My Impact

While spending two years making personal improvements and gaining a new perspective was really valuable, that could have been achieved in many ways. The reason I chose to join the Peace Corps was so that I could accomplish these things while simultaneously contributing my knowledge and experiences to assist a community in need. And to be sure, there were moments I felt my presence making a difference. But at least just as often I questioned if those feelings were legitimate or if the effects would be long lasting. It’s safe to say that during my service I struggled to understand the impact I was having on my community and being home hasn’t illuminated anything to me.

The one area I’m confident I made a positive difference in is challenging and broadening Ghanaians’ impressions of Americans. I shared many positive personal moments with a large number of Ghanaians both in and out of my community and while I struggled at times to build deep, meaningful relationships, I always tried really hard to be friendly, positive and understanding. I hope that through these efforts the people I interacted with will remember me fondly and have positive associations with the United States and Americans as a result. I also tried to shape my public personality to promote a healthier understanding of who we are and what we have to offer. For example, I regularly behaved in ways that I didn’t need to in order to indicate I didn’t have a lot of money. For instance, I took only public transportation and, when appropriate, haggled at the market. I also tried to be a facilitator on projects more than a leader and I de-emphasized western influence when I could. In my interview with Peter, which you can watch in a post on this blog or on my YouTube channel, I highlighted a Ghanaian’s influence on the farming techniques we were using when Peter initially failed to do so. I hope these interactions, which must number in the thousands, had some kind of positive influence on Ghanaians and how they move forward as individuals and as a community. I’m also encouraged that there are, have been and will continue to be hundreds of other volunteers having similar interactions all throughout the country every day.

It’s for all of those reasons and more that I’ve often chided at volunteers (or people at home) who think that Peace Corps does more harm than good. While I think there’s a legitimate case to be made about other organizations net benefit or harm, I think Peace Corps’ impact from personal relationships and interactions alone is enough to outweigh any negatives.

I do worry sometimes that my personal struggle to develop deeper relationships and my inability to integrate more meaningfully left some mixed impressions. I was incredibly lucky to have such a warm and friendly community and I think they were happy with what I was able to offer them overall. But I suppose it feels like a bit of a lost opportunity since such an amazing situation is not guaranteed and a volunteer better able to adopt the local culture could have had even more success. It’s for that reason I was so adamant that I be replaced. I hoped someone could come in and fill in the gaps that I left missing, continuing to balance the impression of Americans and showing that we all integrate in different ways. I wanted my community to know that my strengths and weaknesses are a representation of me as a person, not of Americans overall. Unfortunately, due to some circumstances out of Peace Corps control, I wasn’t replaced. However, I will continue to advocate for my community from home and hopefully they’ll receive another volunteer soon.

Memories and impressions aside, having grown up in a culture that places so much emphasis on tangible progress, it’s hard for me not to think first about the development work I was involved in. For many reasons, I deliberately didn’t have any one big project. Instead I focused on smaller, more manageable work, and for that reason most of my projects made good progress. That being said, I’m not sure anything I did will definitely continue and have a meaningful impact on the intended benefactors. Some, if not all, do have an opportunity to advance though so it’s really a shame I wasn’t replaced. These projects would have had a much greater chance at succeeding had that been the case.

If I could choose any project to succeed, it would be the moringa farm. My community lacks a cash crop and moringa offers a tremendous opportunity to bring money into the community. However, the fruits of that labor won’t be realized for a couple of years and I don’t know if it will prioritized without guidance. Ultimately, I think it’s more likely for the mushroom cultivation center to have continued success. When I left we were still trying to make it profitable but the market for mushrooms is there and competition is low so it’s only a matter of a time and knowledge. Other mushroom growers in Ghana have found ways to make money and I believe my counterpart can too. Plus, he is a Chief in the village and if he finds success, I’m confident he will teach others how to replicate it, maximizing the potential value of the initial investment.

I also take pride in my work on the Cashew Hackathon, the first of its kind for Peace Corps globally. I took an idea that other volunteers came up with but were unable to execute on and made it a reality. I adjusted the vision, worked with staff to get approval, managed the largest budget I’m aware of for any PCV project, led a team through the organization and execution of the event, and facilitated the post-event operations of the winning teams. It seems very likely at least one solution will be operational by the end of 2019 while the 2nd Hackathon in Ghana is scheduled to take place in this fall. I'm told other Hackathons are also in the planning stages in other Peace Corps countries so the potential impact of this work remains to be seen.

While it’s entirely possible, if not probable, that some or even all these projects will eventually simmer out and fail, I’m hopeful something will stick. You might say I planted some seeds and watched them germinate but left before I found out if any will survive the harsh reality of nature. I'm also really happy that I didn’t fall into the common traps of development work. It’s common for money or materials to be stolen and for the projects to become marred in politics and corruption. Projects can also instill a continued cultural reliance on the west in its intended benefactors. Even many Peace Corps projects I’ve seen and heard about succumb to these pitfalls but I believe I generally avoided these types of issues. My projects were small and targeted. I worked with a few people that I trusted on each venture and mostly let them do the heavy lifting. Even if I ultimately didn’t make a positive impact on development, I consciously made decisions to make sure that I didn’t have a negative one either.

Only time will tell if I was able to navigate through these challenges successfully but I take some comfort in knowing I thought diligently about all of my actions while in Ghana and always tried really hard to make the best decisions I could. Maybe in a few years I'll be able to write a blog post talking about the success my community had from some of the work we put in together while I was there. And if not, that's okay too, because I know that the memories we created and the bonds we formed will have positive effects in both countries for years to come.