Sometimes all you need is to just let it out and then have an amazing week-long girls camp!





These past couple of months have been a bit rough for me, but sometimes all its takes is a good cry to let it all out and amazing friends and family who support you! I first want to thank everyone who actually reads this blog (I assumed it was just my Dad and Mum) and for all your support, especially after my last blog. All the encouraging and thoughtful words  I received from friends and family meant the world to me and was just what I needed to hear to help lift my spirits. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all the support. 

 

GIRLS…GIRLS…GIRLS!!!!

Mame Kumba, me, Die Ndao, and Mingai

 



 

Our week-long St. Louis Girls camp could not have come at a better time in my service. Right when I was feeling blue and homesick, our week-long camp came around and really truly reminded why I wanted to do Peace Corps in the first place! I was overjoyed to bring three lovely young ladies( Mingai Niang, Mame Kumba Mbengue, and Die Ndao) from my village to camp, who before this had never had the opportunity to experience any kind of camp setting. I want to thank all of you who helped make this camp possible by donating to this wonderful cause to help promote girls education and self empowerment throughout Senegal.  From the bottom of my heart, as well as from the three young ladies that I brought to camp, thank you so much for helping to make a difference in these girls lives. We are so grateful  and the girls had the time of their lives!!

Doing our daily workout in the morning..very important to stretch

tie-dying camp t-shirts

Friendship Bracelets..huge hit with the girls

 

This girl’s camp was truly a project that I am so very proud of. I believe it will be my most successful, as well as my most enjoyable, project I have worked on throughout my service. I really hope this camp made a difference in the lives of the three lovely ladies I brought with me to camp. Each of them are very hard working and dedicated students who live away from home to go to school. When at school, they live with host families or related family members where they are left to help with all the household chores in between their classes and when they get home from school. They have little time for studying due to all the responsibilities that are dumped on them and they are away from home except on holidays. And yet these girls take it all in stride. They never complain when they are ask to clean up the bowls or pots or when they are asked to do buckets of laundry, even though they really should be studying for a test they have the next day. Instead they do what is asked of them and then somehow manage to find time late at night for their studies. These girls also see firsthand the challenges of forced marriage, early pregnancy, and abuse; but have no resources or alternatives to handle these matters. I feel that after this week-long camp, all the girls walked away with some valuable knowledge and the self-confidence to take on all that lies ahead of them.

 “Gem Sa Bopp” ( Believe in yourself) was the name of our wonderful girls camp that allowed 44 girls throughout the northern region of Senegal to enjoy a week of fun, educational discussions, and a major confidence boost… It was a chance for these girls to reflect on their aspirations and to really open up about their dreams, hopes for the future, as well individual challenges. The camp was also a great way  for them to take a break from all their household responsibilities and have a little fun. I take that back..I mean a lot of fun.  

Our awsome campfire

 

ZUMBA!!!

 

The camp was held at the University in charming St. Louis, and then venue was donated to us by the University. It was an inspirational and fantastic week filled with lots of camp songs, tie-dying, campfires, sports, dancing, talent show, educational lectures and life lessons. The camp had everything, which meant that there was never any rest for us volunteers. Up each morning at 6:30am and on our feet until 11pm; I don’t think I have ever been that exhausted in my life! Each day of the camp was broken up into different themes that we focused on.  We started the camp out with a business-filled day, where the girls got an opportunity to learn about  banking and ways to save money. We then had students from the University come and talk to the girls about why they choose to go to University and the struggles they went through to get there. The girls also took part in learning how to tie-dye their camp shirts, which they just had a blast with.

 

Our very own Talla who works with our business volunteers giving the girls a session on ways to save money

 

Our beautiful tye-dyed camp t-shirts

 

The next day was Environmental Day! We took the girls on a little outing to a beautiful garden that a Peace Corps volunteer helps to maintain in the St. Louis area. They were taught some garden techniques like compost, container gardening, tree planting and of course the value of Moringa (a very nutritional tree grown here in Senegal). After the garden we decided to give the girls a little tour of St. Louis, since many of them had never visited the area before. However, the big surprise of the day and my absolute favorite part of this camp was taking the girls to the beach for a little beach cleanup duty!  It was just heartwarming to see the girls on the beach picking up trash and putting their feet in the ocean, since for the majority this was their very first time ever seeing the ocean up close and personal!

