I met the giant South West group of PCVs in Mbarara who were also going to camp. We got on a bus together and when we reached Kampala after 7 hours we just stood on Entebbe road and hailed a matatu to the school where our camp was being held. I saw my first good sign that the week was going to go well on a telephone pole on the way to camp… a Pied King Fisher! When we arrived the school seemed so large. It’s not like camp in America where you are staying in cabins on a campground that its sole purpose is to be a camp. Here in Uganda and a lot of other Peace Corps countries the venue for camps is usually held at a participating boarding school during a break in the school year. While the students of the school are away for break the dorms are free for the campers to bunk in. We hit the ground running going over what our weeks schedule was going to be like, being introduced to our fellow counselors and staff member, bonding with our Uganda Co-Counselor (each Peace Corps Volunteer is paired with a Ugandan), and planning the lessons we were given to teach (mine was communication skills). After 2 days of training the campers arrived. It was an awkward first day because most of the girls were so nervous you had to practically force them to speak. All the groups were given an animal name and the dorms were labeled as two national parks in Uganda (Kidepo in the North West and Queen Elizabeth in the South West). I don’t think my girls were ecstatic about being the Warthogs at first…. But once I came up with a few cheers they showed some pride. The first night went well… all the girls went straight to bed after the opening introduction to camp. Quiet. I on the other hand stayed up till 11 with a flashlight planning out my ‘lesson’ for tomorrows communication classes. I was thinking too hard on how to make appropriate activities for visually impaired and hearing impaired campers.
The next morning
after the campers bathed (twice a day) I instructed my group go to breakfast and
walked in the opposite direction to the classrooms. I had 4 sessions to teach
that day and my spider web was no finished yet! I wanted to make a giant web with rope for a communication activity where each member of the group has to make it through the web without touching it and to add to the difficulty none of the girls could go through the same hole in the web. One of the staff members was
kind enough to bring me an egg as I briskly finished the vertical spider wed for
one of my activities. What’s the point in keeping the kids in a classroom the
entire time? IT’S CAMP! Just after finishing the web the kids started filling
the classrooms. I had staff work with my co-teacher and sent them to the spider
web… my instructions to her: ‘go outside and I’ll send ½ the class out in about
5 minutes. Just get them through the web somehow without having them touch it.’
Me and Gloria had NO time to prepare because her bus got in late the second day
of training. I started the lesson off by asking the girls to give me examples of ways to
communicate (speaking, touching, signing, sounds, body language, facial
expressions, writing, other visuals…. What what). I split up ½ the group
outside for 30 minutes and then we played telephone. My favorite game to play
with these girls! For those of you who do not know what telephone is I’m about
to educate you. The ‘rules’ are simple: One person starts and whispers a sentence
in the persons ear next to them, that person then whispers what they THINK they
hear in the next persons ear… so on and so forth. When the last person says
what they heard out loud!
First Class: “My name is
Michelle and I have 2 brothers and a dog in America.”
Outcome from the girls after passing the message along: “Your
name is Maria”
Class 2-4: “I like to eat a mango in the morning with my dog”
Answer 1: “If you
pick that mango and eat it you will become pregnant”
Answer 2: "You like
passion fruit, mango, papaya, and pineapple”
Answer 3: “If you
eat that mango you will be stupid”
The whole purpose of telephone was to talk about rumors and myths and
how quickly they can spread/ change from the original source. I then asked for
3 volunteers from the class, had them stand in front of the classroom side by
side, and blindfolded them. I handed each of them a part of rope tied into a big circle and told them to make a triangle. I
took away one of their ways to communicate (vision) and forced them to use
other means to communicate. I would have the class observe their behavior and
how they were communicating which I always had to remind them speaking was
okay. Sometimes one of the girls would say “move that way” while waving her
hand in the direction…. While they are both blindfolded and couldn’t see who
which direction she was waving or who she even wanted to move. I think most of
them were out of their comfort zone but they all did great and gave good
examples. With the remaining time before they went to the spider web activity
and I got the other half of the group, I would have them get in order of age
without talking and then alphabetical order by the district name in Uganda they were from (similar to our states). Most of the time
the 10 volunteers I got to the front of the classroom when I said ‘begin’ would
just stand there and I had to frequently make an example by non-verbally
expressing how old I was or where I was from. At the spider web activity the
girls were basically just outside having fun. My spider web looked awesome but
it wasn’t big enough for 20 girls to go through 20 separate holes so we just
let them try and get through the web without touching it and encouraging one
another. Towards the end of the day we had a ‘small’ group of 30 instead of 40
girls so we just put them all together for the entire session. While relaxing
and letting Gloria lead the spider web activity one of the girls took off her sandals
and said she was going to jump it. This web is suspended in the air by about a foot and the top reaches
about 5 ½ feet. The girl was only about 5 feet. Another PCV who was a counselor
had me CONVINCED that this girl could do it… and I’m not going to lie… I wanted
to see it if it was true! But 2 + 2 did NOT equal 4 in my mind and I let her try. She took a
running start and 1 foot off the ground entangles herself in the web and
wrecked part of it. Easily fixable but OUCH! Darn. But the girl was okay and it was pretty funny. The rest of the day was a blur and exhausting…
I remember participating in yoga for my free choice activity with some of the
girls, eating, struggling to come up with a warthog cheer, and lastly watching
puppies be adorable!
