Sometime around last year I applied on behalf of my community to be involved in one of my favorite Peace Corps initiatives – Camp GLOW. Fortunately, Bayahibe was granted the opportunity to participate, and I was lucky enough to bring 3 girls from my little fishing town to
learn all about GLOW – Girls Leading Our World. Of course “GLOW” is what we call it among the gringos; as it doesn’t easily translate, we call it Campamento Ser Mujer (Camp Be a Woman) in Spanish.
Just imagine, if you can, about 20 volunteers, 60 Dominican girls, 5 days, 1 bathroom, 20 tents and a tropical storm. It was quite an adventure, especially for my Bayahibe princesses, who are not exactly used to daily water and electricity outages (they aren’t your average girls from the campo). Needless to say, they weren’t very excited when I told them they could only shower once a day and at a specific time. Fortunately, they made it through the week and hopefully learned a thing or two.
Ser Mujer is a volunteer-led annual summer camp that brings young Dominican women from around the country together to learn about… well, being a woman, which isn't as easy as it sounds in the very machismo DR culture.
This year it was held July 20-24. The girls received charlas on all kinds of topics from goal-setting and career paths (with a panel of professional Dominican women) to nutrition and healthy decisions; from learning about women in different cultures to learning about their own bodies; from income generation projects to volleyball lessons and more. Basically, the Peace Corps volunteers offered a assortment of educational talks and activities, through which the girls learned new perspectives, ideas and hobbies that they can take back with them to their communities. It was wonderful to see them absorb the information and reflect on it; it was as if we could watch them grow as young women in just those five days.
Apart from learning, the girls had some time to divertirse. There was a swimming pool, of which they took full advantage, dance and yoga classes, scrapbooking, arts and crafts, sports, a bonfire, and more. Of course, we had a few photo shoots as well (Dominicans LOVE posing for the camera), which I was more than happy to facilitate.
We did spend a couple of days trying to avoid a nasty tropical storm, including one night of sleeping in a pavilion on mattresses because our tents were soaked! It was somewhat stressful, but the fun we had outweighed everything else. In the end, my girls were so thankful that they were able to participate, even if it meant roughing it for a week. I was also so glad to have had the opportunity to help plan, participate in and execute such an amazing event. A huge thanks to Rachel and Emily and all volunteers who participated for making it an experience we’ll never forget!
Pool Time!
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment