Until we meet again, Kongo

I cannot believe I am saying this, but my time in Kongo village and Ghana in general is almost over. When I first came here, I thought 3 months and a half was plenty of time, but I could not have been more wrong. These months have passed by so quickly that it feels like I came here a week ago. I guess this just proves how amazing my life has been here, because time flies by so quickly when you are engaged in activities that are interesting and fun for you. And as much as I miss my country and my loved ones, I would love to stay in the village longer.

I want to start my final blog by saying a huge thanks to a Kongo based NGO CoDA, that has been hosting me all this time. Their dedication to make me feel great in this village was incredible. Since the day I arrived in the village they treated me like a family member and helped me in every step of the way. Taking me around for sightseeing, teaching me the local language, cooking me delicious vegetarian meals, greeting me with a smile every morning, helping me with my work tasks and so many other things. The fact that I had such an amazing experience in this village was absolutely the result of their efforts to make me feel welcome here. A special thanks goes to the executive director Victor and his family, who truly became a second family to me; my mentor Moses, who put so much effort into finding ways to cook me amazing vegetarian alternatives of local meals in addition to helping me with my work tasks; John and Alfred who were always there to make sure I am well, cheer me up with their jokes and to assist me every time I needed help or had questions; and of course my fellow volunteers Eva and Jorge, who were fantastic housemates.

I already praised the locals of Kongo for their kindness in my previous blog, but I will absolutely do it again in this blog. Even after three months here, I still get surprised by how amazing the local community is. Their friendliness is something I will remember forever. I really hope one day people in my country will become as warm, as kind and as friendly as people in Kongo are.

In terms of my work as a climate change advisor, with CoDA's help I have managed to accomplish a couple of projects. To begin with, we managed to get a good offer from one solar panel company, which means that the ICT center in Kongo will soon have solar power and so students will be able to attend classes even when there is no electricity. I have also taught a climate change course in three local schools and at the end of the course together with CoDA we organized a competition, to see which school gained the most knowledge during the course. Also, together with the executive director Victor, we went to the Forestry Commission in Bolga and got hundreds of trees free of charge which we gave away to the community members and schools. This will for sure make Kongo a greener place and will help fight climate change crisis. Furthermore, I have also collected a lot of stories about climate change related issues from local farmers, which can be used to spread the word about the seriousness of climate change crisis or to organize a fundraiser to help the farmers deal with the changing weather patterns. We are also currently working on repairing the community garden fence, so that a lot of fruit trees can be planted there and grow without animals destroying them.

I really hope future volunteers together with CoDA will continue working in climate change field. But for now, that is all. Until we meet again, Kongo.