Behind one of the
dorms where the ‘guard’ dogs slept I discovered a batch of 3 fat sausage
puppies. Every night after the girls bathed and were headed to bed I stayed up
for another hour, hung out with the puppies, and then would bucket bathe under
the stars. The kids would always giggle out the window when they saw me
interacting with the dogs but it took away all of my stress. When I felt like
it and was tired enough then I would head back to the bottom of my triple decker
bunk bed. The second day I found out why one of my girls NEVER spoke…. She didn’t
understand English. *click* That made it more difficult to communicate with her but good thing I'm great at teaching communication! We struggled to understand one another at times but she explained to a counselor who spoke her local language that she was in
fact having fun. In the afternoon right before lunch we played a game similar to
Duck, Duck, Goose… extreme style. We played Drip, Drip, Drop! You have everyone
it in a circle with a bucket of water and a cup at the center. One person
starts by picking up the cup with a little bit of water in it and walking on
the outside of the circle. Whenever they pass someone they sprinkle water on
their head and say “Drip” until they get to their chosen target and say “Drop.”
They proceed to DUMP the cup of water on that persons head and run. The person
who just got soaked then runs around the circle chasing the person who dumped
the cup until they reach their spot again. This game is best on a hot day when
the sun is out but I even had a BLAST with the game!
That night my
girls got to play capture the flag in the dark. I was representing the middle line and the
girls would just taunt one another from opposite sides but never make a move.
When they would bore me I would count down from 30 and choose one from each
side randomly to go in jail if nobody crossed far enough over the line. At one
point girls were going across the line and tagging people in their own
boundaries…. Someone also grabbed the flag and before getting tagged threw it
over the line. They were very creative when it came to hiding the flag… sitting
on it, squatting over it, putting it down their shirts… very interesting.
Surprisingly nobody got hurt.
I learned a lot
from this camp. The ABCs: Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condoms even though I
thought the B stood for Birth Control for a few days. That there is a benefit
to waking up early especially at camp because watching the sunrise over Lake
Victoria was one of the most B-E-A-U-tiful things I have seen in country. How to
find my missing flip flops…. After the girls arrived on Sunday I misplaced my
baby blue old navy flip flops. I got them back after the girls had an activity
where they all put their shoes in a pile so they could run. Nobody fessed up
but nobody had to… because only one girl was missing her shoes by the time the
activity ended. I would have given them back until she at least got to the dorm
but she said hers were black with a buckle when questioned… later in the day
she ‘found’ her black ones…. under her bed…. where they were the whole time. The same girl ‘borrowed’ my headlamp without
asking when I put it on a shelf so everyone could see when the power went out
in the dorm. But what can you do? There were a few mishaps but everything turned out well.