 

Environmental Day..the girl's learning about compost, gardening and tree planting

BEACH CLEAN UP!!!

It was great to see the girls picking up trash and cleaning up their environment. It was also especially heartwarming to see them at the beach for their very first time :)

 

 

After a day of fun out in the sun, the next day, Health day, was a little more serious and quite frankly eye-opening for the girls as well as the volunteers. It was astonishing to see how little the girls knew about nutrition,  their reproductive health and personal hygiene. The day included sessions about the importance of a balanced diet and the different food groups, as well as a session o personal hygiene like washing your hands with soap and brushing  your teeth. We then had a mid-wife come and answer the girl’s questions about their reproductive health (which was so scary to see how much they actually did not know) and then ended the day with a discussion about malaria and the importance of keeping yourself healthy in order to succeed in life.

Next came Gender and Development day. This was actually a very interesting day in which we wanted to shed light on different gender roles in Senegal and see what the girls thought of them. We played a game in which the girls would have to agree or disagree with a statement and then back up why they felt that way. We had statements such as, “Women make better parents than men,” “Women’s lives are easier than men’s,” “Men are better at business than women,” or  “Men are smarter than women.” It was very interesting and sometimes quite shocking to see the girl’s responses to the above statements. For example, when asked “Are women better parents than men” the majority of girls agreed with this statement because in Senegal it is the women’s job to take care of the children. And when asked if “Men are better at business than women,” the majority once again agreed with this statement since it is the men in Senegal who work and provide an income for the family.  We also had girls perform skits about certain types of scenarios like early marriage, abuse and dropping out of school early. It was a very eye-opening day to see how young Senegalese ladies perceive themselves in this country. We ended this day with a fascinating Senegalese spokeswoman who works for a NGO dealing with human rights advocacy. She discussed with the girls all about their rights as people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their wonderful skits they performed for us 

The last day of camp was entirely dedicated to helping the girls really understand the importance of believing in themselves and having self confidence to go out and achieve whatever it is they want in life. This day was dedicated to opening those doors and letting them know that they too have opportunities to achieve their goals.  In order to do this we enlisted the amazing help of none other than Awa Traore. Awa is this empowering Senegalese woman who works for Peace Corps as a cross-cultural educator with new volunteers. She is the person who teaches us new volunteers all about Senegalese culture and she is also the go to person whenever we have a cross cultural question or problem at our sites. Awa also does a lot of work with young Senegalese women helping to empower and aspire them. Also, she deals with a lot of abuse cases as well. Awa is an amazing and inspirational presenter. She has a way about her where she can just get the girls talking and opening up about anything and everything. During her session, the girls really opened up about their education, social pressures and expectations, early marriages, challenges in their lives and life in general. They even opened up and started to share a few incidents  about abuse that they had seen firsthand or experienced. Awa then went on to talk about rape and why it happens and how to protect yourselves. Unfortunately these girls don’t have many people they can turn to in village to talk about these issues. It was a very powerful and emotional talk but the girls got so much out of it.

Our Amazing Awa doing here thing!

 

 

We ended the very last day with a little fun…Field Olympics!! We taught the girls all the field day races that we grew up with at camp. We had the egg-spoon race, three-legged race, potato sack race, swap clothes race and their ultimate favorite- the water balloon toss!!

The three-legged race

Potatoe Sack race

 

 

 



Egg and spoon race

My girl Mingai doing work in the Potatoe Sack race

 

And the girl's favorite..the waterballon toss

I would like to give one last shout out to all our generous donors who made this camp possible. We couldn’t have done it without you all. This was an amazing and inspirational experience for all; girls and volunteers alike.

 So once again from the bottom of all of our hearts- Thank you so very Much!!!!

 

 

Just Too Much Fun

Fae and I soaked after our waterballon toss

Fae and I showing the girls how to do the egg and spoon race..it was a close race but in the end I was defeated. Until next time Fae!!

Team Yellow learning how to make Compost

 

My girl Mame Kumba thanking her mom for all the support