Hello,

I am Bele Hesse and I come from a small village in the district of Verden, near Bremen. Already for a month now, I have been living in Ho, the capital of the Volta Region in Ghana. Because I have always wanted to travel and live in other countries, it has been a dream of mine for several years to go abroad after finishing school.

Through my cousins, both of whom spent a few months in Ghana and Kenya/Uganda after attending high school, and my aunt, who regularly travels to African countries/islands (Tanzania, Cape Verde, …), I became interested in African countries. And maybe, in my naivety, I wanted to help the local people. However, I stumbled upon a YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIiaV-g-op0&t=657s) by an American who talked about his travels to „Africa“ (I honestly don’t remember which countries he visited) where he would spend a few weeks doing typical development work like building wells and so on. He talked about how little this actually helped the local people or even harmed them, and that this kind of development work was just a form of tourism (I believe it is called „voluntourism“) for do-gooders. I was somewhat shocked and also a bit embarrassed because I had wanted to do something like that myself at some point. So, I thought, well, maybe no trip to an unfamiliar country after my high school.

But then, through career orientation in the 11th grade, I came across „weltwärts.“ I was skeptical here too, and I still am, about whether I might somehow cause „harm“ with it. But it somehow sounded at least a little better. The focus was much more on personal development since, as a recent high school graduate, you couldn’t achieve much anyway. It was about cultural exchange and not about development aid. While there were still many negative reviews on the internet, I was somehow so interested in all of this that I started looking for organizations and then applied to VEM (United Evangelical Mission) by chance. This was followed by the introductory weekend, the final step in the application process. It was a real mind-blow for me. Former volunteers were there, talking about their experiences. We had sessions on criticism of volunteer services and questioned our role as volunteers. There were also discussions about racism. Since I had never learned anything about racism towards black people (in Germany) or colonialism in school, all of this was very new to me. But I think it made me more aware, and I gained a different perspective on things.

And that’s when I knew that a volunteer service with VEM (or NM) would work for me, and I applied for the position in Ho, Ghana, which was confirmed a few days later. Of course, one must not ignore the criticism (we also discussed it again during the pre-departure seminar, and I found it shocking that all former volunteers believed that volunteer work could reinforce racist structures and indeed does), but I believed and still believe that it will be very beneficial for me personally, and maybe I can take this new knowledge home after my time in Ghana and share it there.

And actually, it has already happened before my time in Ghana: In my family and with my friends, we have discussed political correctness regarding racism much more since the seminars (which is not always easy). Now I hope that during my time here in Ghana, I can gather many impressions and share them with my friends and family back home.

Here on my blog, I want to mainly write longer texts, but if you prefer visual impressions, you can request to follow me on Instagram (@bele.in.ho).

Also, I would like to emphasize once again – the impressions I share here reflect my personal perception. My perspective does not represent all of Ghana and certainly not all of Africa. Africa is an incredibly diverse continent with numerous countries, cultures, and perspectives.

I am open to constructive criticism regarding my reporting. So if you see or notice something that should maybe be handled more sensitively/differently, please feel free to let me know!

That’s it for now with my first blog post, thank you for reading :))