I
know it has been a bit since my last post, but a lot has been happening over
here! April was busy with work. In the beginning of the month we had a small
celebration for a friend’s birthday but then it was down to business. I spent
the larger portion of the month of April working with an NGO called the Elewana
Education Project. The project has scholarships for intelligent needy children,
but also puts on camps for different cohorts during each of the breaks from
school. This breaks camp was specifically for Form 3 and Form 4 (11th
and 12th grade) boys. It was a leadership camp that focused on
teaching the boys leadership, goal setting, like skills and health, math,
English and computers. There were also sessions on careers and prep for the
KCSE, which is the huge exam every Kenyan student must take before graduation.
Myself, Joy, Breezie, Lori and another American (who is not in PC) named
Natalie all helped to plan and coordinate the camp, as well as participated
both as facilitators of several sessions and counselors to the boys. The camp
was a great opportunity for all of us to be able to really take charge and be
in control of what happened and what was taught. We planned a bunch of
activities and tried to keep things as interactive as possible, because a lot
of the teaching here is straight lecture and memorization during school. We had team building exercises in the beginning of the camp, one where we had them
build a tower out of straws without speaking. This was a lesson in leadership
and working together to a common goal while overcoming an obstacle. We also had
them be blindfolded and have to lead one another across a field with “land
mines” (aka flip flops and soccer balls) teaching them communication and trust. We planned a scavenger hunt for the boys
as well, which brought them to larger establishments in the area, and they
collected clues as well as got information about the town and the needs and
goals of the places they visited. They then brought back the clues and put
together a “puzzle”.
One of the Teams putting together their tower!
Working together to get across the land mine areas while blindfolded!
The finished product of the scavenger hunt! Go team!
Myself, Joy, Breezie, Lori and Natalie
Just us facilitators being silly!
Throughout that week we also discussed
goal setting and decision-making, and helped the boys learn to use the
computers and type. Computers are not something a villager has access to
regularly, so their skills are not as advanced. They wrote life stories, which
gave them an opportunity to talk about their past and goals for the future as
well as have something to type up for practice.
We
also brought the boys to a local monument, called the Kakapel Monument. There
we took a short hike up to the top, as well as explored the caves and learned
about the history. The monument has several cave drawings, which are about
2,500 years old. The site is located in Teso land (a small tribe), which is
very near to the Ugandan border. The hike wasn’t too long, but the view from
the top was beautiful and you could see the Ugandan hills in the distance, and
far off into Kenya in the other direction.
Made it to the top! hahaha
A view from the top of the monument!
Some of the boys and myself!
The whole crew at the top!
We
also had a session on sexual assault because April was Sexual Assault Awareness
Month. There was a discussion on
sexual assault and what it was, as well as discussed how they could prevent it.
They created what are called flags of hope and on them each boy started with
the phrase “I am creating an ideal world by…” after which they would list the
ways they would do so.
Us and the boys with their Flags of Hope!
And
last but not least towards the end of the camp we discussed HIV/AIDS and STI’s.
This was a very eye opening discussion because although we knew the boys were
well educated, they still had some very false ideas about prevention and ways
that HIV was transmitted. Many of them still believed that saliva and pus were
fluids that contained the virus, which we were able to talk about and clear up,
along with several other questions they had. The good thing about this session
was that it was later in the week, after the boys had warmed to us as
facilitators and they were not afraid to ask whatever questions they had. This
is really important because the subject can be taboo in many areas, but because
they trusted us and knew we were not judgmental they felt comfortable asking
almost anything. After the discussion we had a little race game, where the boys
broke up into teams and had a race to see what team could put a condom on a
banana as quickly as possible while still doing it correctly. This includes
everything from checking the expiration date and that there is an air bubble in
the condom, down to remembering to tie it off before throwing it away in the
latrine or dustbin. If they forgot a step it was back to the end of the line.
This was really fun, except towards the end when the bananas started to get a
bit squished haha!
Condom Races!
I
really enjoyed working at the camp, and it gave me great experience working
with the youth population in Kenya. While I was there I also got some good news
about one of my students at the primary school on my compound! A while back there was a poster contest
issued through PEPFAR that had students creating a poster using the theme
“Working Together for an AIDS Free Generation”, specifically targeting the
relationship between the United States and America. Well, out of the 75 entries
in the country, my student was one of the finalists! Her name is Phidencia, and
she is in standard 4 (4th grade), and drew a poster of two eagles
each colored in with a Kenyan or American flag, holding a ribbon between them.
I am so proud of her, and whether or not she wins it was a great thing to be
able to congratulate her for getting that far!
Congrats Phidencia! Such a cutie!
Although
that’s not all that happened in April, I am going to start a new post because
this one is a bit lengthy. I hope everyone is well, missing you as always!
Love and Sunshine xoxo
Lindsey Rae
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