On the edge of the diving board

You know that moment when you are standing on the edge of the diving board? It’s when you’re hovering over the 12 foot deep pool of water deciding how to best execute the dive – there is excitement, anticipation, a vision of how your dive will look, and maybe a bit of anxiousness over the potential for messing up.

That moment is now.

The past 6.5 weeks of training, transition, excitement, stress, and growth have brought us to this point – we have been training to dive in to our true year of AgriCorps service. While we may have been mentally preparing ourselves for a Liberian pool filled with post-war problems, little to no educational structure, and a very physically challenging environment, we are now finding ourselves standing at the edge of a decently attractive Ghanaian pool – this one with a bit more educational structure, a strong 4-H foundation, and much more room to swim around. I can already see the positive impact of diving in and I can clearly see myself diving deeper than I would have expected to in Liberia.

We have been in Ghana for 3 weeks now. So far, we have had cultural/language training, agriculture training, and we got to go to our our villages for a set-up/scoping visit this past week. Then, after the 4-day village visit, we reconvened as a team in Koforidua for a weekend of review/final training. Although all of us were ready to “get to our village” for so long (because we literally have lived with each other for 6 weeks straight), we certainly were excited to see each other after just a few days apart – mainly because we were all so anxious to share about the awesome things we learned from our placements!! Let me share some of 

• My new home is great! My “host family” is a young couple with 2 small boys under age 6. The father, Richard, is my “counterpart” and one of the 4-H advisors for Savior Junior High School (JHS). He is great to work with and his wife is eager to teach me Twi and how to cook, etc. so I am super excited about this new home and my cheery, spacious room.
• My 4-H club is rocking – it is seen as one of the most advanced in the region in terms of size and scope. The kids have been so welcoming (AKA at least 5 visited the house every day I was there last week) and one of my officers has even started a home garden project even before school started!!
• The community is fantastic. Oseim (my new town) is a genuinely welcoming place and the Savior church community seems like a great area. People are kind and always willing to greet me or help me. I held a successful stakeholder meeting last week with some key persons in the school and community and everyone was willing to work with me and 4-H to improve the lives of the youth and farming community.
• There is already stuff happening... just because they have a foreign volunteer! While at first I doubted that my presence or work would bring much visible “fruit,” I learned quickly that the fruits are already present... even before my official start time! There is a very prominent Cocoa farmer in my town who is also head of the entire Savior church in Ghana. He is currently in the U.S. for a conference or event (as he is the World Cocoa Foundation President) and will be back soon, but he apparently is excited to meet with me. Plus, he donated about an acre of land for our school 4-H to expand its garden program... and he did this before I even arrived! Even more, there are some larger animal farmers in the area who are willing to donate pigs and rabbits for our 4-H to start one of the first school animal raising projects in the region!
• My school and community have high expectations of my time in Oseim – this is where the “anxiousness” of diving in is sourced. I know I will not have all the answers: I will mess up. But I am still so excited to work WITH the youth and community to empower them for sustainable agrarian and economic change... and let’s not forget how many awesome public speakers will come from Savior 4-H by the time my year is over!

I am sincerely excited to dive in to my year of service. There will be problems and barriers: I will get frustrated with the relaxed culture, especially in professional settings. I will miss home and I will feel lonely. I recognize these things, but I embrace them for they will allow this new “job” to be an all-encompassing growth experience.

So what next? Well, after a lovely weekend of team reflections and preparations (and some down time at an ACTUAL pool at a local hotel), I am ready to head back to Oseim tomorrow to GET STARTED! Classes start next Tuesday (September 16) and I have no idea how school will look or what my teaching will look like, but I will be teaching integrated science classes.

Here I stand at the edge of the board. The pool of opportunities is huge. Room for impact is unknown yet promising. I am ready to dive in.

And now you get to enjoy photos of the last 2-3 weeks, since I was unable to upload them for my last blog!

This is my school's 4-H garden!! Check out that welcome sign.

Ag training in Atiwa district (2 weeks ago) with extension officers

That time I wanted to do individual farmer interviews and my counterparts set up a meeting of 11 farmers with me and 14 farmers with Melissa... It didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped but it was fun to talk to them!

Piglets we may be getting for our 4-H program!! I am SO EXCITED! They have pretty nice structure and genetics!

Another local hog facility - some pretty nice stuff... 

Dog breeding at a local farm! They weren't quite pure bred, but they were cute.

This chicken farmer has 15,000 layers at his farm - he has been to ag trainings all over Europe and imports his chicks from Germany... crazy.

That one evening a herd of cattle made its way through our school yard... (note: cattle are NOT common here)

My cheery room and my new mosquito net! It makes me feel like a princess... really!

Good reflection and brainstorming occurred this past weekend in Koforidua with my AgriCorps family!

Check it out: I am starting to develop my own head carrying skills! I am excited to learn so much more while I am here!