Even though Daniella did an excellent post on our camp I wanted to do my own version of it (though I still encourage you all to check out her version!)
The Place: Okavango Delta. A beautiful system of channels that is filled by the flooding in Angola each year,
and a place that plays host to a plethora of wild life. We had a counselor catch two fish out of that baby using some fishing line, a hook, and a little chunk of beef. It was crazy and certainly not like the fishing I've
done at home.
The Event: Youth Conference. Daniella and I wanted to hold an event to celebrate and empower the youth of Botswana. Due to some funding issues we couldn't have as large of a camp as we wanted, so we decided to take some more of the more involved youth and go camping on the Delta as a warm up to the leadership roles we want them to play at the larger camp. This involved defining certain vocabulary to express themselves by, having a "creative outlet" session to talk about artistic expression, defining what it means to be a leader, and going over the 5 steps to community mobilization.
We will now go over the Top 5 Best and Worst Moments of the Youth Empowerment Conference!
#5 Best: The location was amazing, and I got to wade into the river a few times, as well as wake up to an amazing view.
#5 Worst: We didn't bring chairs...big mistake
#4 Best: We had an epic campfire that had epic campfire food included, and one of our campers played a wicked four string guitar.
#4 Worst: The field we used for session was covered in grass that was pokey, and this may sound like a whinny comment but when you consider that our full day of camp included about 5 hours of us sitting on the stuff you realize how important comfort is in keeping your audience focused. (I have come to the conclusion that all shrubbery in Africa is either poky, thorny, prickly, or poisonous.)
#3 Best: Running my own Writing Workshop!
#3 Worst: We didn't bring enough water so by the time we were getting ready to go, the entire group was incredibly dehydrated and sucking down syrupy orange drink concentrate in order to keep our blood sugar up.
#2 Best: Hearing the personal stories of all these amazing youth
#2 Worst: I still have not quite gotten the hang of jungle peeing...which means I may or may not have peed on myself...
#1 Worst (because you always save the best for last): Myself (a 5'8" individual) and Daniella (a 5'1" individual) sleeping together in a child's tent I bought at Sefalana that couldn't have been more than 5'4x4'5"...which then became infested with ants...it was a rough night.
#1 Best: Seeing the transformation of the students even after just a day of talking about this stuff, and catching the enthusiasm they had for upcoming projects!
All-in-all it was a pretty amazing conference and the staff all agreed that by having this smaller get together, the larger camp is going to be that much more successful. On a personal note I have to say that this was one of the more satisfying projects I have completed within my Peace Corps service up to this point and I'm really looking forward to the larger camp. By empowering these youth we ensure a brighter future for Botswana as a whole down the line, and if these guys were any indication, its looking pretty bright.
Hugs and Smooches,
Claire
p.s. On a more technically note: I figured out how to enable anyone and everyone to leave comments!! So bombs away people, bombs away!
 |
| Sunrise over the camp |
 |
| Shatty with breakfast! |
done at home.
The Event: Youth Conference. Daniella and I wanted to hold an event to celebrate and empower the youth of Botswana. Due to some funding issues we couldn't have as large of a camp as we wanted, so we decided to take some more of the more involved youth and go camping on the Delta as a warm up to the leadership roles we want them to play at the larger camp. This involved defining certain vocabulary to express themselves by, having a "creative outlet" session to talk about artistic expression, defining what it means to be a leader, and going over the 5 steps to community mobilization.
We will now go over the Top 5 Best and Worst Moments of the Youth Empowerment Conference!
#5 Best: The location was amazing, and I got to wade into the river a few times, as well as wake up to an amazing view.
 |
| My life is good :) |
#5 Worst: We didn't bring chairs...big mistake
#4 Best: We had an epic campfire that had epic campfire food included, and one of our campers played a wicked four string guitar.
#4 Worst: The field we used for session was covered in grass that was pokey, and this may sound like a whinny comment but when you consider that our full day of camp included about 5 hours of us sitting on the stuff you realize how important comfort is in keeping your audience focused. (I have come to the conclusion that all shrubbery in Africa is either poky, thorny, prickly, or poisonous.)
#3 Best: Running my own Writing Workshop!
 |
| Reading an example from "Loose End" by: Ivan E. Coyote |
 |
| Daniella teaching about Community Mobilization |
#2 Best: Hearing the personal stories of all these amazing youth
 |
| BOOM! Empowered baby! |
#2 Worst: I still have not quite gotten the hang of jungle peeing...which means I may or may not have peed on myself...
#1 Worst (because you always save the best for last): Myself (a 5'8" individual) and Daniella (a 5'1" individual) sleeping together in a child's tent I bought at Sefalana that couldn't have been more than 5'4x4'5"...which then became infested with ants...it was a rough night.
#1 Best: Seeing the transformation of the students even after just a day of talking about this stuff, and catching the enthusiasm they had for upcoming projects!
All-in-all it was a pretty amazing conference and the staff all agreed that by having this smaller get together, the larger camp is going to be that much more successful. On a personal note I have to say that this was one of the more satisfying projects I have completed within my Peace Corps service up to this point and I'm really looking forward to the larger camp. By empowering these youth we ensure a brighter future for Botswana as a whole down the line, and if these guys were any indication, its looking pretty bright.
Hugs and Smooches,
Claire
p.s. On a more technically note: I figured out how to enable anyone and everyone to leave comments!! So bombs away people, bombs away!
No comments:
Post a Comment