Center for Global Perspectives: Happy New Year!

I hope all of you had a great time bringing in the New Year! I didn’t really do anything for New Year’s Eve. People in Ghana, at least most people, spend their New Year’s Eve in Church. I could hear the different Churches doing their own countdowns to the New Year. “1 hour left! You’ve got to pray! You’ve got to pray! Only 1 hour ‘till the New Year!” It didn’t sound like the normal services, but more like three hours of prayer at a lightning fast pace.
So instead of participating in a Mass that would last about 4 hours I decided to sit on the rooftop of the District Centre, drink a few Star beers, and lose myself completely in memories from 2007. Ha-ha Wow, it wasn’t exactly the best New Year’s Eve ever, but it will be one that I will never forget.
At the stroke of midnight I screamed HAPPY NEW YEAR! (I am pretty sure that I woke up a lot of the reverend sisters that were sleeping at ICF.) And for some reason I started feeling a whole lot better about everything! Another year to do good things, another year full of ups and downs, another year of life! For the rest of the night you could hear the joyful music from all the different Churches. Small fireworks sounded throughout the villages.
So on that wonderful note I began 2008.

Holy Cross Service Corps

The Holy Cross Service Corps is one of the newest endeavors of Holy Cross College. HCSC is a post-graduate service program housed in the Center for International Programs. The concept for the year of voluntary service was born out of the enthusiasm exhibited by our students returning from their International Experience. So many of our students return saying the same thing, “I want to go back!” HCSC gives our graduates the incredible opportunity to return to the sites of their International Experience to help advance the mission of the Brothers of Holy Cross.

In July of 2007 the inaugural volunteer for the Holy Cross Service Corps left the United States for a year of service alongside the Brothers in Ghana, West Africa. The undertaking was a complete success and will spur the growth of this exciting new program to include our other International Experience sites. A great deal of work will be done throughout this year to continue to structure this program so that our graduates may continue the mission of Holy Cross which “sends us across borders of every sort.”

HCSC Mission Statement

The mission of the Holy Cross Service Corps is to provide volunteers, or Moreau Fellows, named after the founder of the Holy Cross Congregation Fr. Basil Moreau, with an opportunity to improve their personal relationships with Jesus Christ through service, simple-living, and prayer. The goal of HCSC is to establish a more intimate relationship between the professed brethren and the laity all the while advancing the mission of the Holy Cross brothers as educators in the faith.

The Ghana Global Immersion Experience

This is a 17 day experience in Ghana, a culture ancient yet ever-changing, poor yet developing. In that land are some of the most significant sites in the history of the world. For example, we visit the slave prisons that held millions of Africans when the coast of Ghana was the center of the slave trade, beginning in the 1500's. We spend time with church officials, like Ghana's only Cardinal, Peter Kodwo Turkson. And we spend much time at the retreat center where the Holy Cross Brothers share their life with us. Below are some pictures. Also, fyi, the emergency contact with us in Ghana:
Brother Paul Mensah, CSC
Telephone: 011-233-910-1624 or
011-233-42-91482
Mobile: 011-233-20-834-4631
His email is: pkmensahcsc@yahoo.com