Friday, November 2, 2012

And we continue…

So, last time I left off we had finished up with the month long of weddings and now I do believe I’m backtracking to fill you in on GLOW camp.

A little background first. GLOW is a Peace Corps program to empower girls around the world. It stands for Girls Leading Our World. (There is a boys version, but no, we do not call it BLOW). Peace Corps Rwanda has been doing GLOW camps for the past 3 years. Last year, I did not participate due to various factors. My region (Muhanga) also did not participate at a whole, but we decided this year, we were going to put together a GLOW camp!  And, lo, we did.  With the power combined of Pamela and Gelsey (and the rest of our administration team; Jamie, Daniel, Michael and Meredith) we held the 1st regional Muhanga GLOW camp from August 27-31st at Mpanda Vocational Training Center (Jamie’s site). In total we had 30 teenage Rwandan girls from 6 different schools, including 5 from GS Munanira!  We had a really fun week teaching the girls all sorts of important things having to do with life skills: HIV/AIDS awareness, goal setting, teamwork, etc.  But we also decided our camp was going to be as “camp-like” as possible, so they learned what it’s like to go to an American camp…well, as American as we could make it!  So, when they weren’t in sessions learning something, there was recreational time, a ropes course, movie night, dance night and all girls were organized into “teams” with cheers.  At the end of the week, there were many tears as the girls headed back to their homes, leaving their new found friends and experiencing something that they will likely remember for the rest of their lives.  At the end of the week, all us PCVs were…exhausted but happy I think. We pulled off GLOW camp with no major snafu’s and the girls clearly had a good time.  And in the end, that’s what counted, the girls having a blast.  And, just to give you an idea of GLOW camp, here’s a summary in photos:

IMG_1990
Me and fellow PCV Susie with some of our Rwandan co-facilitators

IMG_2014
Checking campers in!

IMG_2006
Playing Basketball (Knock-out actually)

IMG_2021
Happy PCVs! Kay, myself, Jamie and Nate

IMG_2025
Learning good hygiene: hand washing!

IMG_2041
Rec time: Volleyball

IMG_2054
Rec time: Painting

IMG_2063
Rec time: Yoga
IMG_2098
Affirmation Wall time

IMG_2103
Team Cheer: Go team Oprah-Obama!

IMG_2136
Ropes Course: Team building

IMG_2154
Ropes Course: Trust Sit

IMG_2165
Kay teaching a session

IMG_2186
Me and a bunch of the girls

IMG_2190
Me and my girls from GS Munanira!! (so proud of them for smiling!)

IMG_2237

IMG_2246
Last day with their shirts

IMG_2270
Loading them up onto the bus to go home

IMG_2170
Group Shot with special guests Steve (our CD) and the US Embassy’s DCM (2nd in Command)

And that was GLOW…stay tuned for the next update!

No comments:

Post a Comment