By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Valerie Moore lives in Chicago, teaches in Dowagiac and summered in Ghana.
Moore graduated from Union High School in 1998.
She attended Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., for dance performance and psychology and has been in Chicago for four years.
Moore divides her teaching time between the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago and Encore Performing Arts in her hometown.
Moore volunteered during July and August in West Africa through a center in Los Angeles.
"Basically, what we did, is we stayed with a host family there. We went around Ghana, mostly to schools, and we performed traditional Ghanian dance tied in with a drama about HIV and AIDS. It was a political mission. We would spend a week at the schools, performing dance and teaching them dance, but also tying in HIV/AIDS education about transmission and prevention. I found about it from a friend that they were looking for volunteers, so I applied."
"Ever since I was a little girl I've always dreamed about Africa, the 'Lost Continent.' I wanted to see it first-hand and experience poverty," Moore said Thursday afternoon before teaching her class at Encore in the Lincoln Community Center.
She will be putting on a West African dance workshop in November. If you're interested, call Encore at 783-0881.
Moore said half her group was from the United States. The other half is Ghanians employed by the center.
"They taught us," she said. "I studied a little bit of West African dance in college, but most of it I learned right there. I was very happy I went to Ball State. It was a good fit. Long term, I studied child and abnormal psychology. I've worked at a special needs camp before and for the past two years I've assisted a little boy who has cerebral palsy at his preschool."
When the 26-year-old "retires" from dancing she sees herself transitioning into a medical professional.
In Chicago, besides the Joffrey, "I just got a job teaching at a musical theater dance school as well. Primarily I teach," Moore said, "and I co-founded a non-profit production company. We support local artists who are beginning, usually fresh out of college or just moved to the city and they don't know anyone. We're a big stepping-stone into helping them out."
Of continuing to commute to Dowagiac after fulfilling her initial one-year commitment, Moore said, "I realized it's actually a great opportunity. I fell in love with my students and I can't leave them. Most dance schools in Chicago are a two-hour commute as well during rush hour if you teach in the suburbs, so that was my mindset: I'd rather teach here. My heart's here."
Moore said she tried to take advantage of having the past two summers off by traveling extensively.
"This was my first time in Africa, but I traveled all over Europe and lived in London a bit," she said. "I went to Honduras, Puerto Rico, Japan when I was in high school. You need to be well-traveled to go someplace like Ghana. I had no expectations going in. When I go to a new country or a new place, I try to have an open mind" – particularly in a place where she had e-mail, but not running water.
"Every morning we had to walk at least a half-mile to a mile to the nearest well and get a pail of water," she said. "It's better that way because that's the way Ghanians live. We did have electricity. We had a fan in our room which we were very grateful for."
Her multi-generational host family consisted of "15 to 18" people who shared a four-room house. Counting volunteers, "At one point I think there were 25 of us living there. It varied because some of the volunteers only came for two weeks. It was very close quarters, so we got to know each other very well. Four of us stayed there for two months."
"If anyone was videotaping us, it would have looked like 'The Real World' goes Ghana," Moore said, referring to the MTV reality series throwing seven strangers together.
"English is their national language" because it was a British colony.
"Everybody there speaks broken English," she said, "and if they any of them have had any sort of an education, they do speak English. Most of the people speak six or seven different languages, based on tribes. We did have Internet access. I checked my e-mail every week or 10 days," compared to three times a day at home.
Roads "are in horrible condition. Most of them are dirt, with huge potholes. Just to go down the road, your car can only go 20 mph, 30 at most, because nothing's paved and everything's a mess," Moore said. "Most people don't own cars, but they have public transportation that is actually very efficient. I was impressed by it."
"We ate with our hands and shared with other people," she said, describing one dish as white dough that was scooped up and dipped into a spicy sauce. "We also had a lot of rice, plantains and bananas. The water is not safe to drink. You have to buy (single-serving) bags of purified water. Bottled water is expensive. The pouches were about five cents, so you'd drink that instead. We were in a village an hour northeast of the capital. We couldn't find it on any maps."
Most Ghanians don't have jobs. "The grandfather worked on a farm." The matriarch of the extended family "worked in a huge field, taking big rocks and smashing them into little pieces out in the sun. A big truck would come and take the little pieces to turn into cement," Moore said. "We visited and it was one of the saddest sights I've ever seen – but she was very happy just to have a job."
There were several children in their 20s who had children of their own living in the household. "They seemed a little bit more grown up than the average 26-year-old," she noted. "They have to grow up fast in Ghana. They're very happy and it's a peaceful country. They've been at peace for a long time and they're like the Holy Land of West Africa. People from Niger and all over go to Ghana to make something of themselves. The grandfather was originally from Togo on the east border. He came to Ghana early on in his life to find a better life. Then Ghanians come to America to find a better future. Everyone's striving to keep going up the ladder. There was no worry about safety at all. I felt safer in Ghana than I would in Chicago. Any time you thought there was a worry, people would come to your rescue."
Ghana's northern part is Muslim. The southern part where she stayed is Christian. Tribal religion also flourishes.
"I went to one of their ceremonies," she said. "It's very beautiful. They dance for the entire day with drumming and elaborate costumes. It was very uplifting. Some people go to that and then they go to church. We worked in schools, so we got to see what condition they were in. A lot of them didn't have electricity or they had old books. Girls went to school. You have to pay for school. There's not public education that I know of. In the family I stayed with, not everyone went to school because some of the kids had to stay home and do chores. One was 13 and one was 9 and they traded off every other year to stay home and do chores or go to school."
Moore marveled at their soccer prowess, since youths boot the ball barefoot in dirt fields.
Her team conducted pre- and post-surveys to gauge how their AIDS message was received.
"By the end of the week their answers were dramatically changed," she said, "so I felt like our program was very effective. I was shocked because I didn't know going in if volunteers could make a difference. You really can make a difference."