Description of Peace Corps Volunteer Service

John Park

Republic of Ghana

Introduction and Pre-Service Training

In September 2006, after a competitive application process stressing applicant skill, adaptability, and cross-cultural sensitivity, Mr. John Park was invited to join the United States Peace Corps. He was assigned to work in the Small Enterprise Development (SED) Program in Ghana, West Africa.

Upon arriving in Ghana on September 22, 2006, Mr. Park participated and completed an extensive ten-week cross cultural and technical Pre-Service Training program, which included Twi language training, technical skills training, medical training in recognition and treatment of both common and tropical illnesses, and cross cultural diversity training including a two-month home-stay with an Akan family in Hansua, Brong-Ahafo Region.

After successfully completing training Mr. Park was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer on November 30, 2006 and posted to Adanwomase in the Ashanti Region where he worked as a business advisor, resource liaison and tourism development coordinator. He served in Adanwomase as a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years and completed his service on November 20, 2008.

Primary Project: Tourism Development

Ÿ Mr. Park worked with the Adanwomase Tourism Management Team (ATMT) to support a community-based cultural tourism experience based on the production of Kente Cloth, a traditional hand-woven Ghanaian textile with roots in Adanwomase.

Ÿ Collaborated with community members, local government officials, members of the regional branch of the Ghana Tourist Board, Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC), an NGO based in Ghana, and local artisans to promote tourism.

Ÿ Worked with the ATMT in collaboration with NCRC to secure $340,000 for a textiles preservation project from the European Union (EU), which led to the start of the construction of a new visitor centre, the creation of interpretive signs for tourist attractions throughout the community, the re-painting of existing signboards, the continuation of training for the local tour guides and the creation of a three year development plan for the duration of the project.

Ÿ Assisted the community in enhancing the advertising for tourism by helping facilitate the purchase of air time on radio stations for commercials, the printing and distributing of 6,000 new color brochures, the posting of information on Ghana based tourism websites and guide books, and the creation of the official President John Agyekum Kufuor Kente cloth.

Ÿ Through the hard work of the ATMT, tourist numbers increased greatly in Adanwomase between the years of 2006-2008. In 2006, 250 tourists came to Adanwomase. In 2007, over 800 tourists visited Adanwomase. By the end of 2008, Adanwomase is projected to receive well over 1,000 tourists for the year.

Ÿ The rise in tourist numbers from the work of the ATMT led to the increase of over 200% in revenue annually. 60% of the proceeds were reinvested into tourism development and the remaining money was donated to the Adanwomase Unit Committee, which was used to support community development projects such as the mechanization of a borehole for water in the community.

Ÿ The work of the ATMT helped to improve the market for Kente Cloth and led to the opening of six new Kente Cloth stores in the community between the years 2006-2008.

Secondary Projects

HIV/AIDS Awareness:

Ÿ Mr. Park worked with the Adanwomase Seventh Day Adventist Health and Temperance Society (H&T) to write a successful proposal for funds from the Ghana AIDS Commission to hold a week long HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in the community.

Ÿ For three weeks, he helped to educate the H&T members on HIV/AIDS facts, statistics, and prevention techniques so that they could facilitate informational sessions at the local churches in the community. The H&T members then worked with Mr. Park to organize speakers such as a Ghanaian living with HIV/AIDS, a representative of Planned Parenthood, and local HIV/AIDS educators. Mr. Park also worked with the H&T members to write and rehearse a drama, create informational handouts, practice educational games, and acquire appropriate HIV/AIDS related movies. As a result of this program, over 1000 community members actively increased their awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

Ÿ During his stay Mr. Park also collaborated with other Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and various members of the individual communities to lead various HIV/AIDS awareness lessons throughout the region.

Adanwomase Community Library: Mr. Park helped to procure over 1000 books and CD-Rom encyclopedias for the community library through Books for Africa, Book Aid International, The Ghana Book Trust and Darien Book Aid.

World Map Project: With the assistance of other PCVs and students from various schools in the community, Mr. Park painted a 14’ x 7’ world map on the side of a structure near the local Junior Secondary School. The map is now used by all schools in the community to teach students geography.

Training Sessions: Throughout his time in Adanwomase, Mr. Park led a series of training sessions based on the request of individual community members. These sessions lasted anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. The most noteworthy of these training sessions were business plan writing, project design and proposal writing and a West African Trade Hub (WATH) prepared presentation on exporting to the US market.

Computer Lessons: After repairing the computer that was located at the Adanwomase Visitor Centre, Mr. Park taught typing and document formatting skills to three community members and five primary school students over a period of sixteen months.

