Trip to Africa changed Hannah

Hannah Ackerman doesn't yet know where she's going to college, but she does know she's heading to India this summer. She's also planning to study abroad in South Africa at some point during her college career.

Hannah seemingly got hooked on world travel after a trip last summer to Kenya, working with Free the Children to build schools in a small African village.

"I dove into it headfirst," she remarked. Having heard about the trip shortly before the deadline to sign up, "I just went."

Commitment

That was a first for the parishioner of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Delmar. A senior at the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany, Hannah was used to doing service work that's required at AHN, but she admitted she'd usually participated for the wrong reasons.

"I did it just to get it done," she told The Evangelist.

But "in my senior year, I wanted to do something that meant something. I anticipated doing a food drive. Then Sister Catherine [Kruegler, AHN's service coordinator] said, 'Free the Children goes to Africa every year.'"

Saving kids

Founded in 1995 by 12-year-old Craig Kielburger, Free the Children's goal was to stop child labor worldwide through the efforts of other young people.

Today, more than 100,000 youth in FTC chapters in 35 countries work at projects from gathering medical supplies to building schools.

The next thing Hannah knew, she was getting a host of immunizations for travel and persuading her family to foot the $5,000 bill for the trip, since she didn't have enough time to do the fundraisers most students hold to pay their way.

"Thanks, Dad," she joked, as she told the story.

New friends

Hannah met her group of 26 students, mostly Canadian, in Montreal. She was frightened at first about the prospect of traveling with strangers both from and to another country, but bonded with the group on the way to Nairobi.

It helped, she recalled, when the van the students used in Nairobi refused to start, and they had to band together to push it until the engine kicked in.

Seven hours later, they found themselves in Salabwek, home to 30 Kenyan tribes -- including the Kipsigi, the tribe the teens had come to help. The Kipsigi were so far from their nation's capital, Hannah learned, that they were nearly forgotten by their government in funding decisions. Thus, they were in desperate need of school buildings.

Of course, "what they call a 'building' is just a room that holds 20 or 30 people," Hannah explained.

Pitching in

During three weeks of living in tents and "showering" by standing under a trickling bag of water hung from a tree, Hannah and her group built five new buildings.

Never having built anything before, she learned to mix mortar and pile brick on brick to make walls.

"The tribe was loving, absolutely accepting of us," she remembered.

Youth to youth

Members of the group got very close to some of the Kenyan students they met. Hannah was surprised to learn that her peers in Africa seemed smarter than her; even without proper schools, they were studying more advanced chemistry than she had learned.

"They don't have summer vacations," Hannah told The Evangelist. "Their school day is 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with two recesses.

"After school, you go to help your parents -- the girls with the moms, the boys with the dads -- and that's it. [The girls] gather wood for the fire and walk two miles to the watering hole for water."

One younger student named Marcy spent her recess time teaching Hannah hand-clapping games. "It's funny, how different the girls are," Hannah mused. "They cover themselves up, don't talk to the boys. We'd hug all the guys and they'd [gasp]. They were very shy."

Farewells

On the day the group left the village, they passed Marcy's home. As the van sped by, Hannah saw Marcy chasing it and crying.

With tears in her own eyes, Hannah recalled that "it was so hard to leave."

On the other hand, a high-schooler named Vincent who spoke good English has managed to keep in touch with Hannah since the trip through texting from a cell phone. Hannah noted that, since land lines are always down in Kenya, cell phones tend to be the only working forms of communication.

Culture shock

Coming home at the end of July after a month overseas brought unexpected culture shock. Hannah hadn't believed the group leaders' warnings that life in America would seem overwhelming.

"I was so depressed -- like, 'This isn't home,'" she recalled. "I felt so guilty about so much stuff, like taking showers and having the water run and run. My friend had a birthday party a week after I got back, and I started crying and had to leave."

Hannah said she was filled with questions: "Why am I lucky and they're not? Why do I have things and they don't?"

She was comforted by something a trip organizer had told her before the journey: "'You know you've had the right experience if you come home and have even more questions.'"

Changed by trip

Going to Kenya was obviously a life-changing experience for the teen. From doing service work out of obligation, she's now eagerly awaiting her trip to India this summer, also with Free the Children -- and planning fundraisers to cover the cost.

Although she calls the trip indescribable, she has explained enough about it to friends that one is planning to go with her.

"People say I'm more of a hippie now," she added, noting that she complains when others don't recycle or when they take life for granted. "I'm humbled by the experience. I can't go a day without thinking about it."

(In addition to AHN's chapter of Free the Children, Hannah is a member of the Pep Club, Ambassadors and Students Against Drunk Driving. Because of the timing of the Kenya trip, she missed her chance to try out for the volleyball team this year. Free the Children sponsors campaigns to stop child labor and alleviate poverty, ratify the United Nations Convention on children's rights, collect health and hygiene supplies, build schools, and more. Go to www.freethechildren.com or call 1-800-203-9091.)

(1/24/08) [[In-content Ad]]