Pictures are UP! Only stuff from the last month or so...I'm working on getting more up...its a long process but here is where they are...welcome to Botswana...
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Camp GLOW
OK, so where to begin…its been awhile. OK, let’s start at Camp GLOW which was held from Dec 5-13th. The kids loved it and had such a good time. The camp was held in Tsetsebjwe which is way North East very close to the Zimbabwe boarder. It was held at a Junior Secondary Boarding School…yes, we ALL slept in bunk beds…I had total childhood flashbacks. I had one of the top bunks and there were no ladders to the bunks so I had to find a way to fling myself to the top which basically involved climbing the nearest book shelf and then leaping…not bad. Very few injuries if I do say so myself. The place was a bit on the untidy side if I’m going to try to be kind. It was pit latrines and showers with no curtains whatsoever on them so it was a rush for all of us facilitators to try to find times to go shower while the kids were occupied so that we didn’t have our little ones staring at us while we showered. Let me tell you, being white females here in general gets us all stared at constantly, but being white naked females was not something we wanted to test out the reaction to. Anyways, the sessions all went really well! All of us facilitators lead our own sessions and helped with the educational activities and then committees that held responsibilities like putting together the talent show or mock protest that the kids were part of. I lead the sessions on Goals and Values, Human Rights and Discrimination, helped with the Problem Solving Activity as well as the nighttime Scavenger Hunt that the kids did. It was full on camp counselor time! I had days when I was on duty and had to make sure all the girls were asleep by 10pm and wake for morning exercise by 6am. The camp was packed…the kids had sessions and games and activities from 6am to 10pm…crazy! The day started with morning exercise at 6am, which most of us facilitators used as our shower time…mostly we just didn’t want to go exercise at 6am…then breakfast at 7am. The first sessions started at 8, each session was 1 ½ hours long…3 sessions each day, then the hour long educational activity, and then free time for about 2 ½ hours. Myself and a few other PCV’s used that as our time to either take a walk to the nearest Tuck Shop (which is like a tiny version of a gas station type store and I mean, TINY!) or we played Disney version Monopoly…that is the best game in the world!!!!!
6pm was dinner, then at 7-9pm something different each night, like the talent show, awards ceremony at the end of camp, making a GLOW banner, Scavenger Hunt, Campfire, etc… then at 9pm, each groups of campers with their delegation leaders met for ½ hour to talk about the day. At 9:30pm it was the facilitators meeting where we talked about what needed to be better for the next day and so on…10pm…finally bed. It was a full week or full days! The point of the camp was to address topics like sex, love, dating, drugs, human rights, HIV/AIDS, STI’s, their bodies, puberty, gender based violence, etc…and be as open with them as possible. Botswana culture is not very open. Parents don’t talk to their children typically about anything. It tradition for children to ask their uncles the questions they want to know and even then some things are considered unacceptable to talk about. It’s a culture where women don’t have many rights and it is extremely male dominated. For example, I didn’t even know this, but in Botswana it is legal for a husband to force his wife to have sex with him. It is not considered rape if they are married. It was really difficult though because we were all teaching sessions to the girls and telling them that they don’t have to do anything they don’t want to, rape is wrong, you don’t owe a man anything, all of that female empowerment stuff only to realize that until the culture changes….that stuff can be said but cannot be practiced. During the sex, love, and dating session we mixed the boys and girls together (most all sessions were boys and girls separate) but differed by age. So, all the 14 and younger boys and girls were in the same session and all the 14 and older boys and girls were in the same session. Facilitators went with their kids that they brought and if we were leading that session then we sat in the back and just listened and helped if needed. Anyways, during that sex, love and dating session I was with the 14 and younger cause my girls were all 13 and 14 and I was in the back listening…it was fascinating and horrifying in that session. It started off great…the kids were open and talking about sex, with somewhat minimal giggling, and they asked the kids what they think sex is…one 14 year old boy raised his hand and said, “sex is the sound of sweetness!” He was so certain and positive that that was the right answer. It was so funny. All of us in the back