Ribalta School in Ghana

My name is Sara Rio Ortiz and I’m just 20 years old. Can you believe that I returned from Ghana three months ago? Now, I’m going to tell you why.

One day I heard about this initiative in my Ribalta High School (Castellón de la Plana): in Magdalena week (our local festivity), a small group of students could go to Ghana to volunteer and do activities with children, teaching them Spanish, bringing them lots of school material and sport clothes, but above all, being with them because the place where we were going is a school–orphanage and the children need company.

We would be 12 students and two teachers of English (one of them, the Principal), the lucky ones to live an unforgettable experience!!

(This is us, the lucky ones who are taking part in this unforgettable adventure!)

I was so excited that I couldn’t stop thinking about the trip and that I would finally volunteer.

I was all the time thinking about what the food we would eat would be like, where and how we would sleep, the school, if there would be drinking water, and above all, about the children I would meet soon.

Everyone told me, because they saw me very happy, that it would be hard, much more than I could have imagined, but I was sure I was prepared to see that change of reality, 100% conscious, but the situation impacted me much more than I could have expected.

It is clear that going to Africa as a volunteer and going to Africa as a tourist is very different; there were people who asked me if we would see a safari during our stay, so no, when you travel as a volunteer you don’t go to the beautiful places full of animals, when you go as a volunteer you go to the hidden areas, forgotten by society.

Well, my experience was without a doubt one of the best of my life, I knew another culture, I met wonderful people who will give you the little they had. I knew the reality in which underdeveloped countries live, I knew the limitless love they gave me, they taught me how lucky I am to live in a world where you turn on the tap and you immediately get water but above all I knew and they taught me the secret of happiness: SIMPLICITY.

(They could spend hours and hours looking at you with that happy face.)

During the 8 days I was there, I completely forgot about my life in Spain: I forgot technology, I forgot my friends, I even forgot my parents, I forgot to comb my hair every day, I was happy, I was playing and talking with the children who changed the lives of each and every one of us, I didn’t need anything else to be happy.

(We were always playing with the children and teaching them Spanish songs.)

(They even taught me how to play the typical instrument of Ghana: the Djembe).

All the students had some children who were like our protected, we were always together but there were a few who were with you from the moment they got up until they went to bed and even came to pick you up every morning to accompany you to have breakfast and when you finished it they were still waiting for you.

(“My protected”. Sarah, Lewa, Grace, Gladys, Victoria and Paula. Paula (the girl I’m holding in my hands) and Victoria (the girl with the green dress) are sisters).

I remember above all 3 of them, siblings, Samuel, Victoria and Paula, “my children”. Paula, the little one, was 4 years old and still didn’t speak English very well so we couldn’t communicate but she was only with me, she didn’t want anyone else for 8 days, only me; you smiled at her and for her that was all, we didn’t need to speak the same language because without the language we could transmit our feelings.

These 3 siblings lived with their parents and every day I went to have a snack with them. They would take me to their only room. Being a big family of 8 meant they had to eat, sleep and cook in 2 square meters. But they always reserved a chair for me and welcomed me with the purest, happiest smiles I had ever seen.

Their parents, Theodora and Kwame, made me typical food that we, the students and teachers, couldn’t eat at school because the cook made us European food like rice, spaghetti, chicken. The last day, they made a lot of cookies for my return trip, I will never forget that very special present.

One day, Victoria, who was the middle girl, told me that her mother didn’t always make snacks and she prepared them to show me how grateful she was for the way that I was caring for her children. When she told me that, I started crying, deeply moved, seeing the love that they gave me, whom they had met only a few days before.

Ghana changed me, which I thought wasn’t going to happen, but as we all know, many times reality is beyond our imagination. We live in a world full of privileges, and if everybody could see the situation that many other human beings have to face only 6,000 kms away, I believe that society could prosper and become a little fairer for all the inhabitants of this poorly distributed planet, so full of contradictions.

Hopefully our world will be better, hopefully in the future there won’t be anybody who has to starve or watch their parents die for lack of medicine.

I hope that there aren’t wars between the great powers that only destroy the countries that are worse off and above all, I hope that people become much more aware of what is happening next door.

Dear reader, if you have the opportunity to live an experience such as this one, do it, without thinking it twice since it will change you completely, always for the better because knowing another culture, another world and getting to know other people can only bring you good things.

(We should learn to be happier ,enjoying what we have (which is a lot!). We have one life and we should make the most of it.)