Crazies unite.

Cast:
ICYE - International Cultural Youth Exchange. It's the federation that coordinates the exchange of volunteers across forty-five countries. Headquartered in Germany, ICYE celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.
NC - National Committee. Each country's branch of ICYE.
United Planet - the name of the United States' National Committee.
Quest - volunteer abroad program offered by United Planet.
Ghana - my Quest destination country. It is also where my paternal grandparents lived for nearly 25 years before moving to the States.
Katrina Liu - me.

Setting:
A couple weeks ago at a retreat site in Middle Of Nowhere, New Hampshire.

Plot:
I drove for eight hours through six states (PA, NJ, NY, CT, MA, NH) to arrive at the Toah Nipi Retreat Center for a pre-departure training weekend with United Planet. Fourteen volunteers are scheduled to leave for their Quests in Jan/Feb 2010, myself included. We spent two days working through a string of seminars covering topics such as Cultural Adjustment, Cross-Cultural Communication and Health & Safety. Since we weren't all going to the same country, the information was generic. We did, however, prepare a short presentation with fun facts on our respective destination countries ...




















Ghana Facts:
- Accra - capital city located on the southern coast.
- Population - 23.8MM.
- Currency - cedis. 9M cedis = $1
- Government - constitutional democracy. Sound familiar? Ah, 'tis the legacy of British common law.
- Median age - 20.7 years. Compare this to the US median age of 36.7. Think AIDS ...
- Ghana was the first sub-Saharan colony to gain its independence in 1957.
- While under British rule, Ghana was known as the Gold Coast which means 1) there probably isn't any more gold there and 2) most people speak English.

Synopsis:
Sure, the training was helpful but the most valuable benefit of this weekend was meeting all the other volunteers. Believe it or not, I'm not the only crazy who quit her job and is paying to live in a remote African village for months on end. It was so encouraging to meet kindred spirits ... and they were all good people! I'll admit that my hopes for the future of this world went up a couple clicks after this weekend. Hooray for the crazies.

(Aside: When I tell people what I'm doing, I'm often complimented for my altruism and bravery. Don't be fooled - this is probably one of the most selfish things I'll ever do. After a couple short-term service trips in high school, I've always wanted to live abroad for an extended period of time. I think this will impact me much more than anyone in Ghana i.e. I hope to become a better person for this. So this is indeed a selfish undertaking. Just wanted to set the record straight.)