Wow it's been a while since I blogged- I guess I've been busy somehow. In a nutshell for school, the past few weeks have been filled with ineffective classes for about 2 weeks because of the strike (which only officially last one week), typing lots of exam papers to print, and giving my ICT exam before leaving the village for our All Volunteers conference in Southern Ghana near home stay. Right now I'm staying with my home stay family until I leave for the college where the conference is held later today. After Easter before exams started, I took vacation during revision week to travel to the regional capital of the Upper West Wa. On either end I was able to go swimming with friends in Bolga which is quite a luxury during hot season. In Wa I stayed with another volunteer at her site which is a school for the deaf. Then I traveled to the Wechaui Hippo Sanctuary with 5 other girls to take a canoe tour to see hippos (we saw about 12 including some babies- very African experience) and sleep outside. It was beautiful there and very relaxing. I'll try and post some photos soon but not right now because the internet is pretty slow here. On Monday after school I got a call from my friend Chris telling me camels had (finally) come to the village! Other volunteers had seen them months ago but they never came through our village. I grabbed my camera and went with Chris to the house where the camels were. We each paid 2 cedis ($1) to sit on the camel while it stood up. So cool! Check out my facebook photos and hopefully more will come soon. On Monday night I leave for Barcelona for 10 days so will be taking another break from blogging for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I can get back into a better update routine in May. The main reason I wanted to blog today was to promote the Students Taking Action Reaching for Success (STARS) Conference taking place here next month. If you're looking for an extremely worthwhile
project to donate to then check it out! Here's a blurp I fulled from the donation website if you're interested:
The Students Taking Action Reaching for Success (STARS) Conference consists of five days of educational and empowerment activities for exemplary second year students in Ghanaian Senior High Schools, focusing on student leadership, HIV/AIDS education, community service, gender and youth issues, and health education. The annual conference is held in Kumasi. School Headmasters and Peace Corps Volunteer Teachers select participants from each of the ten regions of Ghana based on leadership abilities, positive attitudes, and academic performance. There will be 60 participants at this year's conference (30 boys and 30 girls), along with 6 returning "Junior Group Leaders" from the 2012 Conference and 6 Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology students, acting as mentors and role models, helping with logistics and playing other supportive roles.
This will be the eighth year for the S.T.A.R.S. conference. The conference has had great impacts on individuals, schools and at the national level. The three goals for the S.T.A.R.S conference are to serve the: - Individual: Participants will receive the knowledge, confidence, peer-education and problem-solving skills necessary for a healthy and successful future as a student and a leader. - School: Participants will be trained to become effective leaders in their schools, and to promote responsible decision-making and student participation in school activities. - Nation: Participants will share experiences to portray the unity and diversity of Ghanaian students from across the country and to encourage ownership of their country's development.
The structure of the 2013 STARS includes a community outreach day in which the participants will directly implement what leadership and education skills they have learned so far at the conference, by participating in service projects that benefit the greater Kumasi community. At the close of the conference, all the participants will be expected to come out with an action plan and follow ups will be made to monitor the implementation of their respective action plans.
