Perspectives from Ghana

Stacia, a former RA from Anders at ISU, is with the Peace Corps in Ghana right now. She has some really interesting pictures and blog posts at her site.

One of her blog posts is her reflections at the 9-month mark in Ghana. Here are some thought-provoking quotes from it:

In America we often here of all the problems that exist in Ghana... poverty, corruption, abuse, gender inequality, lack of water, disease. We seem to think that it exists but can’t be as bad as they want us to believe. We also believe that it’s fixable. But living here for the past 9 months has given me a new perspective.

The corruption is pervasive, the gender inequality is improving in the urban areas, and poverty/water development is in progress. The Ghanaians may be poor, but compared to other countries in Africa, they are doing quite well. The truth is that they’re lives are incredibly difficult, and they don’t have any of the luxuries that we have in America and even small things that we take for granted are beyond their imagination. But they are doing just fine. Most families scrape by with enough food and water to survive. They used to be comfortable with having enough, but now the Western mentality has crept into the minds of the people and suddenly having enough isn’t enough. They want to have more. As much as possible, and they will do unthinkable things to get there.

It will take time, probably a lot of time to change things in Ghana and in Africa, and I truly believe now that development is going to take a lot more than money. Throwing money at a problem won’t do a thing, and the government workers will probably take a chunk of it to line their own pockets in the process. However, step by step, child by child, things can change. Education is at the heart of this change. My job is at the heart of this change. For the majority of teachers in Ghana, teaching is simply the transfer of information. My main goal here isn’t to teach computers. But by teaching computers I hope to transfer real life skills.

I would encourage you to go read all of what she has written and look at the pictures. Eye-opening! The line I put in bold type above is what really stuck out to me. We are so used to...saturated in a culture that says it's okay to always strive for more and more. This mentality doesn't have any less ugly results here, but we are so used to them - so conditioned to accept them as okay - that we don't even notice.