We held a week-long girl’s camp a couple weeks ago and it was one of the best things I’ve done in country. I was disappointed with myself because I wasn’t even able to bring ONE girl from my community. I do argue with myself about that though because given the circumstances it would have been weird if I brought one. For example, the people that I work with or meet, tend to not be girls between the ages of 11 to 16 that have shown some sort of potential of being model students or having that ‘spark’ that you see in some children. Plus, I think even Beninese people would be weirded out by an older yovo man coming to take away their young daughter for a week at a ‘camp’ a couple hundred kilometers away.
Anyway, this post isn’t about my inability to bring girls to the camp. The name of this camp is, “Camp G.L.O.W.”, which stands for Girl’s Leading Our World. I remember when I first heard this way back when planning for the camp began (PCVs have been hosting this camp for awhile now), and I didn’t think much about it and actually didn’t know what the acronym stood for. But after being in country for almost a year this is actually a pretty bold, and much needed, title for this type of camp. The whole week is dedicated to giving these girls an opportunity to learn more about their culture, their role in society, myth-busting, their sexuality, AIDS, hygiene, and how they can hopefully become something more than an uneducated, dust-sweeping, baby-making, subservient housewife.
That last part may have sounded harsh, but I think I should explain to you one of the things that I haven’t really talked about. I’ve joked in the past about how ‘petites’ (or children) do all the work around here. This is totally true. But the group that gets the ultimate short-end of the stick (besides those children that are sold for labor) would be girls. A typical day in the life of a girl in probably almost any community throughout Benin, goes something like this.
You wake up before the roosters start crowing at around 4 or 5, depending on how many family members you have, how big your front ‘yard’ is, and how many chores you are required to finish before you head to school. You probably start your day washing off and getting your things in order to start sweeping dirt within your compound because that’s just what you’ve been programmed to do. Maybe you have some younger siblings (or older brothers) that need to be woken up so that they can start getting ready as well, but before you do that, you gotta start a fire to make some type of breakfast or at least hot water for your dad’s coffee or pâte that your mom wants to probably have you cook later. Once you get all your brothers and sisters ready to go to school you have to walk to school. This could be anywhere between 2km to 10km (1.2 miles to 6 miles). Once you finally make it to school you go to class but your teacher isn’t there for the first hour and comes in for the final hour. Great, you copy the stuff he/she writes on the board and grab a snack at the break between classes. Your next class goes well, except for the fact that your teacher hits on you and your friends (yet again). Thankfully it isn’t as blatant as usual.
Finally it is lunch break. You get three hours, but you have to get home as fast as possible so you can help prepare lunch for the family and finish that homework that you didn’t have time to finish the other night. When you get home you quickly change and run to help your mom over the charcoal stove. Your mom’s in a sour mood cause your youngest sibling wouldn’t stop crying all morning long, looks like you’ll have to strap her to your back for the rest of lunch. After finishing lunch and cleaning up, you look at the clock and see that you only have around 20 minutes before you have to start walking back to school. Might as well take a power nap, you are exhausted.
Classes in the afternoon are always a pain because not only is it super hot, but the rooms are so overcrowded and the acoustics are so bad that you can’t hear anything the teacher is saying anyway. You trudge through the remaining classes for the day and depending on what day it is you get off at 5 or 7 PM. Thankfully your teacher wasn’t too harsh today for not finishing the homework. As you walk home you see a few of your brothers playing soccer on the field next to the school. If only you could have a chance to go play with them, you’d be the best player on the one girl’s soccer team they have in the area. Maybe you’ll get a chance to play this weekend, as long as you finish the chores that seemingly always tend to pile up on the weekends and you don’t get stuck with the baby.
You arrive at home, exhausted, at around 6 or 8 PM. If you were lucky mom has already started up the fire and finished most of the sauce. If not, you gotta start grinding tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic on the grinding stone and get the meal finished within the next hour or two. You’ve had a decent day today and you aren’t as tired as usual so you are feeling good about getting your homework finished tonight. All caught up for tomorrow’s classes! Wouldn’t that be nice. Once you finish the dishes you go to start on your homework, but as soon as you open up your books the power cuts. Oh, the injustice of it all. Good thing you have your trusty candle to light up your room to do some work. As you plug away at the homework your eyelids start to get heavy and the warm, stuffy air starts to feel comfortable, almost like an unwanted blanket. You take an accidental nap and wake up with a start two hours later. The candle has burned down to the bottom and you know you have to wake up in approximately 4 to 5 hours. Might as well go to bed and worry about your schoolwork tomorrow.
Okay, so I definitely added a few unfortunate series of events, but all things that could happen in the average day of a Beninese girl. I should also note that not all girls live in this kind of environment. It is hard to find, but there are families that are very forward-thinking and do value education, for both their sons and daughters, and encourage their children. However, in my own experiences, I have not seen this all that often.
Anyway, the point of that story was to show you the daily hardships that most of these girls are going through and I didn’t even touch upon the sexual harassment (if not worse) that goes on from strangers, teachers, and probably even friends. Not only did this camp give these girls the opportunity to learn a lot more about themselves (as girls becoming women), but it also gave them the opportunity to just be girls. They laughed, they sang, they danced, and they ate (some of them may not even be properly fed at home). Seeing how they interacted with one another at the beginning and the end of camp really put a smile on my face.
Even though this camp only lasted for a week I hope that these girls were able to gain new friends (from all over the south), gain some sort of a new perspective on life, and had the chance to be able to enjoy the moment, as a carefree, fun-loving, child.
