GLOW/BE Camp Stories by Lucy S. and Meg H. F.

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Lucy Sung
ED2 -- Gicumbi District, Northern Province




The Following two articles are from SOMA, the volunteer produced journal of PC/Rwanda. 
GLOW: Fierce, Fabulous,Fantastic FlaviahByLucy Sung, ED2
Ihave a student named Flaviah, also known as Flamboyant Flaviah, or Miss FlavourEmpress, but I like to call her My Flaviah. I received her GLOW campapplication last year in 2011. She asked me many questions and gave me a draftto look at before formally submitting her application. I knew she was specialthe moment she gave me a high five.
Shewas part of my hero cabin, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and quickly rose in the groupas a leader. She led the cheers, made sure everyone was together, and shot herhand up in the air during all sessions. My favorite moment was during CaitlynGriffith’s Love and Sex lesson, “What is sex?” Flaviah rose from her seat toexplain, “Sex is when a boy and a girl meet… in bed.” I wondered if she everhad a fortune cookie and played the “…In Bed” game. I watched her writefuriously about her future goals and look torn between choosing dancing orjewelry making for afternoon activities. I’m afraid we both became addicted tofriendship bracelet making, much to the disapproval of Katie Hall. We both hadthe need, the need for crafts.
Thisyear, she is president of our school’s GLOW Club at College De Rushaki. Theleaders of the club meet weekly on Friday mornings over tea and peanut buttersandwiches, and Flaviah always opens up by asking, “What are your highs andlows of this week?” She is my bridge at the school, helping me to explainthings in Kinyarwanda when I run out ways in English. She is in my Senior 6English class and encourages her shy classmates to speak up and not be afraidto make mistakes. I can see the gears moving and light bulbs lighting up in hermind from her essays and poems on how the egg came before the chicken and whyfamily planning is important. For the Gicumbi district reading competition, shecame to ask if I had Harry Potter books to lend her, but we agreed on “ThingsFall Apart” by Chinua Achebe might be a better choice. When Peace Corps Rwandafield tested the Life Skills Manual in Kinyarwanda, I gave her the HIVprevention sections and was returned with constructive feedback after she ledthe lessons. It felt good to reach a place where the students become theteachers.
AfterEd 2’s COS Conference, Flaviah and I sped away to Kayonza for GLOW Camp 2012 inthe Eastern Province, where I was a facilitator again and Flaviah returned as ajunior facilitator. This time, it wasn’t just me admiring her spirit, all PCVsand Rwandan facilitators gushed about Flaviah. I was told that she taught allcampers the GLOW Cheer in the dusty bus park of Kayonza, she reprimanded thosewho did not help to keep the grounds clean, and she always had a smile on herface. I caught myself bragging about her, as I am doing here, but what else doproud teachers do? During the carnival, I got her good with a water balloon,causing her to shriek, “Teacher! My skirt!” I laughed in glee, having reclaimedpayback when Flaviah and students doused me with buckets of water on mybirthday. Flaviah did it again, stalking people whose birthdays fell duringcamp with her buckets. Flaviah was named Super Star for a day for her energyand passion, and she gave a great radio story during the talent show with jr.facilitators Marithe and Eliza, highlighted by Matt Teel singing the openingand closing song of Amakuru radioshow.
Ifinally understand why people say the journey is equally as important as theend product. Flaviah has shown me over time how quickly youth can rise toaccept a challenge and why solidarity and independent souls are beautiful. InRwanda, most people, men and women, are eager to say there is gender equality,but are slow to recognize reality that majority of girls and women are deniedaccess to proper education, health, and economic opportunities. Julie Greeneand Sarah Lasseron’s lessons on Gender Roles and Equality helped to drive themessage home to our 100+ campers that they are part of the movement of youth tobring justice and advocacy for girls in Rwanda. It gives me hope that we aremoving in the right direction towards opening doors and opportunities forgirls. For My Flaviah, I know she’ll kick the door down and enter with handshigh up in the air.

