Volunteering for the Kokrobite Chiltern Centre has been an amazing experience for both of us. By volunteering we have been able to experience a little bit of what it is like to live in a Ghanaian village.

 

Coming to Africa for the first time was a culture shock, however Jane and Martial made the transition easy and always took the time to answer questions and to give advice and support where needed. Kokrobite itself has been a wonderful place to work for the month. The locals have always been friendly and places such as Big Millies (the local backpackers lodge), have provided an excellent place to sit and have a drink in the afternoon and watch the world go by.

​

In our month here we volunteered at the local school working as teaching assistants. We had a brilliant four weeks and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know both the students and the teachers who we were working with. The education system out here is definitely very different and the first day presented some surprises, although once we got used to the ways things worked we enjoyed taking lessons and putting our own stamp on them.

 

Working within such a different culture was a massive learning curve and definitely built on skills that we can use in later life. Small things such as interacting with the children during a lesson, something that you would take for granted in the UK was a challenge as it isn’t a style of teaching the children were familiar with. Therefore it was vital to be creative and adaptable.

​

Every Saturday morning we got to help with Saturday club that is run by the Kokrobite Chiltern Centre. Here was a great opportunity to do different activities with the children, whether it was painting, cricket or drawing. We brought out 24 recorders from England and it was fantastic to teach them something new that they wouldn’t have got to experience otherwise.

​

Finally another great thing about volunteering for Jane and Martial was that they wanted us to also have fun and experience other parts of Ghana. A day trip to Accra and weekend trip to Cape Coast to visit Kakum National Park and Cape Coast Castle meant that we felt we have seen a little bit of what this amazing country has to offer.

​

Jess and Ian, 2012