While many students feasted on honey-baked ham and pumpkin pie over winter break, University junior Caitlin Hickey volunteered at an orphanage in the southeast Kpando district of Ghana’s Volta region.
After 18 hours of traveling, Hickey arrived in the Kpando district with her sister, Taya Geiger, and two other volunteers. The group then traveled to HardtHaven Children’s Home to assist the orphanage in caring for Ghanaian children with HIV/AIDS.
“On the first day, we drove up and there were 19 kids that didn’t even know us, and they ran up to the car because they were so excited to have new people there to help them,” Geiger said.
Hickey helped take care of the children at HardtHaven Children’s Home and became known throughout the town and market by locals.
“I got to live like an actual member of the community,” Hickey said.
“I always bought pineapple from the same lady at the market. I washed my clothes with everyone. People started to get to know me because it was such a hands-on experience.”
Although many University students study abroad at foreign schools, Hickey and Geiger lived at the orphanage and learned the way of life in a small Ghanaian town without the added comfort of knowing other students in a program.
“I think it’s an experience that would benefit any college student because it gives you a perspective of how many people around the world live,” Geiger said.
During a season that typically revolves around shopping and excessive eating, Hickey immersed herself in a foreign culture without even the luxury of running water or communication with the developed world.
“It made me realize that I can be happy regardless of the material things in life,” Hickey said. “While I was there, everyone around me was content with the things they already had.”
If she hadn’t traveled to Ghana for winter break, Hickey said she probably would have spent the holidays at her parents’ house “vegging out and doing absolutely nothing.”
Although she gave up the opportunity to relax after a stressful fall term, Hickey said she had such an enriching experience that she felt rejuvenated and that she hoped to volunteer again soon.
“This was something I had been passionate about doing for a long time,” Hickey said. “I wanted to actually go there and see how it felt to help these kids, and I wanted the opportunity to meet them and be in their environment.”
However, she learned that traveling to a different country doesn’t come without some difficulties as a foreigner. While backpacking to the Wli Waterfalls of the Volta region, Hickey and Geiger had an uncomfortable experience.
“We were fortunate enough to stay in a small city where the people welcomed foreigners, but when we went to nearby tourist attractions like the waterfalls there were a lot of people begging for money and harassing us to give them stuff because we were
tourists,” Hickey said.
Hickey and the other volunteers in the program had to adjust to the culture of the area, which often included being called “yobos,” slang for “white people,” and eating local foods made from fish and corn dough called “bonku.”
“The most shocking thing to me was that people there hit their kids a lot, and watching people beat their children as discipline was something I was not used to. It takes a while to get used to other people’s customs like that,” she said.
Next time, Hickey plans on traveling to another part of Africa where volunteers are desperately needed.
Despite the cultural differences and lack of modern luxuries in Kpando, Ghana, Hickey said she thought that she spent winter break enriching her life and the lives of orphans and that she returned to the University with a renewed sense of gratitude for life.
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