I also challenged myself and got out of what I thought was my comfort
zone a lot over the week. I taught my first class ever other than teaching a
sport. I actually enjoyed eating the Ugandan food that was prepared for meals. I
instructed how to throw a Frisbee to a group of over 30 girls with only 3
discs, one of the girls was even visually impaired. When I taught her how to
throw I held out the Frisbee with my hand correctly around it and had her feel how
my hand was placed on the disc. Then I went through the motions of throwing
with here and she actually had a pretty wicked (great) throw! A girl from
another group before bathing hit her head on the bottom of a suspended steel
ladder attached to a water tank so I took off my shirt (don’t worry I had an
undershirt on) and dunked it in water for her to put it on her head. During our
talent show while my warthogs were dancing to ‘International love’ I got bored
after a minute of watching them do the same sweet dance moves they have so I
jumped in front of them and danced like an idiot in front of camp. The last
night at the dance was one of my new favorite memories. I was mingling in and
out of the dance crowd looking for the girls not dancing. I found a pair in the
back and asked why they were not dancing. They both said they couldn’t dance. I
explained to them that dancing is one of the easiest things they could do… so I
stated by bobbing my head and they did the same… then my hips… my arms… then my
feet (I got a compliment later from one of the PC staff that her daughter said I was a lot of fun and taught them how to dance… warm fuzzies!) I
then went to the benches where a few girls were just sitting, I noticed one of
them was visually impaired and didn’t look like she was enjoying herself. I
asked her if she wanted to dance and she explained that where she was sitting
the music was too loud and hurting her ears. No good. So I explained we could
go behind all the speakers in the back and grabbed her hand and lead her. We
sat down and had a good talk about camp, America, and apples (her favorite
food). Most Ugandans never eat apples because they are a bit expensive so I was
a bit shocked at her answer. I explained Halloween to her, apple orchards, and
even the different types of apples we have. I’ve never worked with visually
impaired individuals before and really had a good feeling that I was doing a
good job at communicating what I was trying to explain. Even describing apples
for example… you can’t use colors… or say ‘this big’. I would make a fist to demonstrate the size of some apples back home and have her feel my hand so she could get an idea of how big they could get. Apples in Uganda are pretty small and uniform in size. I even got Janet up a couple of
times to dance! I look forward to receiving an e-mail from her in the future.
By the end of the week most of the girls could not stop talking
and I could see how much they were enjoying themselves. I'm proud of my little
piglets... almost turning into full grown warthogs!
And lastly... I'm one of the 3 directors chosen for next years Camp GLOW!
August 2013!
CAMP GLOW love my life!
3 Days After GLOW:
I had to sleep at another PCVs
house in town so I could make it to the 7am bus on time. I was heading back to
Kampala (The direction I just came from) on another 8 ½ hour bus ride. That’s right
I timed it. Thanks to my Grandmother I was able to enjoy a few Special K
granola bars from the States and then I bought 2 street corns at a ‘fast food
stop.’ When I say fast food stop I mean people running up to your window really
fast and poking food/ drinks at you until you fork out money. It never fails
that I get poked with a stick of some sort of meat. It usually smells pretty bad. Because I was on ‘official PC business’
training the new group (presenting a homestay orientation) I was put up in a
hotel in Kampala, with the other two I was training with, where PCVs usually
stay for anything PC related. When I say hotel it may be a bed and a room but I
share a toilet and a shower with the entire 2nd floor. After
being able to enjoy the perks of having permission to be in Kampala we walked ½
mile down the road and I enjoyed an ice cream sundae with a scoop of chocolate,
banana, and coconut ice cream topped with strawberry syrup AND two actual
strawberries!!! I also spoiled myself and had and iced latte… I know don’t
judge. For the rest of the evening I felt like that kid who’s mom tells them
not to eat all of their Halloween candy… but they do anyway. That’s how I felt.
I was in a sugar coma till late afternoon the next morning after PC picked us
up and took us to the Peace Corps office. This was the first time being in the
PC office since I was a PCT! The last time I was there I was still a trainee on
the 4th of July. Weird. While waiting to leave ALL of the language
trainers arrived and it felt like Christmas being able to see them all again!
We then all split into two groups, even with the other 2 I was presenting with,
and went to talk to the new group about homestay. Since the new group of PCTs
is Education they were posted at 2 separate schools (Primary and Secondary) so
I only got to meet the half at the Secondary school. Two PCVs from Mukono town had
dinner with us and to save PC money on another bed in the hotel again I decided
to stay with one of them for the night. Both of their ‘apartments’ were gorgeous
with tile floors… bathrooms…. One of them even has two balconies and can see
Lake Victoria from it. This just goes to show how different the PC experience
is for everyone.
My brother comes in THREE days!! Then we stay in Uganda for 2 days and
head to Tanzania for a 3 or 4 day safari! My binoculars are ready and packed!
On the 24th we are flying to the island of Zanzibar and living it up
in a nice hotel for Christmas Eve and Christmas. My brother is amazing and did
all the last minute booking/ detailed work on where we are staying even looking
for a safari since the group we were planning on going with bailed. From the 26th to the 1st
of December we are staying at a hostel with a big group of PCVs right near the
beach on Zanzibar. Mikes friends gave us a Christmas gift to go do something (aka swim with
the dolphins, snorkel, what what) and gave him money and I don’t want to spoil
it again but I will… Mike don’t read this… Ooops. I’m going to torture you all
for 3 weeks until I write again :p This is how I continue to get people to read
my blog,… I torture them by leaving out information! Anyways I’m going to have
a great time being with my brother in paradise! Till next time MERRY CHRISTMAS
and I hope your new year brings happiness! I’ll try and keep a journal of my
adventures if I’m not too tired from having all that fun!