were trying so hard not to laugh. It was great. Later, in the session is got intense. The young boys all started talking about how if they buy gifts for a girl then she is required to have sex with them and that if they want sex even if she doesn’t then the girls still have to have sex because they are the men. It was frightening! Completely terrifying! That’s the culture here though. People really do think that if you give a girls gifts and she takes the gift then that is the unspoken, “yes, I will sleep with you.” All of us PCV’s in the back were shocked that these little 14 year old boys were saying this, then as we sat in silence, not knowing what to do as white Americans and if our words would even mean anything in this context, we watch the local Motswana male leaders sit there and say nothing. No one fought these kids on that…no one argued it…except for the newest generation of empowered females that now we have helped to create. The girls fought back on that and told the boys that if they don’t want to have sex they don’t have to…the boys fought against that and so on. It was so great to see the girls saying no…but how realistic is that? I mean, we spent all week telling these girls that they are powerful and have control of their bodies and what happens to them in life…but are they? This is a culture that is starting to teach females to fight, but not teaching males why the women are fighting and why they should be fighting…its one sided! Until the men are taught and shown that women are worth something, then the women can be empowered, but they will still be in a culture that forces them to have sex and says that that OK. That was by far the hardest session. I left that session honestly, a little depressed…we all did. We identified the problem, we glorified the problem, we stared at the problem, and then walked away from it with our hands up and surrendering to it. We didn’t know what to do and also worry a little that we are teaching these girls to tell these boys “NO”…are we ultimately getting these girls in trouble in the future by giving them such a strong will and reasons to fight when they will be challenging a more dominate sex that can and will overpower when the circumstance arises? I don’t know. In order to get change you have to fight for it and be willing to go against the grain, but both sided, both sexes need to change…need to be willing to make that change or else it could just become dangerous or unsafe for the one that’s changing.
One of my favorite times at the camp was the campfire. We had a big fire and all the kids got into their school delegation and have to perform something that represented where in the country they came from…so all of the kids sang songs in their local languages and performed traditional dances. It was so cool…even the quietist kids in the whole camp (which my kids definitely fell into that category) came alive when it was time to dance. Traditional dancing and singing is what people do here. Its how they represent themselves and seem to really feel free and able to express themselves its great! Each delegation performed, I took video of the kids and leaders dancing and singing and its so cool cause you can’t see it very well cause its so dark, but you can see all the silhouettes in the fire and hear it…so cool! After that all the kids had S’mores, except there was no chocolate, but that’s ok. The whole part of the S’more that makes it a S’more is roasting the marshmallows in my opinion anyway. The kids had no idea what S’mores were and loved them!
Overall, the camp was good. The kids asked us questions and were so open which is not typical in this culture. Like, I had to get up in session and tell all the girls what cramps feel like and one little girl asked me where certain parts of the female anatomy are (I’ll spare you the details)…that was definitely a new and random for me. Haha BUT it was good. We had a question box and the kids asked things like, why do ppl have sex?, how long should ppl have sex for?, what do I do if my boyfriend/girlfriend has HIV?, etc… they were really good questions and the kids were so excited to get all the answers and to learn about all the random things they wanted to know.
After camp, I went back to my village…cleaned a bit, ran some earns in Moleps, and spent a few days in Gabs working on Infusion Lessons with other Life Skills PCV’s. We’re getting together to talk about and plan lessons that put life skills into normal everyday subjects and lessons in the school and then we’re all going to take the lessons back to our schools and then film our teachers teaching these lessons that that the Ministry of Education as a “how to…” to show future teachers how to teach life skills. Life skills is still a new projects to the Ministry and Botswana so we’re trying to help it grow and be more easily understood for future teachers. Life Skills is actually only in 3 districts in Botswana right now and its where all the life skills PCV’s are.
