This is the end…

11 Months have passed and there are only three weeks left of this one whole year here in Komenda. This fishing town at the Ghanaian Coast, that one year ago I only knew by name, I didn’t know the streets, I couldn’t speak the language and didn’t know the people. And now I feel like a little, little part of it, I get my Fufu with groundnut soup from the big Onga-woman, I know the shortest ways to the beach and the peoples faces and I buy my beans and bananas in Fante.

The last few months passed very fast, as usual. In our last term of the Youth Magazine Workshop, Melli, me and the students found out, why burning plastic is bad for the environment, how the rising sea level is affecting Ghana or what to do with old bottle caps. For the last lesson we brought biscuits, coke and the brochure “Environmental problems in Ghana” which include the students texts. So we had do say goodbye to our students with who we spend one year discussing, writing texts, playing, acting, reading, smiling and sometimes also misunderstanding (especially at the beginning). With a heavy heart we had to look into some sad and disappointed faces because the workshop will not continue next term as we are the last volunteers.

In our free time after the ending of the workshop Michael, Maxim, Melli and me decided to get to know the West African culinary diversity and travelled to Ghana’s neighbour country Togo. And in deed, directly after the border we ordered “une baguette, s’il vous plait” and ate it right there. On the streets we found small coffee and teashops, we ate Senegalese Couscous, sweet Croissants and Pain au Chocolat and went shopping in an Indian supermarket. After the capital Lomé we headed north to Kpalimé, where we found wonderful people and great waterfalls and landscapes. Unfortunately there was no more baguette and croissant to be found so we had to fill our stomach again with rice, corn and soft white bread. Back in Ghana, Volta Region we climbed through thick forest on the highest mountain in Ghana (Afadjato, 885m), jumped into the fresh water of an impressive waterfall and hiked to Togo and back.

After ten days of travelling back in Komenda we were warmly welcomed with a lot of “Akwaabas” and hugs from the neighbours. Also our cat Kwame-cat was happy that we were back – and we were happy to have our own bed again. So that’s how a nice home feels like, in the middle of Zongo-area, in between palm trees and baby-goats jumping around and a lot for friendly neighbours.

Especially with the kids I had a lot of fun through the year, they taught me how to shake my hips, we prepared Ghanaian dishes together, did rope skipping and went for jogging, washed our dirty clothes together, played Ludo or ate fresh groundnuts.

And as much as I feel welcome here in this country, I will always be a „bruni“ („white“). And it might always be a reason for some people to be friends with me, to ask me for money or to shout “Bruni koko, how are you? I’m fine thank you!”. This topic “being white” has accompanied me through the whole year and was always something to discuss about with the other volunteers, at the seminar and for sure also in the future. The fact that due to my skin colour I can enjoy certain privileges (“critical whiteness”) and easily can spend one year in Ghana, meanwhile a good, Ghanaian friend is refused the Visa for a volunteer service in Germany is linked with post colonialism and racism. But it would be too much now to go deeper into these topics, and myself I have also just started to understand these complex structures.

So this was only one of the topics that were on my mind through out the year and for sure they will be on my mind in the future. But now I am looking back and I am very thankful for all the experiences I could make here, the things I could learn and the people I could meet.

My bags are getting filled with colourful clothes, dresses and souvenirs – time to go back home (Germany home).

Byebye.