The Power of A Dream

My African adventure began in the spring of 2007. I was in the midst of a huge life transition. I homeschooled my children from kindergarten through 8th grade. My youngest had just started public high school and I was left with a huge void in my life. My passion for teaching was still alive in my heart, but I needed somewhere to channel it. About this same time I saw a special on T.V about the huge reading famine that exists in Africa. Something in my heart stirred, and even though I could not explain why, I knew I needed to go to Africa.I had heard about Global Volunteers from a friend. I did some research and made my decision. Ghana was my destination.

My mission: To teach English to the children, or so I thought. I traveled to the small village of Senchi Ferry in Western Ghana. It was there that I not only had the privilege of teaching the beautiful children of the village, but had the opportunity to meet the most welcoming, kind hearted, spirited community of people I have ever met in my life. My life has forever been changed from my experinces in this village. One day I talked with the children about their dreams for the future. I was surprised to find that in the midst of their underprivileged lives, and the absence of books, they too have dreams of becoming doctors, pilots, scientists and teachers. They have dreams of changing Africa through their education. Education is the key to a different life for them, yet resources are not available. I met Emmanuel, a bright 12 year old who wants to be a doctor, yet has never seen a picture of the human anatomy. Rosina dreams of becoming a pilot, yet she has never seen a map of her own country. It was through listening to the children's dreams that a dream of my own formed in my heart - to build a library for the children of this village. I have just returned from my second trip to the beautiful village of Senchi Ferry, Ghana. This time I brought with me a suitcase filled with children's picture books. I had the amazing experience of introducing picture books to children of all ages for the very first time in their lives. I cannot begin to describe the magic of witnessing the absolute joy and delight that emanated from their faces as colorful pictures helped to tell the stories that were read to them.

The chiefs, elders, teachers and children have all embraced the idea of buiding a library in Senchi Ferry. The location has been chosen, the blueprint drawn. Prayers have been offered for the success of our vision. I have committed to help build this village a library through Global Volunteers and fill it with books. For more information on how to help end the reading famine in Senchi Ferry, please go to my website: http://www.senchiferrylibrary.com/

-Deb McNally, Ghana Volunteer

Choose China for a Challenge

Ready for the “Adventure of a Lifetime?” I recommend Kunming, China with Global Volunteers! Working with the English teachers in the Kunming Global Volunteers program last year reminded me of the time very many years ago when I was a student teacher and a first and second year teacher. My teaching partner, Dr. Martin Choy, had participated in this program the previous summer, so I relied on his guidance and expertise in organizing and planning our lessons. Martin insisted that we develop activities that would help both the very advanced young teachers in our class at the same time we designed activities that would help those whose English proficiency was at a somewhat lesser level.

Having been to China several times over the last twenty-five years and seen the progress that the country has made, one of the biggest surprises for me was noticing that as we took our break in the lessons each day, the cell phones came out in full force.

English language instruction is required for all students in China from kindergarten to high school. Naturally given China’s present population, there are not enough trained teachers of English to accomplish this goal, and add to that class sizes of between 40 and 60 students per class in some schools. This Global Volunteers program is designed so that Chinese teachers of English hear English spoken by native speakers as well as to
have Chinese teachers of English interact with us.

Most young Chinese college graduates who major in English have excellent written and grammar skills. What they need is the English language spoken by native speakers. Our program included three hour seminars in the morning and several afternoon general sessions. One of our afternoon sessions included a field trip to a memorial that recognized the contributions of the American pilots from World War II. Since the government has mandated that English language instruction be given from pre-Kindergarten on there is a shortage of teachers in the primary grades. Our Global Volunteers colleagues who had experience in elementary schools provided memorable lessons for the teachers of younger children. While I had 36 years of experience as a high school social studies teacher teaching experience is a plus but not required. Our program coordinator, Hu Di provided us with superior training and “team building”. The program provided us with a series of outstanding strategies and teaching suggestions. I plan to do the Kunming program again this summer!
- Maureen Tracy, “Encore” volunteer

For Love of An African Village

In March, 2007 I traveled with Global Volunteers to do three weeks of volunteer work in a small village in Ghana. The village – Senchi Ferry – is about an hour north of Accra, the capital city. My three weeks there were magical. I was the only volunteer at a primary school, working with children from kindergarten through 6th grade. I taught English lessons in the 5th grade classroom every day, and floated through all of the classrooms singing songs, teaching games such as Simon Says, the Hokey Pokey, and Duck, Duck, Goose, and introducing crayons and colored pencils for drawing (with the supplies that I had brought with me.) The children were bright, healthy, and eager to learn, but there no teaching supplies at the school other than blackboards at the front of every room. I fell in love with the children, the teachers I worked with, and the many villagers I befriended during my three weeks. Leaving was sad.

