Camp GLOW is a young woman's empowerment camp that was started in Romaina to encourage young women to participate in politics, the work force and sports. Camp GLOW's have been put on throughout the World by various Peace Corps Volunteers. This was the first Camp GLOW ever in Suriname.
Day 1: After nearly a year of searching for funding and preparation, on December 10 we finally arrived at Isadou, a tourist camp on the Upper Suriname River, with about 20 Peace Corps Volunteers, several Peace Corps staff, and 6 Saramaccan cabin moms. The first day was an orientation for a cabin mom and the volunteers. Denise and Catherine went over the schedule and expectations and the highlight of the day was the yoga lesson, lead by Amber and Shannon, where 10 Peace Corps Volunteers and a few of the cabin moms had to lay on the ground and then lift their legs over their head. Ryan, our P.C. Volunteer photographer, captured the moment pretty well.
Day 2: A lot of nervous energy in the air as we woke up this morning. Will the girls show up on time? Will they actually show up!? The cabin mom who was supposed to represent Gunzi had already cancelled on me and I wasn't sure if the only kid coming from Gunzi would actually make it on the boat. When the boats showed up we breathed a sigh of relief, 48 out of 49 girls we expected had arrived. 29 of these girls were from the school I worked with for the World AIDS Day event, the rest came from 4 other villages. We signed the girls in and split them up into four teams, I was on the green team. The girls on the green team had a lot of personality. We started out as a group playing a name game I learned during a backpacking class. You go around the circle, you say your name and you pick a word, usually an animal, that starts with the same letter as your name.
For example, I became known as buffalo Basiapai throughout camp. The biggest personality on our team, a girl named Pam who played a character named Sweet Lover for our World AIDS Day skit, became known as Sweet Cookie-Sweet Lover. I also introduced myself to the entire camp as buffalo Basiapai from 104.1 fm in Gunzi and realized I had some fans in attendance after some applause.
After the ice-breakers, we ate lunch and did the first two lessons the girls had to attend: self-esteem and environment
. Chris Arronen from Idaho lead the self-esteem lesson. Amber from California and Jessica from Illinois led the environmental session which was about how to manage and reduce trash. After lessons Matt from Washington and I played slagball, a game Saramaccan woman play that is similar to baseball. After being applauded for my radio work earlier in the day, I was surprised when I got a lot more negative attention on the slagball field. I was jeered and heckled like I was a Dodger playing at Candlestick Park. Day 2 ended with an overly dramatic dance-step movie we played on a projector for the girls.
Day 3: Today I gave my lesson with Michelle from Washington. We gave a nutrition lesson and taught the girls how they can eat to prevent high blood pressure and diabetes, two prevalent diseases on the Upper Suriname River. Each lesson was given twice, first Michelle and I gave the lesson to the blue and yellow teams, then the orange and green teams, as to split up the girls and make them more manageable. The lesson started off with a competition between the two teams present to see who could arrange the food pyramid more quickly so I could grasp what they knew. Then, Michelle and I showed the girls the correct way to arrange the foods on the pyramid. Michelle then talked about vitamin deficiency and then myself and two representatives from the local medical posts talked about high blood pressure and diabetes. The lesson wrapped up by handing out 3 paper plates to each girl and having them construct 3 mock healthy meals. Almost all of the girls passed the lesson. Other lessons today were Exercise, HIV/AIDS and Sexual/Reproductive Health.
After lessons, I was again heckled during slagball. And today, I didn't even play. I had become the center of attention at the camp. Even the cabin moms were ribbing me pretty good, today. Clearly, I got a kick out of the whole thing.
Tonight, we had our HIV/AIDS night. The night started with the Tutu school kids I had worked with performing their skits. Then, a professional group from Masiakiiki, a 1 hour boat ride away, performed a skit but they were rained out half-way through and had to re-perform the skit the following morning. The night wrapped up with an informational HIV/AIDS movie. After the movie, the kids and I were running through the rain back to our cabins--I had to take care of a leak in one of the kids' cabins.
Day 4: The night before, we were supposed to finish with a guest speaker. She is a woman with HIV. I had met her for the first time the day before and had an amazing conversation with her the night before. Due to time constraints, we pushed back this woman's speach until this morning. Definitely the most unforgettable moment of camp. After the camp, I ran into the tourist camp owner telling this woman's story to a group of guys over beers in Tutu and some of the guys asked me if this lady's story was true. The tourist camp owner said he almost couldn't believe the story was true because the woman looked so healthy and strong and yet there she was standing infront of 50 young women telling them that she was living with HIV. During her speach, a few people cried, including the woman giving the speach. She talked about living with HIV but mostly talked about how one must carry themself so they don't contract HIV, she talked about faith, the importance of family, staying strong in times of adversity and told the girls to take what they learn in this camp and apply it to their everyday lives. Definitely the high point of the camp.
After this we had three lessons, Goal Setting, Leadership and Careers. Careers was also another high point for the camp. A prominent Saramaccan woman lead the session. She listed all the jobs men and women traditionally do in the culture, one by one she read off the jobs men do and asked if a woman could do that job, every girl emphatically yelled yes each time.
Later in the day, we played slagball again. I was only heckled once which was a drastic improvement over the last two days. Today, we played Peace Corps Volunteers versus all the girls who wanted to play. Even though we won, we had the scorekeeper tell the girls they had won. While they were celebrating we took two buckets filled with water balloons and pelted the girls with about 100 water balloons. Also a memorable moment of the camp.
The day wrapped up with a slide show of all the photos that had been taken during the camp and I supplied a mix CD of the pop music I play at the radio--Waka Waka by Shakira, Yori-yori by Bracket, and Night Shift & One More Night by Busy Signal (look em' up on Youtube). Of course, as had been par for the camp, when my yoga pictures were shown in the slide show I got quite a few applause. What can I say, I'm a Saramaccan celebrity. I'm kind of a big deal. People know me. After the slide show we let the girls dance for about a half-hour. When the music turned off and we tried to get the girls to sleep they revolted. They stayed up, danced for a whilte and then decided to sing church songs for another 30 minutes. Damn teenagers. Actually, I found it a bit comical. Maybe all that empowerment stuff had already gotten into their heads.
Day 5: Last day of camp! I spent most of the day doing radio interviews with cabin moms, teachers, Peace Corps Volunteers, the tourist camp staff and the campers. I played the interviews on Radio Mujee, 104.1 fm, one of the love stations in big sexy Sipalwini (our station's motto). I did take a quick break to play capture the flag though, which our green team won after a 40 minute stalemate when Pam aka Suti Lobi stole the flag and brought it to our territory while the other team was distracted. It was pretty awesome.
The camp finally came to a close with the Tutu school girls leaving on their boat, singing to their new friends from other villages as they undocked and rode off. My first camp, ever, and a great one.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." – Margaret Mead
ReplyDeleteSounds like an awesome experience. Love, Mom