A Semester at Sea - An Experience for a Lifetime

Katie Kohls '07 spent the fall semester in the Semester at Sea program through the University of Virginia. For four months, Katie traveled the world on a ship, attending class on board and disembarking for adventures at many different ports of call. During her journey, Katie was one of three students chosen from the more than 650 students on the trip to write a blog which was posted on the Semester at Sea website. On one of her adventures, Katie spent a week in Ghana. A portion of one of her posts from this part of her journey is re-blogged below. To read more about Katie's adventures at sea, visit her blog at http://kjo-adventure.blogspot.com/

Ghana: Befriending Locals in a New Habitat

The third morning came early with the timely sunrise. Since Ghana is so close to the equator, the sun rises and falls year round at almost exactly six o’clock. At sunrise, I was on a bus headed to Kyebi, a town on the slopes of the Atewa Mountain Range. Our bus stopped three hours later on the side of a dirt road. Looking out my window I saw a green mountain shrouded in low clouds and there appeared to be nothing but thick jungle on the other side. We were lead through the density to a village opening. It was a picturesque reality of poverty.

My team and I set to work, continuing the brick laying work that preceded us. These clay bricks had been molded in wooden frames and laid to dry. We made mortar, by combining concrete sand with water and mixing with a shovel. Alternating the brick pattern for fortitude, we worked quickly to spackle before our mortar dried.

Our other job was to fill a ditch with dirt so that it could be walked over. But where’s the dirt? Spencer was handed a large pick and was shown the answer. Create the dirt. So he swung away at the land and I shoveled the dirt five feet to the left to fill the ditch. Manual labor in Ghana is hot, not attractive but blazing… literally. Randomly, our Ghanaian supervisor started a brush fire in the area directly between the house and me. Random fires I found through the many bus rides are actually quite frequent. There is much garbage, but who is going to come to this jungle village and come get it? So here and many other places they just light the garbage on fire- no big deal. Careful where you throw your trash.

We sat in the shade and ate lunch that the village people provided for us. Missy and I laughed at the nonchalant fashion that chickens, baby goats, and children ran around the area. We decided to pass on the chicken dish. After lunch a local boy stopped me asked to see some of the pictures I had on my camera. He laughed when he saw a picture of himself. I wondered if this was the first time he had seen one. He was delighted when I allowed him to play photographer. All of his friends came out and posed for him. He directed them and gave them props. It was fun to watch and even more fun to look through his artwork alongside him.

In the end we had only added a few layers of brick and done odd jobs, but it was a nice to think we contributed to someone’s home. Wow, how my definition of what a home can be has changed.