Camping on Dodi Island

What an exhausting week. I managed to keep up with all of my school work and get ready for our big weekend trip to Dodi Island!! The weekend was very interesting. The nice thing about this blog is that it gives me an opportunity to share my candid thoughts… the good AND the bad. This weekend was one that I will never forget, for many reasons. Brace yourselves…

Dodi Island is about 2-3 miles off the shore of Volta Lake in the Volta Region of Ghana. From where we are at in Legon, it was about a 3 hour bus ride to get there (traveling east). The purpose of the trip was to go see the Children of God School that had been established on the island a few years ago by 3 Rastafarian men. They have expanded the Children of God School to Adenta and the school there is very large. With 10 of us in our group, we left on Friday afternoon and traveled to the town of Bosu, near Volta Lake. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive into the Volta Region. It was very lush and green and we got to drive right over the dam bridge (Jill, Marisa, and MaryJane… that was a dam joke just for you haha!) We stayed the night with a host family in Bosu. After a delicious meal, we spent the night drumming in a circle and learning some Rasta songs. We slept on mattresses on the floor and I actually got a really good night’s sleep. The next day we woke up and traveled to the lake shore to take boats to the island.

We arrived on the small island and were greeted by many children. We took our things up to the school where we were going to stay. The first thing we wanted to do when we arrived was to change into our bathing suits and go swimming in the lake because it was so HOT!!! The water felt AMAZING and it was so relaxing to just swim around. After we finished swimming, we went back up to the school and gathered the children together to help them with learning the alphabet! We drew some pictures on a chalkboard and helped them with sounds. Their tribal language is Ewe, not Twi (the local language in the Accra region). But some of the children are learning English at the school. We then went out on a soccer field and played some games with them. The children had so much energy and they LOVED to have their photo taken! Later on we lit a bonfire and sang some more songs around the campfire and learned some new dances. Then a few of us went out on a rock away from the fire and sat and stargazed. It was incredible to see the Milky Way and many shooting stars! We slept in the school that night.

The next day (Sunday) we walked around the island and met people from another village. After packing everything up we made our journey home. We finally made it back to Legon at 8:00 and we were all exhausted!

Now I have told you the “edited” version of what happened this weekend. There are some parts of the weekend that made this trip awful, while others made it incredible…

This weekend was filled with some disappointments. I guess I went in to the experience with some different expectations than what actually happened…

#1 MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOL – Remember when I said that we went with Rastafarian men on this trip? Well one thing about Rastas is that no matter where they go, the weed must follow. When we arrived on the island, their number one priority became rolling up joints of marijuana to smoke. There were 4 of us in our group who did not “partake” of the marijuana smoking. There were some things that REALLY bothered me. First of all, I am pretty sure that a large chunk of the money that I paid to go on this trip was spent on the weed supply. Second, everyone was smoking the weed right in front of all of the children! Third, there were SO many parts of our trip that were delayed because we had to wait for people to wrap up more joints to smoke. And along with the smoking came the large consumption of alcohol. Every time the “spiritual leader” of the school said a prayer, a bottle of alcohol was passed around the group for everyone to drink. If I would have known that the weekend was going to be spent drinking and smoking marijuana, I would NOT have come.

#2 NO SERVICE AT SCHOOL – From what I was told, we were going to be doing some type of service at the school. In my mind, I was thinking manual labor… planting trees, cutting down grass, fixing chairs, etc. This was not the case. There were 3 of us who decided to work with the students on the alphabet letters while EVERYONE else in our group was getting high from the marijuana. We honestly did not do anything for that school besides play with the students for an afternoon. And we probably even left the place dirtier than when we arrived because no one cared about picking up our trash. The whole reason why I came on the trip was to volunteer and give service to the Children of God School. And I left the island feeling very disappointed about our lack of contribution to the people there. The children there are definitely in need of volunteers and I just think that we went there at the wrong time to offer our service to them. I don't want to discourage anyone from donating to the Children of God School or discourage people from volunteering there... I would just recommend that you communicate with the teachers so you know how best you can help at the school.

Aside from all of those negative aspects of the trip, there were a lot of good things that did happen…

#1 MISSIONARY WORK – Because of all of our “waiting” time, I had the opportunity to have some GREAT conversations with people about the church. We talked about prophets, the Book of Mormon, the Plan of Salvation, the Restoration, the temple, etc. It has been a blessing for me to have these opportunities to share the gospel with those around me. Mostly due to their lack of knowledge and curiosity, the people in my ISEP group have asked me many candid questions about my beliefs. One of the girls in my group even asked me for a copy of the Book of Mormon!! I am really hoping that this will plant a little seed inside each person that can be nourished.

#2 CHILDREN OF GOD – Not only was that the name of the school where we went, it was also the incredible feeling that I had that God knows the children on Dodi Island (just as He knows each child all over the world). Even in this remote place, Heavenly Father is aware of these precious children and He loves them. One girl in particular, kept running up to me to give me a hug. She would not let go! The hug she gave me was the best hug I have had since coming to Ghana. This little girl saw past my skin color and loved me instantly.

#3 EARTH IS GOD’S CREATION – Every time I have the opportunity to spend time in nature, I am overwhelmed with the magnitude of the beauty of the earth. As I sat stargazing, the scripture came to mind… “All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44).

#4 GOOD FRIENDS – I would not have been able to make it through the weekend without my good friend Kristen. We did our best to laugh at the situation when things were out of our control. It was nice to have her (and Jordan and Greg) who also did not drink and smoke that weekend. We were able to go off on our own to stargaze and have good, meaningful conversations.

So… there were lessons to be learned from this Dodi Island trip. Like I said, the good and the bad. I guess I can now be some of the select few people who said that they went "camping" in Africa haha! I am grateful that we made it back safely and that I was able to skype with the family. I hope that this blog post does not offend anyone. That is not my intent. I just wanted to share my thoughts with you as they are, uncensored. Thank you for keeping me in your prayers. I know that it helps me to make it through weekends like this one.