Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 2/26/08 Section: News

Media Credit: John Dougherty Loyola students got to experience daily life in Ghana first hand. Junior, Kari D'Ottavio, is pictured here with three young Ghanian children.

The diviner's home was almost a hut, a modest structure of clay and branches. When the first group of students entered, they sat beside the healer, and each gave him one cedi, roughly equivalent to one dollar. Having collected his fee, the diviner began to sift through the collection of beads and shells on the floor, examining the shifting patterns. His reading complete, he returned his attention to the students and began to tell them their futures. Among the students was Loyola junior Kari D'Ottavio. "He told us all the same thing: 'You will be successful, you will be happy, you will have a good family.' And he told me, 'Mark my words, your first born will be a son.'" Despite the atmosphere, she remained somewhat skeptical about the prediction. "It looked like it was serious, but in the back of my head I was thinking, 'What are you doing?'"

Meanwhile, Beverly Perrone, another Loyola junior, waited outside for her own turn inside the diviner's hut. She was surrounded by village life: donkeys and chickens wandering around the dusty street, groups of children playing, women grinding vegetables with a large stick to make fufu, a staple food. It was a scene totally foreign to her. "I was just like, 'Whoa, what am I doing here?'" D'Ottavio agreed. "I was thinking this is one of those times where I'll look back and say, 'Wow, that was a real African experience.'"

D'Ottavio, Perrone, and Nick Logler spent last semester in the sub-Saharan African nation of Ghana, the first Loyola College students to participate in the program, coordinated through NYU.

"It was a totally different experience, a totally different opportunity," Logler said, regarding his choice to study abroad in Ghana. The other students agreed: although Ghana is extremely different from the mainstream study abroad experience, it was exactly that difference that made it attractive.

"I wanted to go on more of an adventure," Perrone said, "not a vacation."

The students said that Ghana fit well with their areas of study; D'Ottavio and Logler are Global Studies majors, Perrone a Political Science major.

For four months the students lived in the capital city of Accra, in the south of Ghana. Their housing was provided by NYU, as were several trips throughout the semester. The differences, they said, were immediately apparent. Accra was a sprawling city of squat buildings, its various districts far more spread out than in American cities. "There's a little central section where they have their soccer stadium and some monuments," said Logler, "but other than that, just the names of the neighborhoods change."

Other examples of culture shock included deciphering the Ghanian accent (although, as a former British colony, most people they met spoke English) and adjusting to their relaxed concept of time.

"Everything there happens two hours late," Logler said. "I liked that pace."

Even as they became accustomed to the heat and the sight of women carrying things on their heads from place to place, the students found that the strangest experience as, suddenly, becoming the minority.

"It's a visual thing," D'Ottavio said. "If you have eyesight, you know you are different." They soon became accustomed to being affectionately called obruni (white person) by small children, as well as being the constant target of hawkers.

"People are trying to make a living," said D'Ottavio, "and when they see a white person they automatically assume that they're rich. Just by the color of my skin, I'm already a walking dollar sign."

However, the students were never treated badly. "It was like being a privileged minority," she said. "Ghana is a very welcoming country. The people are just friendly, that's their culture. We were warmly welcomed basically everywhere we went."

The students were impressed by the friendliness of the Ghanian people. They shared stories of random acts of kindness from strangers, people who were more than happy to assist a visitor to their country.

"Almost 100 percent of the time someone would take the initiative and walk us somewhere, or walk us to transportation, and you'd give them a little something for their help," said Perrone.

"Sometimes they don't even expect anything," said Logler. "It's just their culture."

Immersing themselves in the culture of Ghana also exposed the students to many of the harsh realities that Ghanian citizens face. Despite being one of the more politically and economically stable countries in the region, Ghana is a third world country and a huge gap exists between rich and poor. Through several NYU trips, and by spending their two--week fall break backpacking around the country, the three students visited many impoverished rural villages.

"When we pulled up on the bus, me and Kari were tearing up because we'd never seen anything like that before," said Perrone, of one trip. "All the kids are barefoot, and each family lives in a hut."

They were surprised, however, to find great joy among the poverty.

"They're all wearing shirts that have been donated, these over-sized shirts," said Logler, "but they're so happy to see you."

