BY SUSAN MCTIGUE
CORRESPONDENT
CLOSTER, N.J. —— Luke and Virginia Gervase, long-time residents of Closter, were taken aback when their granddaghter Brittany Bonanno announced that she would be traveling to Ghana as a volunteer teacher in the small town of Frankadua.
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“Why did she have to go so far away?” said these loving grandparents.
Their initial concern turned to pride when Brittany returned home with reports of this life changing experience.
Through International Volunteer Headquarters (www.volunteerhq.org), Brittany fulfilled her desire to visit Africa, not as a tourist, but to share some of her skills with children. She graduated from Rowan University in 2016 with a degree in Filmmaking and Photography and hopes one day to become a documentary filmmaker. She looked forward to the experience of living with people from a very different culture than the one she knew in northern New Jersey.
Along with a dozen other volunteers, Brittany stayed in a simple building with no running water and only occasional electricity.
Three local girls lived with the volunteers and prepared meals for them. Food came from local sources and included corn, mango, watermelon, rice and meat from goats and chicken.
The children Brittany taught ranged in age from 7 to 18, and her subject matter included lessons in English, math, science and creative arts.
granddaughter Brittany for her service in Ghana.
Some children arrived each day for classes, others only occasionally, but a bond was formed between teacher and students.
Her daily goal was “to have an impact on at least one child each day and improve their skills.”
Brittany’s biggest challenge was teaching English since some children spoke quite well, but others not at all. She noted that all of the children loved anything that was technological, especially her camera.
Free time for Brittany and her fellow volunteers was on the weekends when they could travel beyond Frankadua. Her most meaningful destination was to Cape Coast Castle, formerly a large commercial fort built in 1653 and used to hold slaves before they were shipped to the Americas. The building was restored in the 1990s and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Traveling in a van over mostly unpaved roads, the trip took seven hours each way, but Brittany felt it was well worth the time and discomfort to get a deeper understanding of this somber period of history.
The contrast between suburban life and all its comforts with the simple rural life in Ghana gave Brittany an appreciation for all those things taken for granted as an American. But she also came to understand that the people in Frankadua were consistently joyful despite not knowing if a meal would be waiting for them at the end of each day. She carried this lesson of simplicity and gratitude with her back to New Jersey.
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To see more of Brittany’s photography, go to www.skinanddirt.com.
Photos courtesy Susan McTigue