For the month of July I lived and worked in a rural farming town in West Africa. The word incredible doesn’t even start to describe my experiences in Frankadua, Ghana.

The program I was lucky enough to work with is headed by a volunteer organization called IVHQ. Based out of New Zealand, IVHQ runs volunteer initiatives all over the world that provide much needed help to underprivileged communities.

Myself along with 14 other volunteers were stationed in Frankadua, a small town of 5,000 inhabitants in Ghana’s Volta region. Two programs were based in this town, a teaching program that assisted three local schools and an agriculture program that helped develop farm lands for the community.

I worked with 4 of the other volunteers on the agriculture program. Our main goal that month was to develop a newly acquired plot of land for the poorest of schools in the area.

The first step was to till the soil and remove tree stumps and rocks. We would get up at 5:30am every morning to head to the farm before it got too hot to work in the fields. Everything had to be done by hand or with very basic tools, there were no short cuts to this work. After tilling we planted the 1/3 acre plot of land entirely with watermelon. The watermelon was to be used as a cash crop to help sustain the farm and provide an income to the school.

Field where watermelons were planted.

After planting, the watermelon were left to mature for a week before we fertilized the soil. In that time we worked to raise funds to purchase more land for the school to use. One of the volunteers set up a donation page online, and the response was amazing. After the first few days we had raised over a thousand dollars, enough to purchase two more acres of land for the school and other plots in the community. With the funds we were also able to buy more seeds, including carrot, bean, plantain, and eggplant.

Eggplant seeds.

Making sheltered beds to mature the eggplant seeds before transplant of the semi matured seedlings to a larger field.

Not only did I leave knowing that I made an impact on the community, but I also came home with a deeper appreciation for what I usually took for granted. These people, living without running water and many without electricity, were still some of the happiest I have ever met. Their basic way of life just reinforced the locals tight knit community and incredible work ethic. Everyone truly had a place in the village, including the volunteers; and I feel so lucky that I was able to be a part of it.

Julia and some of the kids from the school their farm was benefiting.