Preparing to volunteer in Ghana

My name is Damien Moran. I am a teacher from Banagher, Co. Offaly, in the heart of Ireland. Currently I am planning on volunteering in Kumasi, Ghana, from early October, 2008. My hope is to find a non-profit placement for 9 months, followed by visiting social activists in North West Africa for 3 months, then returning to Ireland to share my experiences.

My Polish girlfriend currently has a placement to work with disabled adults through a European Voluntary Service programme hosted by the Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre in Kumasi, capital of the Ashanti region of Ghana. She begins in October and I plan to spend the time volunteering with her.

Dorota and I on my birthday, at The Thatch restaurant in Birr, Co. Offaly

I have decided to set up this blog as a medium for friends, family and interested cyber-visitors to tune into how these preparations and the volunteering experience itself unfold. No mortgage, car, kids - yet, yet, yet (kids are the only 1 out of this trio that I ever want) - my most valued possession at the moment is a rusting raleigh racer.

So if you consider your pockets as bulging, you feel weighed down by all them €500 notes and credit cards in your wallet, you have one to many apartments in Budapest, have decided to give up the drink for November and the cigarettes for December, please consider donating a small token sum of money to help alleviate the substantial costs I will incur in order to work for free and share my skills as an English, Geography and EFL teacher.

Next stop, Ghana!

To get to know me a little bit better and ensure that I am not just another scam artist who is in fact the son-in-law of the former president of Nigeria, please have a look at my personal blog: www.peacenikhurler.blogspot.com

Having previously worked in an Irish bar in Gran Canaria, volunteered in Haiti, worked with a plumber in New York, worked with homeless alcoholics and drug addicts in Dublin, taught English in Poland, and most recently volunteered in Palestine, I should, perhaps, hang up my carbon over-loaded boots and start planting trees for the rest of my life.

But it seems to me that we are so disengaged in the prosperous regions of the global north from the daily grind of life in the vast majority of the global south. To combat counter this it is important to continue developing strong personal friendships and networks amongst those who infinitely toil to meek out a subsistence living. This provides deeper opportunities for us to connect with and positively influence our societies about global responsibilities in a spirit of mutual aid.

From the school classroom to the pub on a Friday night (well, actually, I don't drink, so you may not meet me at your local), we can break down prejudices and help others work towards social justice for all.

So, from our current struggles with the Ghanaian (just one of them) language, Twi, the vaccinations, visas, work placements, travel, preparatory self-defence training to combat affectionate mosquitoes, this blog promises to be a mish-mash of anxieties, hopes, fears, revelations, cultural faux-pas's, successes and failures, friendship-building and inter-cultural learning, struggles and dehydration, and of course, more lethal fights with mosquitoes.



Tune in, stay tuned, spread the frequency amongst the masses, add comments, criticisms, tips, blank cheques and whatever else you feel like.

To conclude, I will try integrate some Twi wisdom, words, phrases every now and then on this blog - partly so I remember them, and partly for you to experience what a beautiful language it is:

'Obi a ɔyɛ basabasa ntumi nyɛ Onyankopɔn adamfo'

In English: 'A violent person cannot be God’s friend'