BE:BEnessBy Megan Haggerty Foster, H3
 “Take 55teenage boys, 4 Rwandan teachers, and a dozen Peace Corps Volunteers. Mixthoroughly, sprinkling in icebreakers, games, paper mache, bonfires, andlessons about sex-ed and leadership. Keep everyone busy and make sure no oneever gets quite enough sleep. Place in a warm school in the Rwandancountryside for one week and allow the mixture to rise. For extra flavor,consider adding a dash of bedbugs, to taste.” – PCV Nick McClure, ED 3
Donningmy camp-counselor persona and venturing into a new part of Rwanda, I landed inNyanza’s Camp BE (Boys Excelling). That week, my life was filled to the brimwith games, teaching about gender roles and peer pressure, and lots of arts andcrafts. Although I had a lot of fun, it’s a good thing that I never tried tobecome a teacher. Sustaining my enthusiasm non-stop from 7AM to 10PM beyondthat week seems relatively impossible; but, it was so much fun. I try to thinkback on my camp experiences, almost 15 years ago. How was the experiencedifferent? Well, I hadn’t been learning about preventing HIV or gender roles. Ido remember staying in large burlap tents, my dysfunctional attempts at artsand crafts, singing songs, and playing games. Although my art work attemptshaven’t improved too substantially since I was nine, I did work hard at BE campto bring out this inner enthusiast and kid person that is supposedly lurkingsomewhere inside me. Surprisingly, I found that person. As agroup leader, I met with a group of 13 boys, two junior facilitators and anadult facilitator every day, playing new games, listening about what they werelearning, answering any questions, and making camp feel like a place where magichappens. I heard my Kinyarwanda getting better every day, and surprised myselfwith the ability to explain all these random games in Kinyarwanda withoutstumbling too much or confusing my audience. The games were even successfultoo! One of my favorites was “monkey, monkey, gorilla,” a Rwandan version, of“duck, duck, goose.”             The boys were impressive. “Theyare so eager to learn and so willing to put themselves out there, to a degreethat we would be hard-pressed to find with high school youth back in America,”said PCV Christine Hooyman, H3. Isaw this in my gender roles lesson, where the boys asked questions like, “whatif we see a girl who is being treated poorly, what do we do?” and “how can wework to make our lives and girl’s lives more equal?” and “how do we change?”During HIV awareness videos, my group told me how they would help protectthemselves and others from HIV. I was concerned as a wave of “wows” echoedthrough the audience when a woman was scolding a man for assuming she’d havesex with him because he brought her gifts. I was surprised, however, when myboys voiced appreciation for her because of her reaction to the man. The campleft me hopeful and proud, and more confident in the future of Rwanda. I thinkabout my male co-workers who have told me they would never carry a baby ontheir backs because people will laugh at them, or how some believe it’s a man’sright to decide when his wife will have sex with him. I see these men, who Irespect, yet also loathe at times for their behavior, and superior mentalitytowards the opposite gender, then I think about these young boys, how muchpotential they have, and who they may or may not become, and it’s inspiring.            BE’stalent show was filled with surprise, from talented artists to absurdly gooddancers, singers, rappers, and comedians. The lyrics to Carly Rae Jepsen’s“Call Me Maybe” still can’t seem to leave my head from the show. We also did a“barrier burn” a twist on the “I can’t funeral.”  Campers wrote down things on pieces of paperthat they feel are barriers to their own successes, then stepping forwardamidst the dark group encircling the fire, they voiced their barrier. All of uswatched the barriers burn as each piece of paper was thrown into the hot coals.This was followed by a s’mores extravaganza, complete with a ridiculous amountof marshmallows carried over from the states by some friends of a PCV. Thenight continued to the sounds of camp songs around the fire, and an encorepresentation of the Jr. facilitators singing “We are the World.”              Frommy seat during Nyanza’s BE camp, it was immensely successful, fun, andinspiring for all of us. Like my group, I will also continue to strive for whatthey wrote on their group flag, “With all sides of the earth, with unity andpeace, we will have a brighter future.”