On a trip to Africa over spring break, Carlos Diaz Sanchez and 16 classmates from Wyandanch Memorial High School were each given a Ghanaian name at a traditional naming ceremony, based on the day of the week they were born and a trait they possess.
Diaz Sanchez was dubbed Yaw Mborasi — Yaw because he was born on a Thursday and Mborasi, which he says translates to "brilliant man." Being given this name by the people in Ghana will help his confidence as he begins applying to colleges in the fall, he said.
“Coming from Wyandanch, where I was exposed to negative prejudice that made me doubt myself a lot, competing with other high schools … having been named ‘brilliant man’ by a stranger, it really comforted me,” Diaz Sanchez said.
Wyandanch Memorial High School students at one of their stops in Ghana during a spring break trip to Africa. Credit: Carlos Diaz Sanchez
That’s just one way Diaz Sanchez and other teenage boys on the eight-day school trip said the experience was life-changing. “Everything that was on the itinerary was so profound. It gave me a different lens of the world,” Diaz Sanchez said. Echoed junior Dennis Moreira, 16: “The trip was really amazing.”
The experience began at the airport in Ghana, where the teens were welcomed by African dancers in traditional dress, continued with trips to historic slave dungeons, African markets and a primary school, and ended with welcome-home hugs from parents and grandparents upon the teens’ return to the high school. Two teens, who were stuck in Ghana after problems with their travel documents, returned home days later.
EDUCATION AND CULTURE
All the students who traveled to Africa are members of a mentoring group at the high school called Kappa Leaguers, part of the Kappa Youth Leadership Development League. “It’s a worldwide mentoring program in my fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi,” said Paul Sibblies, the school principal. The group, open to 10th to 12th graders, meets every other Sunday at the school to learn about topics such as financial literacy and college and career readiness, and to build camaraderie through such activities as playing chess.
Jerlyn Braswell, left, of West Babylon hugs her son Devin Braswell at am April 9 homecoming event from the trip to Ghana. Credit: Morgan Campbell
“These young men are taught to achieve with goals for themselves, and to make constructive contributions to their community,” said Sibblies, who runs the group. Members participate in distributing free bookbags to kids, in voting drives, in breast cancer walks, in holiday toy drives. This is the first time the group has embarked on educational and cultural travel, and the $90,000 trip was subsidized by donations, said Sibblies, who chaperoned along with eight other adults.
“Originally, I didn’t want to go to Ghana. I have the worst fear of planes,” said sophomore Jaiquan Johnson, 15. But his mother convinced him he should go. “That’s an amazing experience, to see where your roots are from,” said Johnson’s mother, Lena Harris, 40, an office manager. “It was very important that he went. It was a very big deal for me. I couldn’t wait for him to come back because I was dying to know what he saw, what he experienced, what he learned.”
HEARTBREAK AND FUN
The teens visited Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle, two sites that housed slaves in dungeons before putting them on ships to other countries to be sold. Entering the women’s and men’s dungeons struck them, the students said.
“Having the tour guide go through all the history that happened literally where we were standing was heartbreaking,” Moreira said. Added Diaz Sanchez: “That taught me everything I needed to know about how cruel the treatment of Africans was during slavery.”
Timothy Jules, 16, a junior, said the trip to the slave cells made him “a little angry. The Africans got little to no respect. Me, as a person who loves to fight for rights, I’m just mad that the people who fought to get us here had to go through that. But it makes me want to be better and get better for them.”
Carlos Diaz Sanchez, 17, fourth from right, and 16 of his Wyandanch Memorial High School classmates visit Elmina Castle in Ghana, a site of the slave trade. Credit: Carlos Diaz Sanchez
The students had plenty of fun in addition to the moving experiences, Jules said. “We went to the beach. We went to the rainforest, where they had suspended bridges. Going to the market was fun, you can bargain and negotiate with people. I bought a lot of jewelry for my family and friends; I bought a little drum so it could remind me of Africa every day.”
Junior Jayson Jones, 17, said one of his favorite parts of the trip was trying Ghanaian food. “I’m a very picky eater,” he explained. He enjoyed the jollof rice, a West African dish made with tomatoes and onions, and the beef stew, deeming it all “amazing. Everything was fresh. No processed food.” He also enjoyed the chance to bond with his fellow Wyandanch students, he said.
The group also visited a primary school that they will adopt to try to help financially with things that are needed there. They played volleyball with the students. Diaz Sanchez said he was surprised by the old wooden desks and the bathrooms without plumbing.
“They had no technology whatsoever to supplement their education. These are students who probably never laid fingers on a computer keyboard,” Diaz Sanchez said. That was another perspective-changing experience, he added: “That gave me a deep sense of gratitude for what I have.”
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
