Ghana Project 2011
Akwaaba!
That is how you say “Welcome” in the Ashanti Twi language, which is spoken in Ghana. To keep everyone updated, after the holidays I travelled with fifty Babson students and faculty to Accra, Sekondi, and Takoradi. We each paired off at different schools to teach high school students about Entrepreneurship and how they can become more successful. It was my most rewarding experience and truly an eye-opening trip! Not only did we get to know each other very well, but we also integrated ourselves within the community by playing soccer, basketball, and reading to younger children. Some Babson students visited churches in the surrounding neighborhoods after class to help adults with their current business and to offer advice. Others travelled on a troo-troo (taxi) to do one-on-one consulting with local entrepreneurs.
Although Ghana has a remarkable GDP for Africa, the local living conditions still amazed me. We all stayed at Reverend Andou’s compound and were well accommodated for. Reverend Andou’s wife prepared three meals a day for all of us and employed others to book our taxis to and from our schools, clean our bedrooms and do our laundry on a daily basis. Although we did loose electricity a couple times, and had to shower with about two cups of water for the last five days, there was very little to complain about.
During our two weeks of traveling and teaching, we also were working towards the Babson Business Competition! Each pair of Babson students chose one group of students from their school that had the strongest business plan to the competition. On the final Saturday, Dean Hanno (who has organized this entire Ghana trip for over fifteen years and is the driving force behind making everyone’s experience successful and enjoyable) hosts the Babson Business Competition, in which each school group has three minutes to present their rocket pitch to the panel of judges; comprised of selected Babson students. Babson also sponsors an adult business plan competition and a student essay about entrepreneurship contest. At the end of an almost five hour long competition in Reverend Andou’s church at the compound, all the winners and runners-up are announced and receive their prize! Each one of us who went on this trip was touched by the excitement and perseverance the students displayed on this day. The plethora of pens, paper, books, soccer balls and laptops that Babson provides each school, in addition to the competition, completely astound the Ghanaian people. The students, teachers, headmasters, and community continuously praise, thank, and pray for you. I am still in contact with some of the students from the school I taught at and trying to offer advice and encouragement to them.
Besides teaching, we took a “field trip” on our last day to go canopy walking in the jungle, lunch at a beach resort (apparently actor Will Smith also visited this resort!), and a visit to the slave castle. It was an amazing day full of sights that I never would have imagined existed in Africa! There are so many stories and memories I have from this experience. Ghana is like no place I have travelled to before, and now I can see how much of a difference just one person can make in someone else’s life. If you ever get an opportunity to travel to a developing country, GO!!!!! It will be more rewarding than you could have imagined. I’m still getting adjusted from 100 degree weather to this freezing, unbelieveable amounts of snow… but those two weeks were beyond worth it!