6pm was dinner, then at 7-9pm something different each night, like the talent show, awards ceremony at the end of camp, making a GLOW banner, Scavenger Hunt, Campfire, etc… then at 9pm, each groups of campers with their delegation leaders met for ½ hour to talk about the day. At 9:30pm it was the facilitators meeting where we talked about what needed to be better for the next day and so on…10pm…finally bed. It was a full week or full days! The point of the camp was to address topics like sex, love, dating, drugs, human rights, HIV/AIDS, STI’s, their bodies, puberty, gender based violence, etc…and be as open with them as possible. Botswana culture is not very open. Parents don’t talk to their children typically about anything. It tradition for children to ask their uncles the questions they want to know and even then some things are considered unacceptable to talk about. It’s a culture where women don’t have many rights and it is extremely male dominated. For example, I didn’t even know this, but in Botswana it is legal for a husband to force his wife to have sex with him. It is not considered rape if they are married. It was really difficult though because we were all teaching sessions to the girls and telling them that they don’t have to do anything they don’t want to, rape is wrong, you don’t owe a man anything, all of that female empowerment stuff only to realize that until the culture changes….that stuff can be said but cannot be practiced. During the sex, love, and dating session we mixed the boys and girls together (most all sessions were boys and girls separate) but differed by age. So, all the 14 and younger boys and girls were in the same session and all the 14 and older boys and girls were in the same session. Facilitators went with their kids that they brought and if we were leading that session then we sat in the back and just listened and helped if needed. Anyways, during that sex, love and dating session I was with the 14 and younger cause my girls were all 13 and 14 and I was in the back listening…it was fascinating and horrifying in that session. It started off great…the kids were open and talking about sex, with somewhat minimal giggling, and they asked the kids what they think sex is…one 14 year old boy raised his hand and said, “sex is the sound of sweetness!” He was so certain and positive that that was the right answer. It was so funny. All of us in the back were trying so hard not to laugh. It was great. Later, in the session is got intense. The young boys all started talking about how if they buy gifts for a girl then she is required to have sex with them and that if they want sex even if she doesn’t then the girls still have to have sex because they are the men. It was frightening! Completely terrifying! That’s the culture here though. People really do think that if you give a girls gifts and she takes the gift then that is the unspoken, “yes, I will sleep with you.” All of us PCV’s in the back were shocked that these little 14 year old boys were saying this, then as we sat in silence, not knowing what to do as white Americans and if our words would even mean anything in this context, we watch the local Motswana male leaders sit there and say nothing. No one fought these kids on that…no one argued it…except for the newest generation of empowered females that now we have helped to create. The girls fought back on that and told the boys that if they don’t want to have sex they don’t have to…the boys fought against that and so on. It was so great to see the girls saying no…but how realistic is that? I mean, we spent all week telling these girls that they are powerful and have control of their bodies and what happens to them in life…but are they? This is a culture that is starting to teach females to fight, but not teaching males why the women are fighting and why they should be fighting…its one sided! Until the men are taught and shown that women are worth something, then the women can be empowered, but they will still be in a culture that forces them to have sex and says that that OK. That was by far the hardest session. I left that session honestly, a little depressed…we all did. We identified the problem, we glorified the problem, we stared at the problem, and then walked away from it with our hands up and surrendering to it. We didn’t know what to do and also worry a little that we are teaching these girls to tell these boys “NO”…are we ultimately getting these girls in trouble in the future by giving them such a strong will and reasons to fight when they will be challenging a more dominate sex that can and will overpower when the circumstance arises? I don’t know. In order to get change you have to fight for it and be willing to go against the grain, but both sided, both sexes need to change…need to be willing to make that change or else it could just become dangerous or unsafe for the one that’s changing.
One of my favorite times at the camp was the campfire. We had a big fire and all the kids got into their school delegation and have to perform something that represented where in the country they came from…so all of the kids sang songs in their local languages and performed traditional dances. It was so cool…even the quietist kids in the whole camp (which my kids definitely fell into that category) came alive when it was time to dance. Traditional dancing and singing is what people do here. Its how they represent themselves and seem to really feel free and able to express themselves its great! Each delegation performed, I took video of the kids and leaders dancing and singing and its so cool cause you can’t see it very well cause its so dark, but you can see all the silhouettes in the fire and hear it…so cool! After that all the kids had S’mores, except there was no chocolate, but that’s ok. The whole part of the S’more that makes it a S’more is roasting the marshmallows in my opinion anyway. The kids had no idea what S’mores were and loved them!
Overall, the camp was good. The kids asked us questions and were so open which is not typical in this culture. Like, I had to get up in session and tell all the girls what cramps feel like and one little girl asked me where certain parts of the female anatomy are (I’ll spare you the details)…that was definitely a new and random for me. Haha BUT it was good. We had a question box and the kids asked things like, why do ppl have sex?, how long should ppl have sex for?, what do I do if my boyfriend/girlfriend has HIV?, etc… they were really good questions and the kids were so excited to get all the answers and to learn about all the random things they wanted to know.
After camp, I went back to my village…cleaned a bit, ran some earns in Moleps, and spent a few days in Gabs working on Infusion Lessons with other Life Skills PCV’s. We’re getting together to talk about and plan lessons that put life skills into normal everyday subjects and lessons in the school and then we’re all going to take the lessons back to our schools and then film our teachers teaching these lessons that that the Ministry of Education as a “how to…” to show future teachers how to teach life skills. Life skills is still a new projects to the Ministry and Botswana so we’re trying to help it grow and be more easily understood for future teachers. Life Skills is actually only in 3 districts in Botswana right now and its where all the life skills PCV’s are.
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