The Importance of Certificates

Getting certificates in the DR is a big deal. When applying for jobs or for University, you’ll bring all the certificates you’ve earned along with your resume to show everything you’ve accomplished and what kind of trainings you’ve received. That being said, we award certificates for every camp, course, workshop, and conference we give. Parents have shown me framed copies of every certificate their kids have earned working with Brian and I  (which by now can be A LOT).

While Brian and I don’t need them for future job applications, we also save a certificate for ourselves for all our classes and activities. It does give us a sense of finality and accomplishment to receive that 8.5 x 11 cardstock page with our name on it saying we completed a course or participated in a camp. It’s also just a great way to display and remember everything we’ve done in our time in Peace Corps.

The kids like to come over and count to see how many we have, and to compare how many I have versus Brian (FYI, I’m winning ).

Behold, our “Pared de Logros” in our apartment in Villa Hermosa.

We had to take them all down yesterday as we’re getting ready to move, but we’ll re-create it in our new place in the capital and keep adding to it throughout the next year. Any bets on how many we’ll end up with?

Youth Leaders of Las Caobas

Part of transitioning to our new lives and work in the capital is giving the lion’s share of responsibility for the youth groups here in Las Caobas to the youth. I’m hoping to be able to come back to Las Caobas every 2 weeks or so to check in on and keep supporting the kids here, but I recognize they’re going to have to really step up and take charge of the destiny of their groups.

That being said, I’ve identified 4 youth groups and 7 youth that I’m going to focus my energies on for the next 6 months:

Escojo Mi Vida, Las Caobas: This group is being led by 3 of my Escojo multipliers; Samuel, Alexander, and Marbin. They’ve already been meeting for about 5 weeks in the local primary school and have hosted a youth event. They’re planning on graduating their group in August and continuing with some environment –focused community projects.

(Left to Right: Marbin, Alexander, Samuel. At a youth event they hosted in the primary school)

Chicas Brillantes, Las Campeonas: This is the 13-18 age range Chicas group started by the graduates of my teenage girls Chicas Group I graduated a few months ago. It’s being led by Presidenta Marlenis (elected by her peers), and I’ve asked another exemplary young woman named Criseydi to help. They’ve been meeting for about 6 weeks and should graduate sometime during the summer.

(Criseydi on the left, and Marlenis on the right with their winning poster design for the Clinica MAMI for International Women’s Day)

Deportes Para La Vida, Escojo Mi Vida: Aquiles (also known as Gerson) is an up and coming trainer for Deportes Para La Vida, and has already graduated an Escojo Mi Vida/Deportes group he started in another neighborhood called Villa Caoba with another trainer named Yeniffer. He is planning on facilitating a new Deportes Para La Vida club this summer, and is helping 2 girls (Anibel and Yanira)start a new Escojo Mi Vida group in another neighborhood called La Lechosa this Saturday.

(Aquiles teaching the reproductive organs to his Escojo Group in Villa Caoba)

Chicas Brillantes, Las Super Estrellas: This is a brand new younger chicas group (ages 8-12) started by a 17 year old young woman named Lery Laura, along with 3 graduates from my original young chicas group (Yeimara, Carol, and Massier; all three are between 11-12 years old). I asked Lery to be in charge of the group as the older, more responsible youth, but the three younger girls are helping run the meeting and give the charlas every week.

(Lery Laura)

(Left to Right: Massier, Yeimara, Carol, Me. At a Chicas Brillantes sub-regional conference in November 2011)

As part of setting these four groups up for success, using grant money I have for the groups, materials I already had, and materials donated by friends and family, I created 4 “sustainability kits”, one for each group. Each kit has basic school supplies such as pencils, pens, markers, chalk, construction paper, glue, tape, etc. Each kit is also specialized for the group it pertains to. For example, the Deportes Para La Vida kit has the sports equipment, and the Super Estrellas kit has coloring books for the younger girls. I’ve also entrusted all the posters and didactic materials I’ve created for the lessons to the youth for them to be able to continue using them after I go.

(4 Sustainability Kits)

(Some of the materials in the kits)

I’m also going to implement a series of micro-grants for the youth leaders using funds from the grants I have already received (one for Chicas Brillantes, one for Escojo Mi Vida). It’s an experiment, but I believe it’s going to be a great opportunity for the kids to learn how to manage funds, be responsible, and develop some of the less flashy  qualities necessary to be good leaders.

