You will live in the village of Agbenoxoe, roughly 8 km from Kpando District in the Volta Region. The village resides on Lake Volta, the world's largest artifial lake, covering more than 3,200 square miles. The weeks will be split between work days and projects in the village and at Missahoe Children’s Home, a modest drive from the village. Agbenoxoe village elders have donated a plot of land for the future site of a children's home, school, and youth center (a multi-year project). The elders also have offered VISIONS a guest house where we will live together and will be our home base.

The guest house has beds, running water (bathrooms, simple showers) and separate rooms for guys, gals and leaders (staffers). Weekdays after breakfast, you will head out to the work projects, either in the village or at the Missahoe Children’s Home in Kpando. Your service projects are a mix of ground-up construction, renovation, volunteering with and tutoring the Home’s children, and social service with the Joy Family Association, one of our key NGO partners that focuses on health education in 21 surrounding communities.

During the week we typically work about five hours per day with short breaks and an hour or so for lunch. Most days we head back to home base for dinner. You will be a member of a crew that rotates through duties such as keeping our living space clean, shopping for fresh foods, helping set up before and clean up after meals.

After work we will spend time with kids at the Missahoe, playing soccer and other games, reading to them or doing art activities. The children’s openly joyful desire to be with you guarantees that your afternoons will be spontaneously richly rewarding. There will be day visits in village families’ homes and an opportunity to “interview” your hosts to learn details about their lives. You will listen to their music, watch and learn their dances, share meals and stories with them.

Several evenings each week after dinner, we set aside time to meet as a group of volunteers. This is a slow-down time to gather together to speak and listen to each other, share our eactions to the day or iron out occasional issues. You will be able to call and/or email home once a week.

Weekends will be eye-opening. We explore Kumasi, the seat of the Ashanti kingdom, en route to Mole National Park for a safari to see Ghana’s wildlife. We will visit the Manhyia Palace (current home of the Ashanti king) in Kumasi, the National Cultural Centre with traditional Ghanaian arts and crafts workshops, and the Kejetia Market, West Africa’s largest market. You will see slave forts along the Cape Coast, swim in the ocean, and cross a canopy walk through the rain forest in Kakum National Park. You will explore fully the Volta region from the Wli waterfall to hiking Mt. Afadjato to visiting with the monkeys at Tafi-Atome Monkey Sanctuary, and more.