I returned home in early April and not a day went by that I didn’t think about Senchi Ferry. By mid-May I knew I had to return, and I joined another Global Volunteers team to return in October. I decided that when I returned I would bring pencils, pens, crayons and money to purchase a case of paper. I emailed every person on my email list asking for a $1 donation. My plan was to raise $300 to buy the needed supplies. Well, money began to pour in, along with packages of school supplies that friends, clients and professional colleagues donated to my cause. My dining room became a warehouse over the summer as I used the donated $3,700 to purchase every school supply you can think of (except computers.) I wrote grant applications during July seeking in-kind shipping, and DHL came through for me shipping six 50-pound cartons. I carried three additional cartons and a second suitcase stuffed with books and art supplies with my luggage. One last carton was carried as luggage with one of my co-volunteers. In all, approximately $5,000 worth of school supplies was donated to the schools of Senchi Ferry, Ghana.

In mid-October I returned to Senchi Ferry with all of the school supplies. Boxes of crayons and watercolor sets were distributed to all the classrooms, along with bags of pencils and pens, rulers, pencil sharpeners, colored markers and highlighters, and six cases of white paper and lined writing paper, posters and maps. My three weeks were filled to overflowing with modeling for the teachers how to teach with all the new supplies, how to manage a library, how to put up posters on the walls, how to use bulletin board border, plus teaching art lessons and reading story books to all of the classes. The supplies were presented during a formal ceremony attended by Education Ministers from the Regional Administrative Offices as well as the Ministry in Accra.

Two days later another ceremony awaited me. I was to be installed as a Queen Mother of the village. I didn’t realize the seriousness of this honor until the ceremony began. Drums were sounded, cowbells were banged on and the village was called to the Chiefs’ Palace. I was dressed in traditional ceremonial robes and was lifted upon the shoulders of several men and carried through the Palace Courtyard to the cheers of the villagers. There was lots of African “Pomp and Circumstance” and by the end of the afternoon I was blessed with the new name, Nana Ofeibea II, Queen Mother of Development.

Again, my three weeks ended much too soon and before I knew it I was on my way home. I’ve already decided that I will be returning to Senchi Ferry again next October. I feel like my life is now re-energized and with a new focus and passion. I continue to love my work, but know that I have a second life in a small village six thousand miles away.

- Judy Citron ("Nana O") Ghana Volunteer

Report from Xi'an, China

There is an epidemic of national pride for the 2008 Olympic Games everywhere in China.

While the Games in Beijing are less than nine months away, everyone you meet is proud that China will showcase its country, people, culture and history to what will be the largest television audience in Olympics history. Shanghai also is aggressively promoting and preparing for its World Expo in 2010 and along with Beijing, is hosting international sports events. The FIFA world cup in football (soccer) is underway now in Shanghai, which also will be one of the venues for this sport in 2008. Both cities are concerned, however, that the behavior of some Chinese in public may be offensive to many foreign visitors. Spitting, littering, queue jumping, jay walking, smoking in non-smoking areas and talking loudly in crowded public places have been cited as bad habits that need to be corrected. And, the ill-mannered are from all social and economic groups

Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt would be proud of the officials in both cities who have launched massive public education campaigns to teach proper etiquette and manners and avoid for China public indignation from foreign travelers. The women's federation in Shanghai published and distributed booklets about etiquette and discussed this subject at public forums and on television and trained more than 750,000 residents on manners. According to studies, more than 75 percent of the people in major cities consider this etiquette drive very important for the overall success of both the Olympic Games and World Expo.

