The past
eleven months have been good to me. I
moved to a new country. I made new
friends. I learned a new language. I live in a thatch-roofed hut in an idyllic
village. I work with riotous ladies and fantastic
farmers. I've had many good weeks. But none like my week at the Greater Kaolack
Region Girls Empowerment Camp.
But
before Girls Camp, there was traveling to Girls Camp. My neighboring volunteers must have misplaced
confidence in me since they sent the newest volunteer in the area transport
four teen girls over 180km . And it
was quite the adventure. Traveling on my
dirt road to the paved road is always unreliable due to 1) never knowing if a
car will happen to drive by 2) if said car will have room for you and ... 3)
rainy season making the roads impassable.
So I decided to rent four seats on my uncle's horse-drawn charrette...
but there were a few snags.
My uncle
woke up an hour late. We left an hour
and a half late. The roads were so
flooded we almost were washed away into tributaries of the Gambian River. A narrowly avoided fist fight... and I got us
there with ten minutes to spare.
 |
The
Greater Kaolack Regional Girls Empowerment Camp was the mashing up of forty
Senegalese teenage girls, twenty Peace Corps volunteers, four Senegalese women
counselors, and various speakers. The
girls were chosen by their communities as the local leaders and tops of their
classes. Broken into four teams, the
girls were roomed with new friends and were supervised by a counselor.
The five
days of the camp were broken into themes;
1. Identity
2.
Health
3. Environment
4. Gender
5. Future
Volunteers led almost all the sessions, with
guest speakers about the environment and gender, and a panel for the future
day. The morning had sessions about the
theme of the day while afternoons had small, hands on group sessions that ranged
from social geography, crafts (including tie dye, cookie decorating, and making
collages), and discussion groups. The
evenings alternated between swimming and sports. Early morning sessions alternated between
yoga and leadership games.
 |
| Erin Kelly, games 'dictator' |
My role
at the camp was as the co-leadership games director.
Every morning we had twenty of the girls for an hour of torture. Our preferred methods were forcing the girls
to tangle their hands together then try to untie themselves, or remember
everyone's names, or fall off ledges into the feeble arms of their teammates,
or stumble around blindfolded with only a new friend to keep them from tripping
over obstacles. The usual methods, but
highly successful.
While
the girls had a lot of fun, imagine trying to explain name games, the human
knot, etc. in a foreign language and how that related to our mantra of;
1. Know yourself
2. Know
your team
3. Work with your team
4. Trust your team
It was a
challenge, but it was the most fun I've had all year.
The
first evening, we volunteers decided to break the figurative ice (seeing as
this is West Africa and there is a distinct lack of ice) by putting on a talent
show for the girls. To impress our new,
shy friends we broke out our utmost skills; juggling, singing, Mexican dancing,
and rapping in Wolof. For those of us
talent-less volunteers, we decided to have a spaghetti eating competition. I
think we terrified the girls, but they secretly like it (we think).
 |
| Erin Kelly, informal ambassador. Yes, these are your tax dollars at work promoting a 'positive' image of citizens of the US abroad. |
The last
evening, the girls decided to reciprocate by putting on a talent show of their
own. They had educational skits about
malaria (which included a lot of fake vomiting that sounded like a wounded dinosaur)
and recycling. They sang and
danced. And they imitated the
volunteers, including me.
Other
night activities included movie night, spa night, and a traditional songs
night.
The
second to last night was the 'Sabar,' or dance.
We all sat in a big circle with the drummers at one end. The girls put on their fanciest completes and
ran into the middle of the circle as singles, in pairs, or in large groups to
show off their moves. With fast steps,
kicking feet, flying sand, swinging arms, and shaking booties we all celebrated
female empowerment.
Those
swinging arms almost got the better of me though. The girl I was sitting next to and I were
moved to standing to dance at the same moment.
As the drums called to our inner Senegalese-dancing goddesses, we stood
up. Slightly behind my companion, she
didn't see me rise as well as she threw her arm back... right into my
face. And that's how I almost lost my
front teeth Senegalese dancing, really they were loose for a few days.
 |
| Smiling since I still had my teeth! |
This was
one of the most fulfilling experiences of my time in Senegal, and perhaps in my
life. None of these girls had been to a
camp before so just seeing them learn to bond and have fun was incredibly
rewarding. I thoroughly enjoyed working
with a dedicated group of Senegalese and Americans for female empowerment. Girls Camp also cemented my suspicions that
my passion lies in teaching. I got
goosebumps every time the girls interacted and responded well in class.
It was
most exciting to see the concepts of personal empowerment and youth leadership
spark in a group who hadn't experienced it before. They started off quite and shy, but by the end of the week the girls
literally didn't sleep because they couldn't stop talking. It rained the night before camp ended, so the
large buses we took back to civiliazation kept getting stuck in the mud. Thankfully, we were with some pretty
empowered girls who would push the buses out.
I became pretty emotional when I saw my quite, shy girls I'd started
traveling with on a horse-drawn charette laughing as the buses labored through
the mud, yelling "jambaar yu jigeen
mo fii nekk, yeen nepp!" (Warriors are women and they are here, everybody!)
P.S. I was incredibly touched and thankful to be chosen as the Programming & Content Coordinator for next year's camp. I'm hoping that next year we'll be able to plan another excellent camp and I'll be able to handle teaching in a mixture of French and Wolof!
