<p>On top of the horrific conditions & sickness, the academic components of the trip were not even delivered. And Iltis has this to say:
[quote]
"That's a learning experience in itself," she said. "This is what it's like to be a student in Ghana. To me, there was everything to learn from that experience."
[/quote]
What a charlatan! Let me guess... she & her ethnomusicologist husband, who failed to check in on the students, didn't pay a dime for the trip?</p>
<p>It sounds like some of the less appealing Peace Corps experiences, but at least with the Peace Corps no one was pretending it was earning academic credit, nor were the volunteers paying thousands of dollars for the experience.</p>
<p>yup, sounds like a good use of several thousand dollars for study abroad...</p>
<p>My only imput to my kids when they considered study abroad was this.. go where they have electricity and refridgeration as an everyday occurance..</p>
<p>My younger daughter has participated on two big ( actually three) trips through her middle school program. One by yellow bus to Ashland Oregon for the Shakespeare plays, to Hawaii as part of the high school marine biology class, and to NYC/DC at the end of 8th grade and part of US History.</p>
<p>Parents are the backbone of these trips, providing bulk of the chaperones, and often using their connections to add interesting side trips.
( Like when in NYC, D visited a classmates grandmother- who had been part of the expatriates in Paris during the 20's and had original Picassos on her penthouse walls)
However, the treasurer was surprised to realize that the teachers were fully subsidized for the trips, not only earning their salary but having travel expenses covered.
I don't mind partially subsidizing the teachers, but as they weren't supervised themselves, I wasn't happy hearing stories about how the parents were left in charge while the teachers went exploring.( adding insult to injury- parents also didn't have breaks)
( And after my own experience of supervising a weeklong trip- I believe the stories)</p>
<p>Of course middle school is much different than college,
Im not familar with RAAP & I don't know who to believe- but these student blogs give another view of working in Ghana
GhanaBryn:</a> A New Beginning</p>
<p>Yikes! 18 months ago, my niece was in Ghana in a study abroad program. Her stories were hair raising, but they didn't starve or get sick.</p>
<p>You know, with incidents like this, we really don't know the whole story...</p>
<p>People forget that developing countries are, in fact, resource poor and often have terrible medical care, especially away from the biggest cities.</p>
<p>My D spent the summer in Bolivia. We bought medical evacuation insurance. Thankfully she did not need it even though she contracted typhoid. </p>
<p>A few other things to keep in mind with overseas trips and study abroad programs: - in too many cases, these things are as much about making money for a college or free travel for the organizer as about education and such. I have a relative who is in charge of study abroad at a college, so I've gotten an "insider's view". These things are only as good as the organizer/host. Do one's homework...</p>
<p>
[quote]
However, the treasurer was surprised to realize that the teachers were fully subsidized for the trips
[/quote]
</p>
<p>
[quote]
in too many cases, these things are as much about making money for a college or free travel for the organizer
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is how I felt about a hs trip to a part of Europe. Teachers could sign up first, and parents could sign up to accompany students if there were no more teachers wanting to go. All adult trips (parent and teachers) were fully paid for by the students, and the ratio was about 5:1. The cost was so expensive (way too expensive) for very mediocre accommodations at best (frankly pretty poor by US standards). I felt that for the cost we could do this trip for our whole family for just a bit more money, so I said no. My son was fine with not attending.</p>
<p>newmassdad - I am sorry to hear that your daughter got typhoid in Bolivia. For China and India (with which our family has experience) and, I am sure for other countries as well, typhoid vaccination (pills or injection) is recommended. Was this recommended to your daughter before going to Bolivia? Or did she get typhoid in spite of being vaccinated?</p>
<p>she got typhoid in spite of vaccination. Typhoid vaccine is not known for high efficacy.</p>
<p>Typhoid is not the disease it was before antibiotics. It is still a nasty infection that takes about two weeks to recover from, but with cipro the risks are pretty low - IF it gets diagnosed and treated properly. </p>
<p>It is interesting that a number of diseases we ignore in the west are common in developing countries - typhoid, TB, all sorts of nasty GI diseases, intestinal parasites, rabies!, the list goes on. This may be the untold story of world travel for our more adventuresome kids. They are at risk for all sorts of things. That's why a good travel medicine kit can be important for kids venturing to more remote places. For Africa travel, some NGOs eve suggest their personnel who are on extended trips take sterile supply kits containing syringes, IV and such. </p>