"It's all relative to your situation," said D'Ottavio. "Just because you're poor doesn't necessarily mean your life is horrible. For generations and generations, this is how they've lived. If you have your family, family is everything, and if you have food, you're fine."

Although warmed by the happiness of Ghana's poorest citizens, the students also discovered the great need for social and economic change. Another trip took them to Tamale, where a village had, several months before, been destroyed by a flood. Now the village was experiencing a drought, lacking the water needed to mix with the mud and clay that made their homes, as well as the water needed to grow food. The rainy season would not arrive until April, and then it would be several months before the harvest. In other words, the villagers were homeless, and without food for at least eight months.

"A lot of those people might be dead by now," Perrone said. "They were starving, and they can't grow crops until June or so."

"We have the resources and the education to know how to fix that permanently, not temporarily," said D'Ottavio, citing the effect that simply changing the materials that the villagers used to build their homes would make.

Seeing these problems firsthand, the students realized how little was needed to make a big difference. "There were about 35 of us on that trip, and if each of us had donated 10 dollars, five dollars, it would have made a huge difference," Perrone said.

"We realized how far 10 dollars can go," D'Ottavio added. "You wouldn't be able to even begin to understand how far it would go unless you see it with your own eyes. That could be a reason why people don't donate, because they don't know how little it takes to make a difference."

They noted that a major problem is that money received through charities and international aid rarely reaches those who need it the most.

"That's the problem with organizations like the World Bank, which are doing great things, but they're putting money in the wrong hands," said Perrone. "They give it to the government, and they're building a new mansion for the Ghanian president. And charities take 20 percent of it, and give the rest to God knows who."

"If we were just to go there ourselves with a thousand dollars, we could probably make a bigger difference than international aid could," D'Ottavio said.

"[The money] just doesn't get there," said Perrone. "There are too many villages for it to get everywhere."

While in Ghana, D'Ottavio and Perrone volunteered at the West African AIDS Foundation. They organized a concert to raise money for AIDS research, and performed at the University of Ghana in Lagon. They hope to do the same on campus next year, and will meet with Student Activities on Tuesday, Feb. 26.

"Community service is such a big part of our culture at Loyola," D'Ottavio said. "So we hope that we can do a concert back here, and now that we know where the money has to go, that can do more good than anything else."

As well as educating the campus on social problems in Ghana and what can be done to make a change, the students have also found themselves dispelling many popular myths about Africa.

"It's not as bad as the media portrays it," said D'Ottavio. "Everyone thinks that Africa is this dirty continent that's full of diseases and wars, and there are problems, but there are positive parts."

"People have been like, 'Where'd you live in a hut?' or 'What did you do at night?' I say, 'We went to the clubs, just like you.'"

"And people were like, there's that there? There's houses there? There's cars there?" said D'Ottavio. "And I was like, yeah, it's not just this flat piece of land, there's people there, there's things happening."

All three students attested to the beauty of the landscape, and said that, despite the high rate of poverty, felt very safe.

"I felt safer in Ghana than I do in Baltimore," said D'Ottavio. Logler added, "It's just a very friendly place."

The Ghana program is operated through an affiliation with NYU. For the semester, the three students were, officially, NYU students, although they only paid Loyola tuition. The difference was made up by funds donated by Loyola. The International Programs office is currently attempting to create Loyola's own trip to Ghana, both to provide students with a new opportunity and to save the money now used to pay the tuition difference.

The students were enthusiastic about adding Ghana to Loyola's study abroad roster. "I think it's really important that everyone goes there," said Perrone. "People need to see what's happening. If more people saw, it would probably be a much better situation."

"Loyola's trying to make it their own thing so that more people can go," Logler said. "Money is a concern, but it's really worth it."

They agreed that participating in a non-mainstream study abroad experience, such as Ghana, India, Bangkok, China, or Japan, has the extra benefit of impressing future employers.

"People are impressed that you survived and had a good experience and learned from it," said D'Ottavio.

When asked if they would return to Ghana, the three students answered with a unison "Absolutely." They intend to use their experiences and enthusiasm for the program to encourage others to participate and, hopefully, make Ghana a Loyola program.

"You challenge what you know about yourself," said D'Ottavio, of the trip as a whole. "I didn't know I could backpack around and not be able to wash my clothes or have a hot shower everyday. But you challenge yourself, and you learn a lot about yourself and the extent of what you can do."

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