicle otherwise known as the tro -tro. The air is thick with the smell of everything from local […]
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