News

Volunteer finds answers to prayers in Ghana

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

	EAGER STUDENTS: Sharon Van Straten of Appleton teaches English to students in Prampram, Ghana, on a service trip with Global Volunteers. (Submitted photo)

Many of us make travel plans because someone we know went first and made the place sound irresistible: The lights of Paris; The canals of Venice.

The red, sand streets of Prampram, Ghana?

For Sharon Van Straten of Appleton, her son, Steve Salm, and his love of this west African nation led to her 24-day trip in Ghana, teaching English to children and adults. (Ghana is a tropical country, about a third larger than Wisconsin, with a population of 20 million.)

"Steve started the relationship with his caring and love for the people and culture," said Van Straten, who attends both St. Joseph Church and St. Thomas More Church, with her husband, Russ.

Steven made a service trip to Ghana in the early 1990s, while a student at UW-Madison. He liked Ghana so much that he made several other trips, earned a doctorate in African studies, wrote a book on the country's culture, and now teaches African history at Xavier University in New Orleans.

So, when Van Straten stepped off the plane at Accra, the capital of Ghana, last November, it was like coming home.

"I saw all the Ghanaians around the fence, welcoming loved ones home," she said. "I saw all those hands waving to welcome people, and I realized that I was there because a loved one, my son, had been to this country many times."

There were plenty of times when Van Straten, a retired counselor from St. Joseph Middle School in Appleton, wondered why she was going on this service trip. "I don't think I've ever prayed so hard for direction," she said about planning to go with the St. Paul, Minn., based Global Volunteers.

She'd read about the non-profit group that offers "volunteer vacations" in Catholic Digest a few years ago. The idea stuck and, finally, she found herself on an eight-person team, their ages ranging from 26 to 73, from several states, heading for Africa. For the first two weeks, Van Straten helped teach English to 48 third-grade students in a Methodist school.

As Van Straten looked at her students, sitting two to a desk and facing the chalkboard with no shelves for erasers, she passed out the colored markers and crayons she had brought to children who have to share pencils and use pit toilets. "What am I doing here?" she recalled thinking, "I'm not an English teacher."

The feeling didn't last. The children were eager to learn. And their teacher, Nancy, and two practice teachers, Victory and Franklin, welcomed Van Straten. She quickly picked up some the local dialect, Dangbe, and bonded with several students.

"It was my impression," Van Straten recalled, "that Ghanaian people are somewhat reserved about feelings, especially crying. Thus, on the last day of teaching, when I saw Comfort starting to get teary-eyed and putting her head down on her desk, I was very touched."

Comfort has already sent Van Straten a letter in Appleton, telling her how much she misses her.

Van Straten could have stayed at the school longer, but wanted to "work with a different age group," so she spent her third week at the Women's Institute, a vocational school where she taught English to women learning dress-making, hair-dressing and catering skills.

"English is the official language in Ghana," Van Straten said. (Few, however, speak English comfortably, relying on several local dialects.) "They believe that they need to have English to succeed."

Many who don't succeed at a trade, or manage to pass the sixth grade testing and cannot finance further education, end up as street vendors. Van Straten saw 15 and 16-year olds hawking wares near the busier cities. It is an often short and violent life. The illegal drug trade is also common in the country.

Violence is part of Ghana's history and schools still use corporal punishment. On some of her free time, Van Straten toured the "slave castles" on the coast where, for 400 years, Africans were housed for shipment to the New World as slaves. Van Straten cannot forget the air of death and despair that hangs over the prisons.

"We went into the individual cells," she said, "and they shut the door on us. Just to realize what it must have been like - the stench and the darkness."

There were also fun times, like trips to the local fishing boats and a gospel concert.

Late in her stay, Van Straten found the family connection again. She spent her last four days in Accra with a host family related to a family she knows from her days at St. Joseph's - Gladys and Michael Oolango. In 1995, the Oolangos, with their children, Portia and Cubby, had just arrived from Ghana. Their stories had added to Van Straten's original desire to see their homeland. The Oolangos visited Van Straten this Christmas, after her return home, to share stories and photos of her trip.

For Van Straten, it only emphasized the connection between people. "It's still, for me, the idea that the world is small," she said. "The world is not very big."

As the trip ended, Van Straten took a farewell stroll through Prampram, a town of about 8,000. "In Ghana, people are all related," she said, explaining that this is how visitors are made welcome and a part of local life. So everyone knew she was leaving. They were waving, touching her and her roommate's hands, talking with them, as they passed. And the children were shouting, "Bufano, Bufano" (which she said means "white person").

"I felt like Miss America, taking her crown off," said Van Straten. "Walking down the street, saying my good-byes and taking my crown off. It was a snapshot moment for me."

Since her return, Van Straten has received several letters from Ghana. She also has a few e-mail addresses and intends to keep in touch. She even gave the Prampram students her Appleton address and told them to visit if they ever come to Wisconsin.

Yes, she'd enjoy returning to Ghana. "But, no," she added. "I won't go back - because there are other places to visit."

She says a service trip to Costa Rico is a possibility. She had already made a service trip to Kentucky with Fr. Dick Klingeisen of Manitowoc, and two trips to the Holy Land had shown her the daily lives of Palestinians. But she feels most drawn to going to Haiti with a group of doctors who volunteer medical services each year. She hopes to convince her sister from Missouri to join her.

Meanwhile, she continues as a substitute teacher for special education students in Appleton public schools and offers evenings of reflection at Monte Alverno Retreat House. It's not exactly what she'd planned for her retirement years, but she believes that it happens as God plans.

"When you come to the end of your work," she said, "you think you'll slow down, retrace your life. Instead, there's a new life and new roads. Instead of retracing, there are such neat opportunities. And they are there for everyone."

(Global Volunteers contributed to this story. Their web site is www.globalvolunteers.org.)