Girl's Camp

I can’t believe its already November! The rainy season has already started here. It has poured here the past week, and stormed the past two days. It even hailed yesterday! I was in the middle of teaching a class when huge roars of thunder and crashes of lightning interrupted us, followed by ice chunks banging on the tin metal roofs. I couldn’t even hear myself think, let alone try to teach. The electricity went out so there was no light in the classroom but the students couldn’t leave because they have to walk home on foot and it was pouring and roads get washed away and lighting was striking nearby. Everyday by 5:30, without fail, it starts storming. I guess this is really bad for the rice crop because they weren’t expecting the rains to start til December and I’ve been told that the time when rice really needs rain is at the end of its growing period, and if the rain stops before that it will be bad. Also, the rice that has already been planted is ruined because it has been flooded by all the downpours. I have no clue if there have been any cyclones because I don’t have a television.

Other than that, our girls camp went really well! It was a wonderful time! We started off here in my town of Ambatondrazaka and slept in the middle school classrooms. We did team building and get to know each other activities, and had the girls make up rules for the camp. We also made nametags and discussed what the Peace Corps is and the reason for the camp. The second day we woke up at 430 and cooked rice and then loaded up a big bus and left for Andasibe, which is about 4 and a half hours south of my town. We stayed in a Malagasy family’s house, with a few rooms and lots of foam mattresses for the girls to sleep on. The house had a cabin-y feel to it. Then we had a session on Female Identity/Abilities based on Gender. Then we went on a night hike and saw many pairs of lemur eyes up on the trees. The next day we woke up early to go on a hike in the rainforest and saw a family of lemurs and tree farms. That night we had a lesson on Goal Setting and Decision Making as well as sessions on the environment and also on sexual decision making/learning how to say “no”. The next day we had craft stations set up and the girls learned how to make bracelets, make collages, and draw with charcoal. Then we had some more health and environment sessions about HIV/AIDS and planting trees. Then we played trust and team building games outside. The next day we again went on a hike in the rainforest and were lucky to see four species of lemurs, two kinds of chameleons, two snakes, and a frog that lives in tree stumps. One group of lemurs were right above our heads and actually came down to the ground about five feet away from us and ten feet away from that was that largest chameleon in Madagascar! It was an awesome experience for the girls! That afternoon the girls learned about the rainforest from some guides and then we had a bonfire where we introduced them to s’mores! We sang and laughed and danced. The next morning the girls all bawled when we had to leave. They all had gotten so attached to the family that lives in the house we were staying at. Every morning they would sing and dance to church songs together and they were upset to leave the forest as well. We headed off to Tana and unloaded everything at the girls dormitory at a huge Catholic Church. After lunch we took a tour of the University, which happens to be the biggest University in the country. It is a public school and there are only five other major universities in the country. A female English Professor lead us around the campus and sat down and talked to each of the girls about their professional goals and about the importance of reading books. The next day the girls had time to shop in the market downtown, and then came back for a Women’s career panel, where Malagasy women with good jobs talked to them about their lives and how they obtained their high status jobs. The girls asked many questions and were impressed by how assertive and capable these women were. They are used to seeing women with seven or eight children following them around, not seven or eight workers taking orders from them! I swear I could almost see the girls picturing themselves sitting up on the panel fifteen years from talking to girls now about their own professions! Anyways, then two younger women from a public health organization called PSI came to talk to the girls about puberty, decision making and health, and other female things. Finally the last day we traveled back to Ambato and had the dance club open early for the girls and a dj played music while we all danced. The girls thought it was very cool. We returned to the middle school for the finale of a talent show. The next day we said our goodbyes, and saw them off at the taxi brousse station as they went off crying. It was an successful and wonderful camp and I am proud to have been apart of it! Thank you so much to all of you who helped finance it. I can’t explain in words what this camp has meant to these girls!

FYI: On the morning after the election, all the Peace Corps volunteers huddled together trying to listen to a static-y short wave radio that played the BBC and heard the results of the election. It was a little unbelievable since we weren’t watching minute by minute coverage on the TV, but instead only heard one brief sentence on the radio. Later on the text messages from friends and family in the US began trickling in and we began to believe that it was true. I have been told by many Malagasy people that they are proud of our decision and I always reply with, “I’m finally proud, too!” My students like Obama because they say he looks like a Malagasy person. I have other reasons.