I woke up bright and early Saturday morning because I had a list of things to accomplish! Alyssa and I had a meeting in Dakar and I needed to leave by 10am to make it on time. I went to the hardware store and bought the best lock I could find aka the only lock she had. Next, I visited my good friend Babacar and gave him the lock. He was eating his bean sandwich so I told him to finish his breakfast then come over and repair my door. Eventually he reinstalled the new lock which involved gluing the pieces of door that had been chipped off the night before back to the larger door frame. By 9:15am I had a new lock and 3 new keys! I immediately grabbed my bag for Dakar, locked my fancy new lock, gave a key to Awa to give to my host mom (who was at the market), and hit the road!
Alyssa and I had a good meeting and things with the Artisan Exposition are moving along. It's kind of odd that a year ago I had no idea what was going on and now I'm one of the people planning it. After the meeting, we played some softball on the Peace Corps team (there's a league that runs until WAIST the big, costumed, tournament in Feb.). We both played the entire game (her as 2nd base, me as catcher) and had a few good hits. After softball we had a wonderful dinner (thai salad and a vegetable stir fry), then met up with other volunteers at a bar. After the bar we all headed to 'da club' which ended up being OUR club... because we were the only people in it. Eventually 4 middle aged Indian businessmen showed up and hit the dance floor when the theme song from Slumdog Millionaire came on. After a night of dancing - which was really fun because it was like we had a private party - we went back to the regional house which was gloriously empty.
The next morning we had breakfast and headed home. I had a meeting with my girls' group and fell asleep pretty early - travel always makes me tired. The key saga will hopefully end tomorrow: in addition to my room key, I lost the key to my mailbox and tomorrow I try to get a new one!
Wish me luck!
KO
Showing posts with label Girls Scouts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Girls Scouts. Show all posts
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Girls Scouts: Senegal Style
I was a girl scout (technically a brownie) when we lived in Texas. As you can see, I wasn't a very good Girl Scout (there's disagreement over whether I never earned a merit badge or if they just didn't make it onto my sash):
Regardless of my poor performance as a Girl Scout, I really do see the importance of women and girls in development. In the US women's groups when done correctly (girl scouts, sororities, book clubs - you name it) can have a million positive impacts on the lives of the members (I consider myself among the lucky with my amazing sorority). Internationally, these groups have a lot of potential, so I believe, at changing the members but also doing development work. The girls' camp was a great week but I'm not willing to let it end there so I invited all of the Bambey campers to my house for a meeting today. After chatting about the camp (they all emphatically claim they've done yoga since the camp), we got down to business. I asked if they would like to have a girls' group for the school year, we would be doing the same sort of things that the camp did just for a couple hours a month instead of compacted. Everyone wanted in! When I asked who they wanted it to be, just them or invite their friends, they all agreed that it should just be the girls who went to the camp. While I don't agree with their exclusivity, I told them it was their group and they could decide - and I'm going to suggest we open it up at the start of the year to new members. We then elected a board for the next 3 months (that's what we decided a term would be), and ended up with a tie for President. The two presidential candidates decided to split the term (they wouldn't agree on being co-presidents, "that just can't happen!").
Next we talked about my big, kind of a long shot, dream project: doing a 3-day day camp for younger girls and having these girls act as the counselors. They thought I was crazy but they loved the idea! When I told them that I would organize it all but would expect them to teach the classes they all started talking at once. I admit, the project has a huge chance to never get off the ground or, if it does start, blow up in my face. Having 10 middle school girls teach a camp to 9 year olds? Crazy! But if it worked, it would be amazing and, for that reason, I have to try.
While I do my behind-the-scenes organizing work for these day camp, the girls' group (what I'm calling my girl scouts) is moving forward! At the end of our first meeting, after agreeing the next would be next week, same time, same place, I tried to explain "kudos" to them. At the end of every meeting, my sorority would have time for "kudos," it was basically a time to go around and give people props for awesome or nice things they had done during the week. They always ranged from, "congrats so and so on getting your internship" to "I was having a crappy day on Monday and so and so cheered me up - thanks." It was a positive way to end a meeting. Well, the girls didn't pick up kudos today, but I wished them all good luck (the first actual day of school starts tomorrow!) and I'm going to try with the kudos again next week.
In other news, I totally won over the 2 or 3 year old that now lives in my house! I let her play with my hair, then she held my hand and not her sister's (who's maybe 10) when we went to get me light bulbs (I'm not exactly sure they the kids had to accompany me down the street but I appreciated it). Khady (the little one) then sat on my lap while I read. We're besties now.
KO
Regardless of my poor performance as a Girl Scout, I really do see the importance of women and girls in development. In the US women's groups when done correctly (girl scouts, sororities, book clubs - you name it) can have a million positive impacts on the lives of the members (I consider myself among the lucky with my amazing sorority). Internationally, these groups have a lot of potential, so I believe, at changing the members but also doing development work. The girls' camp was a great week but I'm not willing to let it end there so I invited all of the Bambey campers to my house for a meeting today. After chatting about the camp (they all emphatically claim they've done yoga since the camp), we got down to business. I asked if they would like to have a girls' group for the school year, we would be doing the same sort of things that the camp did just for a couple hours a month instead of compacted. Everyone wanted in! When I asked who they wanted it to be, just them or invite their friends, they all agreed that it should just be the girls who went to the camp. While I don't agree with their exclusivity, I told them it was their group and they could decide - and I'm going to suggest we open it up at the start of the year to new members. We then elected a board for the next 3 months (that's what we decided a term would be), and ended up with a tie for President. The two presidential candidates decided to split the term (they wouldn't agree on being co-presidents, "that just can't happen!").
Next we talked about my big, kind of a long shot, dream project: doing a 3-day day camp for younger girls and having these girls act as the counselors. They thought I was crazy but they loved the idea! When I told them that I would organize it all but would expect them to teach the classes they all started talking at once. I admit, the project has a huge chance to never get off the ground or, if it does start, blow up in my face. Having 10 middle school girls teach a camp to 9 year olds? Crazy! But if it worked, it would be amazing and, for that reason, I have to try.
While I do my behind-the-scenes organizing work for these day camp, the girls' group (what I'm calling my girl scouts) is moving forward! At the end of our first meeting, after agreeing the next would be next week, same time, same place, I tried to explain "kudos" to them. At the end of every meeting, my sorority would have time for "kudos," it was basically a time to go around and give people props for awesome or nice things they had done during the week. They always ranged from, "congrats so and so on getting your internship" to "I was having a crappy day on Monday and so and so cheered me up - thanks." It was a positive way to end a meeting. Well, the girls didn't pick up kudos today, but I wished them all good luck (the first actual day of school starts tomorrow!) and I'm going to try with the kudos again next week.
In other news, I totally won over the 2 or 3 year old that now lives in my house! I let her play with my hair, then she held my hand and not her sister's (who's maybe 10) when we went to get me light bulbs (I'm not exactly sure they the kids had to accompany me down the street but I appreciated it). Khady (the little one) then sat on my lap while I read. We're besties now.
KO
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