Anna Bone, 19, from Bamford in the Hope Valley, recently returned from spending five months teaching and working in daycare in Ghana, West Africa, through the company Projects Abroad.

'I think it was good to go and do something different,' she says, reflecting on her experience, 'I got a better picture of everyday life, as it feels quite superficial when you're just travelling through (a country]'.

Staying with a host family in the village of Kwamoso, in the country's Eastern Region, she taught at a local primary school for four months, and worked in day care for one.

Anna describes teaching for the first time as 'really difficult'. She prepared her own lessons, teaching English, maths and science, as well as topics related to Ghanaian life, such as malaria and its dangers.
'At first I was nervous,' she explains, 'but then I became more confident, though at times I could be quite frustrated because of a lack of resources'.

When she switched to day care, though, Anna found it to be 'much easier and more rewarding', especially as 'the children are very enthusiastic and do run up and hug you'.

Her host family was one of just two in the village with electricity generators, which were only switched on occasionally. 'This,' she says, 'meant I ended up going to bed at about 8 in the evening! That was nice, living a quiet life.'

While she worked five days a week, Anna had weekends free to travel, 'so we were always seeing new things', such as Cape Coast Castle, a remnant of colonial slavery.

'We saw the dungeons where the slaves were kept, which sent a shiver down my spine. It really brought home the brutality of the slave trade.'

However, while Anna found that these experiences were the best aspects of the trip, she remains unsure about the nature of these volunteer schemes.

'Going to Ghana has made me question the nature of companies running gap year trips. I was perhaps idealistic in wanting to be able to be more helpful to the community in some way. Gap year trips of this sort do bring money to the country but otherwise I feel the major benefit was my own self-development, even though this wasn't what I had expected.'

One major problem seemed to be the fact that, while Anna thought that she would have been working at a school with a shortage of staff, 'I was actually just replacing a teacher who would have been teaching had I not been there.'

Despite this, she explains, 'I can't see how anyone could do it differently, it was good for a first time, to know that other volunteers were around, and that there was back-up should something go wrong'.

Most importantly, though, Anna feels that the experience has been invaluable: 'I feel it was really worthwhile, and I have gained confidence and a better feel for the country'.