CAMP!!

I never went to overnight camp when I was a kid, but for Americans, I know ‘camp’ isn’t an educational thing. It’s about fun, swimming, games, new friends: a great vacation for the kids and their parents! Here, camp is a little bit different. Peace Corps Volunteers do ‘camps’ during the vacance (summer vacation). We do sessions on sexual health, nutrition, malaria, goal making, study skills, etc etc etc. We also do a lot of fun and games .

The last weekend of June was Camp Espoir Ouesse 2011. (Espoir=hope, Ouesse=name of town). It was our boy’s camp and was a HUGE success!! I had sooo much fun and I know my boys did too. I’m really proud of them. Each volunteer brought five 1st or 2nd year students. There were 5 from Challa-Ogoi (me), Kemon (Michael), Aclampa (Brad), Tcharou (Obden), and 5 from Ouesse CEG1 and 5 from CEG2 (Stephanie and Alec). I brought Mohammad and Fidel, first year students and Razack, Evariste and Esai, 2nd year students.

It was from Friday afternoon to Monday morning. I think the weekend was perfect. I BARELY see kids during the vacation, they’re all working. I’m not sure parents in my village would allow their son to miss a week of work, but one Saturday is probably acceptable. We did sessions on Sexual Health, Gender Roles, Domestic violence, civic awareness, drug and alcohol abuse (me) and Moringa. Saturday night we watched Indiana Jones (in French) and Sunday we watched Ghostbusters, they loved both! They all got t-shirts too, we did skits, and tons of sports and games. There were 2 hours allotted for soccer on Saturday and 2 hours for Sunday  Oh and lots of songs! I took a video of the boys marching and singing to the mayor’s office, it was SO exciting! They all had a lot of fun and the volunteers did too P

I posted a couple pictures, I’m trying to get them on facebook, but I took a TON of pictures!

This past weekend was the Jr. Tutrice Girl’s Camp, it was more of a leadership workshop. The girls got to know eachother and we talked about our goals for Camp GLOW in August. It’s a huge week long girl’s camp in Parakou. I didn’t do any sessions, but I led songs and games. HCN’s did sessions on leadership, education, etc. Me and Lauren stayed at the workstation and two volunteers stayed at the hotel with the girls. It wasn’t really intended to be like a camp, but it was still fun. The girls are all really excited for Camp GLOW! I know they’ll all do a great job, especially Moujidatou from Chally Ogoi P I posted a picture of her in her t-shirt too.