Deb Holland, of the Pingle School, feels Ghana trip has helped change her life
- By Rob Smyth | BurtonMail
- May 6, 2015
- 2 min read
'I HAVE changed' were the words used by a South Derbyshire teacher after she celebrated the first anniversary of her trip to help the underprivileged in Africa.
Deb Holland, assistant head teacher at Pingle School, in Swadlincote, spoke to the Mail about her visit to Ghana with Burton Albion Community Trust and African Adventures.
Mrs Holland and dozens of others raised thousands of pounds through events such as charity bike rides and other fund-raisers to head on the adventure.
She said: "It is the one-year anniversary of the trip – but the whole experience starts long before you board that flight.
"What looking back told me was the impact the whole experience has had on me.
"I am different. I have changed and I don't think I had anticipated that happening.
"I'm a woman approaching my mid-40s. How could that happen?
"It hasn't changed me in any big grand gesture sort of way but it is more subtle than that, but nonetheless significant.
"So why and how did it change me? Well it meant I had a whole range of new experiences.
"The experiences I had when I was in Ghana also changed me. I taught children in a school, just like I have been doing in Swadlincote for many years.
"Children are the same, people are the same. The daily grind of work gets you down from time to time but I remembered really why I like working with people. I remember that now when I am at work.
"On a personal level I did things that I didn't think I would do.
"I sat on a crocodile and I walked on rope bridges 40 feet high up.
"They might not seem that remarkable and I'm not saying they are huge achievements but they are things that made me believe I can do anything I want if I try. It's a feeling that hasn't left me.
"I don't know what impact I had in Ghana.
"I met lots of kind, generous, funny and wonderful people in the last two years. I've met and know many people like that throughout my life, but I now know some more."
Source: Burtonmail.co.uk
By: Rob Smyth
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