Last year, I participated in a week-long summer camp ran by Volunteers and Ethiopian counterparts to help young girls learn skills that would help them later in life. A full summary of
2013 Camp GLOW can be found here. This year, I was not incredibly motivated to participate again. While it was a great experience, it was a lot of work and would take place just a few weeks before I was to leave Ethiopia. I always envisioned the end of my service as mellow days filled with saying hundreds of goodbyes. But, I was eventually roped into doing it once again and I could not be happier about that. It was a great experience and one of the highlights of my service. It was my last project as a Peace Corps Volunteer and I am so thankful I was able to end my time in Ethiopia on such a high note. So, here is the Cliff's Notes version of the 8-day camp through pictures..
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| Peace Corps Volunteers know how to kill time with silly games like no one else. Here, Josh is beginning a game called "Human Knot" |
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| And Cam leads a group of girls who are all pretending to be lions. Seriously, eight full days is a long time to fill. |
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| The girls all participated in a gardening lesson and took a potted sunflower home at the end of the week. |
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| At the "top" of Mt. Gelama |
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| Girls' night where we painted our finger nails and talked boys and puberty. Oh Peace Corps! |
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| A new addition to this camp was Grassroot Soccer (highlighted in this previous post). It uses soccer to teach kids how to make smart and healthy decisions in life. |
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| Students dribble a soccer ball around while avoiding dangerous obstacles like "older partners", "alcohol and drugs", "multiple partners", and "unprotected sex". |
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| Trust circles and how to support someone with HIV. |
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| GO TEAM!! |
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| A discussion with an HIV-positive women's group leader |
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| LIMBO |
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| Board games- Malaria prevention edition! |
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| Paper mache |
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| A perfect representation of how all PCVs feel around day 3 of camp. |
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| The girls learned to make RUMPS (ReUsable Menstrual PadS) |
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| Talent Show |
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| The girls picked four people to be judges. We took our job a bit too serious. |
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| The final night we had a bonfire. Everyone went around to said what camp had meant to them. A lot of smoke seemed to get directly into most of the Peace Corps Volunteers' eyes during certain moments... |
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| Pinata the girls had made |
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| My homeroom, Team Ghana (it was a World Cup themed camp). I spent at least two hours a day with these lovely ladies. |
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| The Asella crew- Belesuma, Mekdas, Laura, Rahema, and Hewan! |
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| 2014 Camp GLOW Bekoji |
