The sun sets on another day here in Asitey culminating with a stirring of laughter and smiles at Papa Henry’s Krobo Home base. GLA students are in the den fulfilling their service prep duties to ensure that tomorrow’s day of teaching will be executed with the utmost effort and love. This small moment in time offers a glimpse into the heart of session 4; students doing their very best to be all they can be for the Krobo Community.
If we decide to hop into our magical time machine and rewind our time together here in Ghana, we are able to unearth a plethora of experiences that remind one of the transformation and metamorphosis associated with a butterfly. From mentor groups and Bodhi falls to the poignant moments that we lived at the park on 12 different occasions, we can step back and say with confidence, “we came, we saw, we conquered!” We gave love and received love because it is what mattered most to us; our unwavering desire to make connections to children allowed us to be successful and it helped us learn more about ourselves than we could have ever imagined.
Sure, we encountered our own gamut of challenges that pushed us to go well beyond our proverbial comfort zones. However, it is through experiencing things like bucket showers, power outages and enduring grueling walks to the nursery and brick making at elementary school, that we became tolerant and complete human beings. One day we will look back on these instances which at the time seemed like inconveniences yet we will yearn to reminisce them over and over because of the growth and learning that they provided us.
Let us highlight how we opened our hearts and minds throughout our time in Krobo. We went to a local church and saw a devout parishioner was so overcome by her faith that she seemed to lose consciousness for a few seconds. What is ripe for us to take away from this instance, is that we didn’t judge, we didn’t question her, we merely respected and appreciated this as a testament to her right to her beliefs and individual sovereignty. This was an underlining theme for our journey: we don’t see people or places through the lens of comparing and questioning based off of where we come from or what we believe, rather we practice objective mindfulness so we can allow people to be who they are in their spaces. This is how we can admire the intricacies that comprise the culture and customs of our local Krobo community with love and respect.
Our time in Krobo is complete. Because of this we will always have a link to a people, a culture, and a way of life that it is ours forever; as Viktor Frankl once wrote, ” What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.” Our experience is enhanced because we experienced it together, as a team, a community, and as a family. Allowing ourselves the humility to walk shoulder to shoulder with others who see and navigate this thing called life differently than us is truly what helps us evolve. We could not have achieved what we achieved alone or as individuals; for us to be truly introspective and retrospective we must appreciate all of those who helped us along on our journey of a lifetime, a journey that will now continue, but that can’t continue forward without being mindful of what we accomplished in Ghana!
William Korte, International Director
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