Camp GLOW 2010!!!

Definition: Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is a fantastic world-wide Peace Corps initiative to promote gender development by helping young girls to be independent, self-reliant, and educated about themselves and their world.

This past week my fellow Pohnpei PCVs and I led the four-day overnight camp at Nihco Marine Park on Pohnpei. It was everything that camp should be, and brought me back to my camp days at Pilgrim Park and Tapawingo. The following is a full account of our camp—I hope it isn’t too tedious for you all to read, but I am so excited about every detail of how it worked that I had to put it all in!

Day 1
In the pouring rain, the 60-some 8th grade graduates set out from their communities all over Pohnpei to the well-known picnicking beach of Nihco. Though most of us arrived soaking wet, our spirits weren’t dampened and our Peace Corps cheerleader, Mollie, led some fun ice-breaker activities. Thanks to our grant from AusAID and several local businesses (including my friends at IREI, Pohnpei ACE Hardware & ACE Office), the girls each received a tote bag with Kate’s design for our program “Serepein en Camp GLOW” (Camp GLOW Girl), a notebook and pen, and the direction that they would bring these to each of our sessions—they would do more self-reflection in the next 4 days than they probably ever have done in their lives!
The first presentation then began: on the benefits of local foods by Island Food Community of Pohnpei. This was followed by a potluck dinner brought by each girl, PCV, and the wonderful Pohnpeian (and Pakin) ladies who attended the camp with us. The evening’s entertainment was provided by our token male PCV present at the all-girl camp, Albert, with stunning renditions of ABBA, A-Kon, and Tom Petty on the ukulele. I joined in loudly, if not tunefully. Albert escaped after his most enjoyable program, and the rest of us lady PCVs prepared ourselves for some girl talk: when the girls had gotten ready for bed, we had an open discussion before lights-out in the several nahses (like cabins, but without walls) where we would sleep. The girls were encouraged to write any questions they felt uncomfortable about asking aloud on pieces of paper and put them in the ‘question box’ kept in the main nahs where presentations were given. 10:00 was lights out, to the chagrin of 60-some girls and the relief of 20-some Peace Corps volunteers and local chaperones.
Day 2
The morning began with the painstaking process of cooking pancakes for 80 on two kerosene stoves. When we finally finished cooking at 11:00, half-way through the morning sessions, we decided to scrap the idea of pancakes for the remaining two mornings and instead prepare the Pohnpeian fast favorite, doughnuts. So much for nutrition lessons; aren’t home-made doughnuts at least more nutritious than the processed ones? Or than ramen, typical Pohnpeian breakfast fare? Possibly not—but there were bananas and oranges and an endless supply of mangoes!
The morning’s session dealt with substance abuse and covered the big ones: cigarettes, alcohol, beetlenut, sakau, and marijuana. Pohnpei’s Mental Health Department presented. After this session came the really good, all-American camp activities: Amanda and Kate led volleyball and swimming, Erica and K.C. conducted tie-dye t-shirts, Amber taught nutrition and serving sizes (this was a big focus for us this year), and I led dream-catcher making, introducing the concept of Native Americans (before white people came to America) and the concept behind dream-catchers to the girls. The girls were broken up into small groups for these activities and rotated around the activities over the course of two days.
Lunches and dinners after the first day were provided by local women’s groups and included lots of local fare: breadfruit, mango, fish, cucumber, and, of course, rice. After lunch I led a session on mental health which was a lot of fun: I talked about stressors as things which cause bad feelings: sadness, anger, loneliness, tiredness, worry, etc. The girls helped to develop a list of bad feelings. Then they got into groups of two or three. Each group got an unopened canned item, the label covered in construction paper. Then each group had to agree on and write one thing from their lives which causes one of these bad feelings. When everyone had finished, one volunteer went around and collected all the cans in a big bag. We watched as the bag got heavier and more difficult to carry and the volunteer got more and more tired of carrying it. Finally I read out all the stressors and stacked the cans for a very visual pictogram of the girls’ stressors. Number one was chores and other work—sound familiar? Pohnpeian kids aren’t much different than American kids. Other big stressors were break-ups/friends leaving (in the causing loneliness category), family problems, and funerals. Finally, we ended with a brainstorm session on ways to boost your spirits and your self-esteem when you’re feeling low, and of course, some journal reflection. I was really pleased with the way the session went; it was direct, but not too personal, and it also showed the girls how they are all going through many of the same things.
Another rotation session followed, then dinner, then some games and free time. We again ended the night with nahs talks and extended the girls’ curfew to 11:00! I got to sleep about 1:00, after doing my turn at watch from 12:00-1:00, making sure the girls were safely in their nahses, and there were no unwanted nighttime visitors . . .
Day 3
The volunteers and chaperones rose early to prepare a nutritious breakfast of doughnuts and fruit which this time was ready by 8:00. The girls were fed and ready to go by 9:00, and, because we’re on island time, our morning’s presentation began at 9:30. The presentation, given by Public Health, was a humorously told, but informational puppet show (not really puppets, but people wearing large, cartoonish masks), on HIV/AIDs. The girls were encouraged to get tested and to encourage their partners to get tested, and to use condoms. These are topics not generally talked about here, and it was great to have Pohnpeians speaking directly to the girls about it.
The third rotation session followed, lunch, and then Public Health returned explain more academically the physical development of adolescents and to answer questions. The fourth and final rotation session followed and then some much needed (for all) free time for the girls to play, eat dinner, and practice for the TALENT SHOW! At 8:00 on our last evening of camp, the campers and many of the chaperones performed musical pieces and dances (primarily hula); the PCVs closed it with our own adaptation of ABBA’s “Take a Chance on GLOW!” (new lyrics by Kate and Kate). With a further extended curfew for the final night (12:00!), the girls danced, talked, made friendship bracelets (at my command post, the “quiet nahs”—it was, in fact, very quiet! I think we wore ‘em out!)
Day 4
Same deal with the doughnuts this morning. The girls’ last session was to hear the stories of some local women and to ask questions about their lives and the challenges they faced growing up. My host mother spoke about her experiences in the first class at Salapwuk Elementary School and how hard they worked to keep the school going. All of us did a camp-site wide clean-up, prizes were awarded to girls who had shown excellent participation in camp this week, and finally, the girls had a chance to evaluate us (it wouldn’t be Peace Corps without an evaluation!). Before we knew it—before we even had a chance to take a group picture—all the girls were on the two buses, one going to the east side of the island, the other to the west, and we volunteers packed up our supplies and left Nihco to spend the weekend recouping (. . . or not recouping) together in Kolonia.