In the three weeks I have been in China, I have found the Chinese people extremely warm, hospitable, friendly and accommodating and many speak English. However, when it comes to getting a taxicab during a busy time, it helps having had experience in New York City trying to get a taxi during rush hour or when it is raining. The Chinese do not queue nor is it first come, first-serve, but strictly survival of the fittest and who can get in the taxi first. On the positive side, taxicabs are cheaper here than anyplace I have visited and there is no tipping. You pay only the meter and many of my trips have been less than US$2. In Beijing, I was in a taxi for nearly an hour and a distance that would take one in New York from the Bronx to the Battery and the cost was US$7.50.

At markets and other public areas where people would normally stand in line for service, visitors to China should be prepared for people to push in ahead of them as a matter of local custom. While there are pedestrian cross walks and stop lights, there is absolutely no pedestrian right of way. Crossing a street anywhere in China is like running an obstacle course of fast-moving buses, trucks, taxis, autos, bicycles and all types of moving vehicles coming at you at high speed. I found it helpful to look for a woman with a baby or small children and cross the street in a group. No preference is given to women or seniors. All pedestrians are considered fair game once you step off the sidewalk. For the past week I have been in Xian, a city of more than eight million people in the center of the country. It is hard to believe Xian is considered only a mid-sized city in China yet it is larger than Los Angeles, Chicago or New York. Xian was the nation's first capital and home of the first emperor. During his Qin Dynasty the Great Wall of China was built as well as the world famous Terra Cotta Army that was buried with him.

While Beijing is the government center of China and Shanghai the financial center, Xian is the educational and technical center with more than 100 universities and 800,000 students. I am a member of a team of 12 volunteers through Global Volunteers, a non-profit organization headquartered in Minneapolis that is teaching conversational English to students at Eurasia University. Eurasia is a 10-year-old private university with 20,000 students. Every student lives on campus in a dormitory and all freshman are required to take military training. In the foreign language department the students are required to take English and either French or Japanese. Almost every student on campus has some command of English. The students are extremely proud of the Olympic Games and are an excellent example of the pride everyone is taking in China being showcased to the world next year.

In addition to classes, we helped prepare nine students for a national speech contest and several used the Beijing theme, "One World, One Peace," in their essays. Last week, we judged a speech contest at the Fourth Army Military University and Hospital and again, several of the presenters adopted the Olympic slogan in their remarks. National pride is a positive epidemic in this country of 1.3 billion people who are proud of its 5,000-year-old history. Before Xian, I visited Shanghai, Yichang, Chongqing and Beijing and you could not walk a block without seeing the Olympic logo. You don't need to understand Chinese when you see the Olympic promotions on television or billboards, or in newspapers and magazines.

However, as Chen Weihua wrote in a commentary in China Daily, bad manners could jeopardize the success of the Olympics. "While the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai World Expo will be a big test and a display of public behavior, cultivating good social manners is not just for these events, it is vital to the country's goal of building a harmonious society, sustaining development and winning respect from people all over the world," Chen wrote. "Cultivating good social manners for our citizens means a lot more than winning 100 Olympic gold medals." Notes: Visitors should be prepared for a surprise in Chinese toilets. There are very few Western toilets except in five-star hotels and I didn¡¯t see any in the new Xian International Airport. Visitors also should always carry toilet paper with them because there is none in most toilet facilities.

Several of us took a break from local Chinese food, unlike anything you can order in the U.S., and decided to have lunch at the Pizza Hut in Xi'an's largest mall. We needed reservations but it was worth the wait. You cannot drink or brush your teeth with any tap water, even in five-star hotels. It is not safe. Always use bottled water and carry it with you wherever you go. Athletes who have sought out hotels in the past may find it in their best interests in Beijing to stay in the Olympic Village. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games has not issued a statement regarding the safety of the tap water in the Olympic Village. Years ago the late Col. Red Blaik, coach of the greatest teams in Army history, always had local water trucked from West Point to the site of every away game the team played. National Olympic Committees may want to insure a plentiful supply of their country's bottled water for their athletes.

(Rene A. Henry is an author and writer who lives in Seattle. He spent more than 35 years of his professional career in international and Olympic sports. He also has given of his time to teach in Italy and Mexico for Global Volunteers. )