So you dream of global understanding, connection, and communication. What better way to create this than to have students across the world write letters to one another?
Ahh, the romanticized International Penpal Exchange idea: so beautiful and so grand!
And yet, as those of us who have tried it often soon realize… so full of potential mayhem and chaos!
During the three months I volunteered in Sogakope, Ghana, I helped run the Youth Creating [...Read More!]
Article #31 in the YCC Kids Club Ghana Student Life Stories Project The Result of Running Away From School By Lawani Lucy, Age 13
“Run fast, Lucy!” my friend shouted. “Pass over to the other side of the road so they won’t see us!”
On the fifth of March, 2010, my friend Bless and I decided to run away from school. We were hungry to a great extent, but at that [...Read More!]
Article #30 in the YCC Kids Club Ghana Student Life Stories Project Understanding an Adult’s Punishment By Pamela Agbi, Age 14
This story is a story I will never ever forget in my life.
On the sixth of March, Ghana’s Independence Day, Youth Creating Change organized an excursion to a huge celebration in Aburi Botanical Gardens, two hours from Sogakope.
All the students in YCC’s Cross-Culture Class were organized to attend so that we could [...Read More!]
Today I swallowed my seventh and last post-exposure anti-Malaria Malarone pill. This means that it has been a full week since I flew out of West Africa and into Europe, tearfully leaving behind the wonderful Youth Creating Change of Ghana family.
But wait: nothing is ever left behind in this Internet age!
And thus I can give you the news, seven days after my Accra departure, that the donations we have collected through [...Read More!]
Article #29 in the YCC Kids Club Ghana Student Life Stories Project The Extreme Poverty I Have Witnessed By Shulammite McCarthy
In Cross-Culture Class, we are studying the Millennium Development Goals for ending extreme poverty. But what does “Extreme Poverty” really look like?
I once was in a class with a twelve year old girl named Agbenorxevi who was intelligent as a squirrel. She was beautiful and so brilliant that everybody in [...Read More!]
When trying to pack light for your long or short term trip, your overarching mantra should be: “Things that are also other things.” Here are some examples of this motto in action to consider for your bag, graciously modeled by Sena Comfort of YCC, Ghana!
1. A sarong or large, lightweight cloth. Uses: Towel, light sheet on cold bus rides or nights, sleep sack in nasty dorm beds, screen for changing in [...Read More!]
As you read this pre-programmed post, I am jetting from Ghana to Germany to Spain to Portugal over the course of twenty-four hours. Woo hoo!
Thus we launch the Iberian Adventure chapter of this Around the World journey. This will be my last phase of travel before I fly home to Boston in May… to scheme how to fly out again in August!
Though I will be writing extensively about Spain [...Read More!]
“Ooo, you were CRYING last night, ooo!” laughed Sena Comfort this morning, pulling me into a hug.
How true her words were! Yesterday, Youth Creating Change threw me a “Thanks for the Past Three Months” Bon Voyage party with all my students in the afternoon, followed by a powerful ceremony with beloved co-workers in the evening. The day was unbelievable… and I cried a ton!
During the student party, kids belted out [...Read More!]
Peter was quivering with excitement, and Seth couldn’t help but hop up and down with each burst of emotion coursing through his zesty heart.
“He’s a SERIOUS radio presenter!” my friends gushed, hauling me and my camera in the direction of the yellow-shirted man.
With all this zing in the air, how could my heart NOT thump as well? But the truth was: I had no clue who this big-shot man in [...Read More!]
Article #28 in the YCC Kids Club Ghana Student Life Stories Project Sweeping, Singing, and Saying Poems in My First Day of Kindergarten By Edor Hannah, Age 12
My father and I walked through a green field and past some bleating goats. We were on the way to my first day at Sogasco Government School Kindergarten!
First, we entered the head teacher’s office for a short interview. Then my father paid [...Read More!]