Larry Jordan

Ten years ago, we volunteered in Hohoe, Ghana with other volunteers from Australia, Germany, Hungary, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, and Scotland, as well as several states. I will never forget the local people that we met or the other volunteers who served with us.

When we began volunteering, we knew that we would enjoy the voluntary service itself, and we thought that we would probably enjoy getting to know some of the constituents, but we were surprised at how much we have enjoyed getting to know the other volunteers.

Volunteers are some of the finest people that I have ever met. Volunteering is new to me, but many of the people that I volunteer with did not wait until they retired to volunteer, so they do the same thing that I do, but they hold down jobs and raise families, too.

When you volunteer, you meet all kinds of people from all types of different backgrounds, who you would likely not otherwise meet in any of the regular places that you frequent. That goes for the people who you serve and the people who you serve with.

First, you discover that you have more in common with some of these new people than you ever had in common with those familiar people that you kept bumping into for so long.

More important, you realize (whether you have anything in common with them or not) that everyone is a father or mother, a brother or sister, a son or daughter, just like you are, and that everyone struggles with their bills and worries about their kids, just like you do.

In the last year, I met a lot of people who I never would have met before volunteering, and I found common ground with a lot of people who are different from me on the surface.

(I met someone who cares for his wife as much as anyone I know, and he is an ex-convict; and I met someone who loves his daughter as much as anyone I know, and he is an addict; and I met someone who works as hard as anyone I know, and he is an illegal immigrant.)

So, I expect to meet all kinds of different people from all types of different backgrounds, and I expect to become even more convinced that we all live under the same sky.