<p>Yes, our daughter had a TB test upon her return to school this fall.</p>
<p>good point newmassdad -- I contracted TB after spending the summer in Central Europe. Never had TB, but I carry the germ which I probably got from TB-infected milk from tubercular cows. Apparently that's not uncommon in that part of the world. Once treated, carrying the TB germ isn't risky. But it's certainly worth getting your kid tested for it if they've spent some time in the third -- or even 'second' -- world.</p>
<p>Our district does the DC trip differently. Chaperones are free or reduced regardless. The "free" trips offered by the tour company are spread out to cover or largely cover the costs of all chaperones. Teachers and parents who aren't chaperones may choose to go along on the trip and pay full fare. When I went w/ my DDs class I chose that option because I wanted the freedom to enjoy the trip with my girls without the responsibility of watching after others. When my son travels next year I will do the same thing. I do not begrudge the teachers and parents who acted as chaperones their reduced/free trips. I was able to go on a great trip where I did none of the planning/driving/ feeding/cleaning/nagging or worrying. It was worth it to me to do it that way. </p>
<p>Our program coordinator also helps kids fundraise. Each kid has a separate account and whatever they earn from various fundraisers goes into it. Kids fundraise for two years and this person organizes it all. That's another way the organizer earns their trip. There is a lot more that goes into the whole trip than just getting kids to sign up. It sounds like other schools do it differently but I think our way is fair.</p>
<p>Our school district does not allow parents to go on the language trips. The language teacher will go and he/she will get two other teachers to go along. I'm sure they don't pay to go and I think they also get a stipend. My son's English teacher is going on this years abroad and she doesn't even speak the language. Parents used to go but I think some parents probably screwed up on a past trip and they changed the policy. That's how it usually works - you get a tiny group of people that misbehave and everything changes for the good people.</p>
<p>When Ds worked at the zoo they had to get tested for TB every year. I think it is also required to work with kids- I remember about 20 years ago, one woman who was from NYC but worked at the co-op preschool mentioning that she tested positive for TB. It apparently was because she swam in the Hudson as a child :p</p>
<p>Regarding cost of trips- I agree that some of these things can be really expensive and it seems that for a little more money and more planning the whole family could go at another time.
The thing with the U is different I assume, because while they are basically tourists, they are also " in school".</p>
<p>When my H went on trips with Ds private school, he didn't pay- he was a chaperone- no chaperones paid their own way.</p>
<p>Which did make it irritating when I was a chaperone for her sisters weeklong trip. They couldn't do it without chaperones, in fact every day I had responsibilty for 12 kids-the only teacher was the staff person from the camp at that areas activity. At night I was in charge of 8 girls- the chaperones were few & the teachers slept in a different area of camp.</p>
<p>However I also had the perk of paying my own way- inc driving and ferry.
I did ultimately enjoy myself, because I really like 8th graders- they are so interesting. ( not an euphemism - I really do like them- but it is like the little girl with a curl- they can be either really sweet or really horrid- sometimes at the same time) But it was an awful lot of work by myself, and I wasn't trained to do that for a week.</p>
<p>For my Ds trip to Ghana- I am crossing my fingers. The organization has gone 5 times previous to Ghana, and in general making trips for 10 years. Never heard about an incident. Chaperones are a few of the organizers relatives- but also include school staff- no parents that I know of. although if you had tech abilities, I think that they wouldn't turn you down.
a Prof at the UW who is from Ghana is also going as a liaison with consulates etc- they call him Dr Joe. ( I hope it is a medical degree and not a ph.d :) )</p>
<p>Fundraising for anything is hard, unless you get a sponsor from a company.
They have already appealed to Microsoft- its handy to have that in our backyard, but if anyone has extra Pentiums laying around
GlobalTA.org</a> - Home</p>
<p>I think the UW experience is instructive however. I know we don't know the whole story, but I haven't found any other evidence of similar problems with that organization with other trips.
apparently the shrinking of the US dollar contributed to the lack of food available- however- there should be ways to anticipate and deal with that.</p>