In order to receive funds for their groups, I’m giving them the opportunity to apply for 2 types of micro-grants.

1. They can apply for up to 250 pesos (about $8) once a month for the costs of running the weekly meetings (photocopies, poster paper, snacks, etc).

2. They can apply for up to 2,000 pesos (about $60) for special activities such as a graduation, an exchange with another group in another city, an awareness march, etc.

In order to apply for either grant, they have to fill out a budget detailing how they’re going to use the funds. They also have to fill out an additional questionnaire giving more detail if they want to apply for the larger, special activity grant. After using the funds, they’re going to have to give me a report including a records of all expenses, details about what they accomplished, what they bought, and how the community contributed. If they don’t have accurate receipts or haven’t filled out the report, they will be ineligible to apply for further funding. I’m also having each group turn in a 6 month work plan before they can apply for their first micro-grant.

Going through this process is going to require these youth to keep track of receipts, manage a budget, get organized, and plan with more detail what they want to do with their groups. It’s going to be challenging for them, but I really believe it’s going to be invaluable experience they will utilize again in their professional adult lives.

Big Changes: Transition and Extension

Brian and I are excited to share some big news! ….No, I’m not pregnant.

But, it’s still pretty exciting! We’ve decided to extend our time here in the Dominican Republic in order to be able to participate in some projects that are going to result in some new challenges, more opportunities for leadership, and a more specialized focus to our work here in the DR.

Our “close of service” (COS) date for our swear in group is October 27th, 2012, but we’ve decided to extend our service until June 6th of 2013. In other words, an extra 7 months. Also, because of the nature of the work we’ll be doing, we’ve decided it makes more sense for us to live in Santo Domingo (closer to the Peace Corps office, central location, offices of major NGOs nearby). So, as much as it breaks my heart, we’re leaving our community in Villa Hermosa to move to the capital next month.

Here’s a brief run down of the projects we’ll be working on:

KRISTY

Kristy is going to be serving as the Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL) for the Youth, Family and Community Development sector. Responsibilities include:

• Developing community projects for new volunteers
• Helping with training and placement of new volunteers
• Ongoing support to current volunteers (general questions, reviewing grants, doing community visits to where the volunteers live, etc).

She will also be taking a bigger role in the national Chicas Brillantes initiative which includes:

• Helping coordinate all conferences and camps
• Supporting all Chicas Brillantes groups
• Developing the Advisory Committee and its role (a group of 10 Dominican girls that help in the planning and implementation of the national activities as well as being leaders in their own communities)

BRIAN

Brian is going to be serving as the National Coordinator for Construye Tus Sueños (a business plan competition and curriculum focused on entrepreneurship and innovation in youth). He’ll be:

• Fundraising
• Coordinating the planning for the National Competition
• Supporting Volunteers and Dominican facilitators teaching the CTS class
• Supporting previous winners of the competition and documentation their progress and success.
• Developing a micro-finance element for both the class and the competition

Both of us are also planning on continuing our relationship with our neighborhood in Villa Hermosa, visiting every two weeks or so to check in on my youth groups and Brian’s students that are submitting plans to the CTS competition this year. We’re hoping that this way we can give the community more responsibility, while still having us as a “safety net”, thus making our work in Villa Hermosa more sustainable in the long run.

Living in the capital and working on these larger scale projects is definitely going to be a huge transition, coming from the community based activities we’ve been focusing on for the past year and a half. I’m definitely a little sad, but I really believe these new responsibilities suit us well and will be a good opportunity to develop the professional skills we’re planning on using for the rest of our lives.

15+ Months in Site Check In

Last Saturday, the president of the local neighborhood association (la junta de vecinos) invited Brian and I to the monthly meeting. I offered to update the junta on what I had accomplished so far, what I was currently doing, and what was coming up soon. This is the cartaulina (poster) I made….I had to add paper to the bottom because there was too much.

Here’s the translation for the English speakers:

The Youth Work in Neighborhood Las Caobas

Our Accomplishments:

• 17 Chicas Brillantes graduates (young girls group, ages 7-12)
• 25 Basic English Classes graduates
• 16 Escojo Mi Vida graduates (youth group with health focus, ages 13-20)
• 10 Sports for Life graduates (HIV prevention curriculum that uses games to teach, ages 13-20)
• 11 Muevelo graduates (Young girls dance and movement class)
• 10 conferences and 22 participants (that’s 22 different kids I’ve brought to 10 different camps/conferences)
• The Great March and World AIDS Day event. More than 100 participants from 17 communities

Right Now:

• Chicas Brillantes group (adolescent girls)
• Group of Multipliers from Escojo (graduates that are now giving charlas in the community) and a new Escojo group in Villa Caoba (a close by neighborhood)
• Homework Help group for the little girls on Mondays and Thursdays from 10-11am

Coming Soon:

• Woman and Young Mothers group (ages 20-35)
• Class on diversity and World Cultures called “Celebrating the World”

Thank you so much for all your support!

