The pictures above are of all the people who attended Camp GLOW 2014. Mercy Banda & I. And two girls with their special bracelets, as well as burned out glow sticks from our dance party.
If you have read my blog before you know I LOVE the GLOW club I help facilitate at Ndaiwala school. GLOW is a worldwide program that focuses on young women empowerment, and is an acronym for Girls Leading Our World. In August Peace Corps Volunteers in Eastern Province put together a camp for 9 volunteers, who brought one community mentor and two young women from school. Each day of the week long camp had a different focus; goal setting, gender, reproductive health, leadership, HIV/AIDS and malaria. The goal of the camp is to disseminate enough information and have enough fun to inspire volunteers with the help of community mentors and the teenage girls to start a GLOW club in their own communities.
In my community I already have one awesome GLOW club at one of the two government schools, and so I brought Mercy Banda from that club. Mercy was chosen by the club and I have to say they chose well. There is another school down the road from me that has only been a government school for a couple years; the classrooms are mud half-walls with thatched roof, and they only teach grades one through seven. After receiving permission from the Head teacher at this other school, Mwenda Nampingo, I decided to fill my last two spots with a community mentor and young women from that area. Because I haven't worked in depth with the school previously I asked the teachers to recommend a good student to attend, as well as a young woman as community mentor.
Mercy proved Ndaiwala proud throughout the week. She participated fully, had a great attitude--even when things didn't go her way, she helped the other girls, and even led songs for the group to get energized. On the last day she was chosen by the Volunteers as GLOW girl of the week. I was so proud. Not only because she gave it her all, but because many of the teachers expressed doubts about bringing her as the Ndaiwala representative (worries about a possible boyfriend, or her being chosen purely for popularity and not for academic reasons).
Tamala was the student chosen from Mwenda Nampingo school and I was dissappointed to learn, she not only doesn't speak English, but she doesn't speak Nyanja--the language I have learned in Zambia and the translators used throughout the week. People back home may be shocked at my negligence, but in a country with 73 languages, it's not such a surprise. I will say I should have interacted with her more but she was shy and I figured if the school chose her, it wouldn't be a problem.
The community mentor chosen was Esther Phiri, which is funny because that is also my name here in Zambia. She had previously worked as a volunteer teacher at the school. She is a nice young woman who is married, and she brought her toddler, who surprisingly enough wasn't a hassle at all. Unfortunately for me, Esther is either very shy, or doesn't speak English very well. But that is ok, because this club is for them, and it doesn't need to be in English. She does speak Nyanja so at least she was able to understand the translation of the lessons.
At the very end of the week the four of us were working together to make a plan for GLOW club once we returned home to the village. Luckily for me Mercy was willing to take in the burden of translating between English and Tumbuka so we could all work together. When I asked Tamala what she hoped to work on in GLOW club in Mwenda Nampingo, she became very quite and explained to Mercy and Esther that she didn't know why she was chosen to come and that she wasn't capable of leading a club. Immediately Esther and Mercy began to encourage and support her. Telling her that she was smart enough and the teachers had chosen her because they knew she is smart and capable. I also reminded her she wouldn't be doing it alone, I would be there every week to support her and help as much as they wanted. She smiled and looked reassured. She opened her notebook she had decorated as a goal journal on day one and I was impressed to see she had filled the pages. I was blown away and nearly brought to tears as I listened to her list off different activities and topics she wanted to bring back to teach to her community. All week I had been frustrated feeling that she wasn't understanding much because of the language barrier, and while she may not have learned as much as others, I have no doubt she benefited from this experience.
The point I most lost my cool during the week of 14-hour days was while teaching about female reproduction. There was a question from the group of how a woman can not get pregnant while not on birth control or using condoms. I put the question back to the class, and hoped someone would regurgitate the information about ova meeting sperm in the uterus. A community mentor advised that traditional medicine such as herbs... I interrupted her. This was not the time to talk about traditional medicines. I said something along the lines of, "With respect to your culture, right now we are talking about SCIENCE." And then of course repeated the information about ova and sperm. Afterwards I felt bad that I had cut her off and shut her down so completely. I was grateful for the support of my fellow volunteers who reassured me that I hadn't been out of line and it was okay to show my passion something which I obviously care so much about.
I also brought in my abstract Evergreen hippy methods as much as I could manage. Abstract thinking is not taught on school here, and not common. My step mom, Ann had donated beautiful blown glass beads that she made. Each girl, community mentor, and volunteer received one. I asked them each to hold it in their hands an channel their goals and reams into that special, unique bead. A few were confused, and luckily I had a Zambian woman from Lusaka help me translate so they could better understand the idea. I hope the bracelets they all made serve as a reminder that they do have goals; goals they can accomplish. And that each one of them is unique, interesting, and beautiful, even more so than the bead.
On the last day we stood in a circle, and as I had done in many an Evergreen final class, created a web of string. I started by mentioning a skill or fact I had learned this week, and followed it up by something I had learned about myself. The young women and mentors had no problem listing off skills and facts, but we had to ask nearly every person what they had learned about HERSELF. Although it was a struggle it was satisfying for me, other volunteers, and probably even the girls and mentors to see the thought process on their face, and hear the eventual answer. Many had learned they could try something new, make friends, speak out, and
one community mentor said she had learned women were just as good as men. We wrapped up by acknowledging that we are all interconnected and committed to holding up our part of the web so we can all succeed.
