Local student reaches out after working in Ghana orphanage

By CAROLYN YOUNGER
St. Helena Star

One of Maria Almanza’s long-held wishes was to go to Africa.

Last summer the St. Helena High School senior accomplished her goal — she spent a month in Ghana’s capital city living with a host family and volunteering in an orphanage.

It was a trip of a lifetime provided through a program known as Summer Search that for nearly two decades has provided year-round mentoring and life-changing summer experiences. Students are nominated by teachers and counselors based on their leadership potential, altruistic qualities, academic performance and resiliency.

Although it sounds like a dream, said Almanza, it is hard work.

Over the course of the program, from sophomore year through graduation, students are required to call their Summer Search advisor every week. The conversations cover a range of topics, all personal, and are often the most difficult part of the program.

But during the last three years Almanza has faced challenges and had adventures she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

The summer following her sophomore year she headed on her own to the Deschutes River in Oregon where she joined other teens for a week of wilderness camping and two weeks of mountaineering. She climbed a rock face, hiked with a 50-pound backpack and helped set up a backwoods shelter using only raft paddles and tarps.

Last summer the 18-year-old left her parents, two brothers and her soccer buddies and headed to Africa with 25 other students under the auspices of the American Field Service Intercultural Programs. She lived with a family in the Kokomlemle neighborhood of Accra, the capital of Ghana.

In her Ghanaian family she went from being the oldest of three children to the youngest of four (Adem, Michael, Dela and Eyonam) — and loved it, she said. Because Almanza never felt comfortable taking the packed, fast-moving minivans called tro-tros, she was relieved to have older brothers and sisters drive her where she needed to go.

She learned important phrases and words in Twi, one of the country’s major languages, toured the country, saw elephants in the wild, walked along a sky-high bridge strung through the canopy of Kakum National Park and tasted the best strawberry ice cream she has ever had.

The usually picky eater ate fufu, a dish made of ground cassava, and discovered she likes fried plantains.

The highlight of her trip, and her reason for choosing Ghana as her destination, was the three weeks spent as a volunteer in Peace and Love Orphanage and Academy in Accra’s Adenta district.

Nearly 100 children call the orphanage home. Some have been abandoned, others have parents who are too ill or too poor to care for them.

After being briefed in the culture in New York and in Ghana — among other things students learned it was considered disrespectful to look someone in the eye — the AFS group volunteered for a variety of jobs. They taught classes, played with the youngsters, repainted woodwork and did carpentry and made minor repairs. One of the nursery walls was painted with a bright mural of stars, planets and numerals. The locally made wooden desks were repaired, crumbling window frames and aging mosquito netting were taken out and replaced.

Volunteers also noticed that some of the children’s uniforms — blue or green striped shirts and dresses with orange or yellow trim — were showing signs of wear. Seams were restitched and the volunteers replaced missing buttons with buttons from their own clothing they thought they could do without.

And the orphanage is where Almanza met Grace, an 8-year-old orphan who captured her heart.

“When I was teaching kindergarten she always wanted to be in the room,” Almanza recalled. “Her teacher would have to come and get her. She was extremely quiet and shy. Some of the other kids thought because we were Americans we had everything. They’d say, ‘Oh, tomorrow can you bring me this? I need this.’ She never asked me for anything.”

Almanza learned of the depth of Grace’s attachment from Grace’s friend, Elizabeth. “One day I saw them whispering and she came up to me and said, ‘Grace just told me she had a dream last night that you were her mom.’ I said, ‘I would take you home with me if I could.’”

The memory of Grace and the other youngsters and their indomitable spirit stayed with Almanza after she returned home.

When it came time to choose a senior project her first thought was a fundraiser for the orphanage.

“I had seen that all they had were a few books, all used, and often only one pencil for 30 kids,” she said. “I wanted to get pencils, notebooks, flash cards, some reading books and toys.”

Almanza also wanted her project to be different so she joined forces with fellow senior and friend, Adilene Leon, to put together a 6:30 p.m. dinner for 50 at Chimney Rock Winery April 10.

Almanza is doing the organizing. Leon, an accomplished cook, is preparing the three-course meal. The dinner will be Mexican in flavor and include appetizers, an entree of tamales with mole, with flan for dessert.

“I knew this was going to be difficult,” said Almanza, who has a binder devoted exclusively to the event. “But I just knew I wanted to do something for the orphanage.”

Almanza is in charge of planning the event, organizing the accompanying slide-show, writing press releases, designing and distributing flyers, and handling tickets sales and party rentals.

Chimney Rock, she added, “has been very kind.” The winery where her father works is not only providing the venue, it is also supplying tables and table cloths, chairs, wine glasses and wine.

After the fundraiser, Almanza faces her next adventure, college, where she plans to major in biology and focus on another dream, earning the grades that will help her get into medical school.

These last three years with Summer Search have taught her that anything is possible.

(Dinner tickets are $30. For reservations or information on the “Don’t Forget Africa” April 10 dinner benefiting the children of Accra’s Peace and Love Orphanage and Academy, call 363-8066.)

Napa Valley Register Copyright © 2009