Peace Corps Roles

Mr. Park also held a variety of positions within Peace Corps. He served as the Ashanti regional representative as well as the National Secretary to the Volunteer Advisory Committee, a forum for communicating volunteer ideas and concerns to Peace Corps administration. He took on additional responsibilities as a supervisor and emergency contact person of a regional office while serving as a stand-in volunteer leader for various extended periods of time.

Cultural Exchange

In addition to his project work, Mr. Park actively sought to learn Ashanti culture. With tutoring and daily practice, Mr. Park was able to become proficient in the Twi language. He attended all community churches, festivals, funerals and celebrations. Mr. Park also worked to share his Korean American culture with community members by introducing both Korean and American foods, teaching and playing American football with students and by introducing different Western films and television shows to the community.

Later in the night he came back around 11pm and knocked on my door. He asked me if he could sleep in the empty room across the way. At this point I got pretty annoyed and told him that it wasn’t my house so I couldn’t give him permission to sleep there. After that I went back inside my house and locked my door.

When I was back in the states I don’t think I would have thought twice about giving this kid some money or possibly even letting him sleep in the garage/storage room, which is basically what the room across the way is. I’m not really sure how I became so de-sensitized to poverty and people less fortunate than I am. You would think after spending nearly two years in Africa surrounded by poverty I would be more sympathetic, but I’ve become the opposite. And I don’t know if it is a good thing.

After a month of being in Ghana I realized that running/getting away was not going to solve issues that I had and wanted desperately to come back home. I began to miss the job that I had, going out on the weekends and meeting up with friends and I began to miss the people that I wanted to take a break from.

I recently had a conversation with a person with somewhat of a similar background that I have had. She also immigrated to the United States at the age of 3 and has lived her life in the US since then. We shared our stories of how our parents ended up in the US and how they initially had to cope with living there. Our parents struggled, but from it seemed like both of our parents worked hard in America to get to the place that they are at now.

There are countries in the world today like the European Union that may be doing better than the US in the economic sense, but I am proud to have lived and be a citizen of the United States of America. I don’t know why I never realized it before, but I guess I had to be here in Ghana to realize this. When you ask a Ghanaian why they all want to go to America instead of some place in Europe most of their responses are that they feel that Americans are a lot more open to having people of different races and ethnic backgrounds in their country.

I may not always agree with the current US government policies and how it operates, but I am proud to be an American. I feel like that there is no other places in the world that would and could have afforded my family the opportunities that it has had.

Written on September 4, 2007.

Apparently one of the men owed the other one 50,000 cedis (the equivalent of US $5), but the other man said that he didn’t owe the other man anything. They started arguing and then all of a sudden one of the men punches the other one in the face. This video went on for about 2 minutes. Two handicapped men in wheelchairs fist fighting each other… They eventually both fell off their wheelchairs and were rolling on the ground. I know how wrong I am for it, but I actually found it pretty amusing. At the end of the news program they showed the video of the fight again as they were closing the show. Television programs that they play here in Ghana are typically pretty boring, but when I can I always try and catch the news just in case they show more stories like this.

Written on November 12, 2007.

It’s nice to see that some celebrities are using their fame and fortune to do some sort of good where it is really needed.

If you want more info regarding the plight with the water situation here in Africa go to http://think.mtv.com.

Written on June 11, 2007.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1707059,00.html

New blog entries and pictures from my end will be coming soon. I promise. I’ve just gotten lazy about posting the past couple of months.

Today while I was using the bathroom I saw a mouse in the space between the door and the wall. After I was finished taking care of business I went and got the stick that I use to chase/kill bullfrogs out of my shower/toilet area. The mouse was scurrying around and I was trying to crush and kill it by smacking it against the wall. This wasn’t working and the mouse made its way to the top of door and just sort of stared at me in a mocking way. I got pissed. I stood on the toilet and took a swing at the mouse. I didn’t care if I killed it at that point. All I wanted to do was inflict as much pain on this mouse that I possibly could. I got lucky and I hit the mouse. It hit the wall in the next room and landed in a bucket of rainwater that I had collected. I stood over the bucket of water and watched the mouse swim around in it for a while. I was just going to leave it in there to drown, but then I saw it jump and actually come close to getting out. I wasn’t going to let this mouse live after it had mocked me so a couple of minutes earlier. I grabbed my stick again and started toying with the mouse and pushing it into the water. I don’t know if many of you know this, but mice are pretty resilient creatures. They can swim and actually hold their breath for a pretty long time. After toying with it for about 5 minutes I was getting tired of standing there watching the mouse struggle. I took my stick and pinned it to the bottom of the bucket until it drowned. Killing the mouse today was the highlight of my day. I feel like I actually accomplished something by killing the mouse today and may put it in my quarterly report for the Peace Corps.

Picture me rolling…
- Tupac Shakur