So I am
back from Camp GLOW! (GLOW = girls leading our world). I am exhausted from camp, but it was so much
fun and one of the most rewarding things I have done so far in country. Also it was extremely well organized with
little down time (aka little time for them to get into trouble). We had four sessions a day (HIV, teamwork,
communication, IGA’s, etc…I taught nutrition!)
We also did camp activities like obstacle courses, capture the flag, etc…
It was super fun! Each PCV counselor had
an Ugandan co-counselor with a group of around 10 girls. My group was the gorillas! The girls were quiet and shy at first, but by
the end of camp, they came out of their shell.
They were loud and dancing and singing our gorilla or camp song all the
time. I don’t think that I will ever get
these camp songs out of my head! Ooo
well I will need them anyway because we have a regional camp in april/may (I’ll
probably be around for this one) and then one more national while I am
here!
Some interesting things I noticed during the
week:
Ugandan
schools are MEAN and they aren’t even effective. Rote memorization and silence at lunch is the
norm for schools here. Lunch silence is
so they eat quickly and get back to their studies. This means that in the beginning at least, we
ate our meals in complete silence until we made an announcement. This is not school…you can (and should) talk
at meals! I think the silence at lunch
things just furthers the lack of critical/creative thinking. You are to be seen and not heard until you
are old. Don’t discuss things with your
peers; don’t ask questions. Just
memorize what I tell you, never question that it is true or not. This attitude leads to disempowered silent
girls that believe everything they are told by anyone in authority. This means they believe things such as:
eating too many mangoes leads to malaria (mango season is the same as malaria
season; correlation does not equal causation), condoms cause cancer (thank you
once again religious zealots!), and other nonsense such as this. A good portion of this camp is dedicated to
getting those myths out of their heads.
The other portion is undoing the negative self esteem and silence that
schools here encourage. By the end of
the week they were talking talking so I hope it worked at least a little
bit. In America kids are so much louder
and outgoing from the beginning…not all of them, but many of them! At camps here a good portion is dedicated
to getting them to voice opinions and
ask questions about things.
They
often asked me why I don’t have children; don’t I like children?!?! Well actually I do not like children…they are
kind of the worst. Ugandan children aren’t
quite so spoiled and snotty though. Also
I do eventually want kids, but I had to explain that I am still young. To people who are used to people having
children and getting married in their early teens, I am old. Also to people who typically don’t live past
50 years old, I am old as well. I had to
explain: 1. That I don’t want children until I am like 30 or 35. They found this to be outrageous; I will be
too old. This led to the discussion that
in the US life expectation is like 80, not 40.
2: I have a lot of things to do
before I am ready to stop being selfish.
I want to travel, go to school more, and get a steady job with money
before I have kids. I hope this got them
thinking about what they want to do before having kids. I can’t travel/go to school, etc…with kids;
at least it would be much more difficult with them. I really hope this got them thinking about
what they would be giving up by getting married and having kids soo early! And 3:
I only want 2-3 kids, not 8. Most of
these girls are from the deep village, where having only 2 or 3 kids is unheard
of. You start early and keep having
children until you aren’t able to anymore.
I had to explain that I would rather give 2 or 3 kids a great life and
education than have a ton that I cannot take care of. Once again I hope this got them thinking a
bit. Uganda has the 2nd highest birth rate in the world…they need to
STOP having so many children. We also went through all the mzungu counselors
and staff asking if they are married.
Also had to explain why I don’t date Africans, which led to them asking
why I am not with any of my ex-boyfriends anymore…akward. They don’t really understand that sometimes
these things just don’t work. Getting
married isn’t the most important goal in my world; my own selfish desires come
before a man. That doesn’t really
compute well with them, but I think that somehow understood.
They
eat A LOT and are wonderful dancers.
They informed me that mzungus don’t know how to eat and don’t have
rhythm. I thought I had taken a good
amount of food..especially since I HATE UGANDAN FOOD. I sit down and “Eh Brittan, you have taken
little! You do not know how to eat…none
of you do!” I explained that I prefer to
eat little amounts more often throughout the day…why?? To keep my metabolism up…”eh
what is metabolism” so that got a
discussion going a bit. We then go to
the talent show. Most of them did
skits/dances or songs. They have some
rhythm. While we are waiting they are playing some music and the girls start
dancing. THEY LOVE TO DANCE. Then one of them informs me that she knows
how mzungus dance and they have no rhythm.
She proceeds to start doing a waltz-like dance with another girl. I show them how to do a little dip with
their leg up and they all find this hilarious.
The talent show was pretty wonderful – most of the skits were hilarious,
especially the crocodiles and buffalos.
Crocodiles counselors had the girls be their arms and do various things
such as brushing teeth and drinking water and eating a banana (without peeling
it). Buffalos did something where one
girl laid down and another girl was sitting on top of her. So the legs with one girls with the arms and
torso of another girl. They told a
little story, which was hilarious and the girls could not stop talking about it
after! It was awesome. My gorillas sang and did a little dance. It was great, but I had absolutely nothing to
do with it. Ronah, my co-counselor
worked on the whole thing with them!
This was Thursday. Friday (the
last day of camp) was the dance and my god they love to dance. It worked out well because to get them to do
things Friday all we had to say was “well if you don’t have energy I suppose we
could just cancel the dance…” and they immediately got up. They were even taught the cupid’s shuffle,
which they LOVE! It was soo great seeing them all let loose and get out of
their shells. You noticed a bit more
each day of camp, but Friday they really got to show who they are as
individuals. I don’t think they get to
do that often, so I think even for this week it is good!
They
are outrageously clean. We had to
schedule in two bathing times a day AND a day for washing clothes. In the mornings I had to get them to stop
making their beds so they would bathe on schedule. Compare this to American children…you could
not pay them to make their beds or do laundry at camp. They are perfectly happy being super disgusting
all through camp. You are lucky if you
get American children to bathe once a week at camp, let alone twice a day! They get upset when they aren’t allowed to
bathe twice…weird!! I kept thinking of “wet hot American summer” where that kid
hasn’t bathed all of camp (soo like 3 months) and they have to force him into
the shower. I spent a good portion of
my week encouraging them to be disgusting…most of the time they refused. If they had to sit on the ground or take
their shoes off for running I often got “eh but we will get dirty.” It also was a chore to get them to not look
smart. They kept wearing skirts and
dress shoes. Every morning I’d say If
you want to play football maybe wear trousers and atheletic shoes. Granted some of them do not have these
things, but most of them do. They are
just soo used to having to look presentable and people finding trousers
offensive. They must think the PCV
counselors are gross…most of us showered once a day and didn’t wash our clothes
at all.
All in
all it was a good week though.
Exhausting, but good. I enjoyed
watching them grow and learn, however quiet they were in the beginning. I also learned some great camp games/songs
that they loved…”get loose (thank you Caitlin!)” “little sally walker (meish and tara)” and “flea
fly (mary!)” were among the popular ones.
I did so many songs/games that I have bruises on my thighs from clapping
too much! I doesn’t hurt..I just bruised
them lol. So now I am directing the
regional Camp BUILD in the west, which should happen sometime at the end of
april or beginning of may. We will see
how the boys are compared to girls…getting out of my comfort zone YAY.
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| My mighty gorillas at the dance! |