Anyway, this post isn’t about my inability to bring girls to the camp. The name of this camp is, “Camp G.L.O.W.”, which stands for Girl’s Leading Our World. I remember when I first heard this way back when planning for the camp began (PCVs have been hosting this camp for awhile now), and I didn’t think much about it and actually didn’t know what the acronym stood for. But after being in country for almost a year this is actually a pretty bold, and much needed, title for this type of camp. The whole week is dedicated to giving these girls an opportunity to learn more about their culture, their role in society, myth-busting, their sexuality, AIDS, hygiene, and how they can hopefully become something more than an uneducated, dust-sweeping, baby-making, subservient housewife.
That last part may have sounded harsh, but I think I should explain to you one of the things that I haven’t really talked about. I’ve joked in the past about how ‘petites’ (or children) do all the work around here. This is totally true. But the group that gets the ultimate short-end of the stick (besides those children that are sold for labor) would be girls. A typical day in the life of a girl in probably almost any community throughout Benin, goes something like this.
You wake up before the roosters start crowing at around 4 or 5, depending on how many family members you have, how big your front ‘yard’ is, and how many chores you are required to finish before you head to school. You probably start your day washing off and getting your things in order to start sweeping dirt within your compound because that’s just what you’ve been programmed to do. Maybe you have some younger siblings (or older brothers) that need to be woken up so that they can start getting ready as well, but before you do that, you gotta start a fire to make some type of breakfast or at least hot water for your dad’s coffee or pâte that your mom wants to probably have you cook later. Once you get all your brothers and sisters ready to go to school you have to walk to school. This could be anywhere between 2km to 10km (1.2 miles to 6 miles). Once you finally make it to school you go to class but your teacher isn’t there for the first hour and comes in for the final hour. Great, you copy the stuff he/she writes on the board and grab a snack at the break between classes. Your next class goes well, except for the fact that your teacher hits on you and your friends (yet again). Thankfully it isn’t as blatant as usual.
Finally it is lunch break. You get three hours, but you have to get home as fast as possible so you can help prepare lunch for the family and finish that homework that you didn’t have time to finish the other night. When you get home you quickly change and run to help your mom over the charcoal stove. Your mom’s in a sour mood cause your youngest sibling wouldn’t stop crying all morning long, looks like you’ll have to strap her to your back for the rest of lunch. After finishing lunch and cleaning up, you look at the clock and see that you only have around 20 minutes before you have to start walking back to school. Might as well take a power nap, you are exhausted.
Classes in the afternoon are always a pain because not only is it super hot, but the rooms are so overcrowded and the acoustics are so bad that you can’t hear anything the teacher is saying anyway. You trudge through the remaining classes for the day and depending on what day it is you get off at 5 or 7 PM. Thankfully your teacher wasn’t too harsh today for not finishing the homework. As you walk home you see a few of your brothers playing soccer on the field next to the school. If only you could have a chance to go play with them, you’d be the best player on the one girl’s soccer team they have in the area. Maybe you’ll get a chance to play this weekend, as long as you finish the chores that seemingly always tend to pile up on the weekends and you don’t get stuck with the baby.
You arrive at home, exhausted, at around 6 or 8 PM. If you were lucky mom has already started up the fire and finished most of the sauce. If not, you gotta start grinding tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic on the grinding stone and get the meal finished within the next hour or two. You’ve had a decent day today and you aren’t as tired as usual so you are feeling good about getting your homework finished tonight. All caught up for tomorrow’s classes! Wouldn’t that be nice. Once you finish the dishes you go to start on your homework, but as soon as you open up your books the power cuts. Oh, the injustice of it all. Good thing you have your trusty candle to light up your room to do some work. As you plug away at the homework your eyelids start to get heavy and the warm, stuffy air starts to feel comfortable, almost like an unwanted blanket. You take an accidental nap and wake up with a start two hours later. The candle has burned down to the bottom and you know you have to wake up in approximately 4 to 5 hours. Might as well go to bed and worry about your schoolwork tomorrow.
Okay, so I definitely added a few unfortunate series of events, but all things that could happen in the average day of a Beninese girl. I should also note that not all girls live in this kind of environment. It is hard to find, but there are families that are very forward-thinking and do value education, for both their sons and daughters, and encourage their children. However, in my own experiences, I have not seen this all that often.
Anyway, the point of that story was to show you the daily hardships that most of these girls are going through and I didn’t even touch upon the sexual harassment (if not worse) that goes on from strangers, teachers, and probably even friends. Not only did this camp give these girls the opportunity to learn a lot more about themselves (as girls becoming women), but it also gave them the opportunity to just be girls. They laughed, they sang, they danced, and they ate (some of them may not even be properly fed at home). Seeing how they interacted with one another at the beginning and the end of camp really put a smile on my face.
Even though this camp only lasted for a week I hope that these girls were able to gain new friends (from all over the south), gain some sort of a new perspective on life, and had the chance to be able to enjoy the moment, as a carefree, fun-loving, child.
Morning exercise while waiting for breakfast to arrive.
Waiting for food and deciding which team should go in first. Some volunteers taught them, “Boomchicka boom”. It was pretty funny, I’ll see if I can upload the video from Cotonou.
Teaching the girls how to play four square. Man, that game is awesome.
These girls can dance! They danced for like 3 hours straight, I couldn’t handle it.
1 comments:
That was really awesome Dennis. Thanks for putting things into perspective. Really well done. :) Can't wait to hear these stories over an amazing meal and just as amazing wine. Keep on bro.
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