Jambaar yu Jigeen! Aug 2014

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.

Here's a video made by Peace Corps Senegal about the camp, with a cameo by good ol' me for about 2.5 seconds around minute three.

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!