…..

HOLY COW. I’ve done a lot more than I realized. AND, this doesn’t even include a ton of other things I’ve done (and am currently doing) that don’t directly tie into our community here (spanish and sector trainings, serving as a representative and now the Chair of the Volunteer Advisory Committee, several graphic design projects [a dozen or so certificates, half a dozen posters, 1 manual cover, and a thank you card], co-coordinating a couple of conferences, etc).

No wonder I feel tired sometimes!

I’m not writing this post for anyone to feel sorry for me – nor to try to impress (but I am pretty awesome, right?)…I think I’m just happy to have gotten through 17 months of Peace Corps and to be able to look back and feel good about what I’ve accomplished. To not feel like I’m wasting my time here and that what I’m doing is actually worthwhile. It’s really hard to feel that way sometimes in the hum-drum of the day to day, so to have a solid list of factual things I’ve gotten done encourages me in ways that no compliment or encouraging word can.

I wonder what this list will look like this time next year?

Mi Futuro Brillante

I recently got to participate in what was one of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do here so far. It was a conference designed for girls that participate in the Chicas Brillantes initiative and that are also super motivated and dedicated to pursuing a career in their future. We spent 3 days in Santo Domingo (the capital) talking about future planning, goal making, and the dreams these girls have for their lives. The two highlights (and what I think made this conference so unique) were that the girls got to job shadow and interview a professional Dominican woman, and the Peace Corps Librarian took all the girls on a tour of the Public University in Santo Domingo.

As a backdrop, I think it’s important to understand that for a lot of these girls, they’ve never even left their home towns until getting to go to one of these conferences. So the fact that they got to stay in a hotel, dress professionally, spend time in real offices and go to a real university is a really big deal – and probably an opportunity they wouldn’t have had otherwise for a lot of them. You could see the dreams they had for their futures taking on a more realistic shape – they could actually visualize themselves going to college, working in an office – being successful, professional women. Very, very cool.

This is me with the 2 girls I brought to the conference: Criseyli on the left, and Lery on the right. Criseyli is 19 and is currently working in her mom’s colmado (kind of a local convenience store) and wants to go to the University an study to be a Pediatrician. Lery is 17 and a Junior in High School. When she graduates she wants to study to be a psychologist.

For our job shadow, we got to visit Julissa (seated, in the red shirt). She’s a psychologist for a local non-profit that works with street kids. Along with being a super smart, motivated lady, she is also funny, stylish, and sassy. Other girls at the conference got to visit all kinds of professionals: A gynecologist, engineers, an orthodontist, an office manager, etc. While everyone loved their visits I felt really lucky that my girls got spend time with someone so closely connected to their interests, and that was also so relatable. Julissa is only 25 years old, but has already been working for her organization for several years and is now working on her masters in family mediation.

At the metro station getting ready to visit the University.

Inside the giant, on campus library.

And just for funsies, a picture of the lovely peace corps ladies aprovechar-ing (taking advantage of) the pool. 🙂

My girls were really excited to have participated in this conference and are planning on giving a presentation to the rest of our Chicas group this Wednesday.

Rediscovering Music

I think my friends all know that I love music. It’s been a huge part of my life since I started singing as a kid, and even more so since I picked up a guitar for the first time my senior year in high school. I’ve had my ups and downs – times where I played almost every day and dry patches of not playing at all for several months, but it’s always been something I go back to and find a lot of fulfillment in.

Right after swearing in as an official volunteer, a small group of volunteers scoured the colonial zone in Santo Domingo looking for music shops and a group discount to buy guitars. We finally found a decent guitar for a decent price and four of us bought guitars for about $60 a pop.

I then preceded to not play it for a full year. Well, not really. I pulled it out a few times, but we were living with a host family and it was just awkward. Dominicans really only like their  music and I don’t think they really got my folky singer/songwriter style. Not to mention, I only know songs in English (they did however appreciate my improvised rendition of “My Heart Will Go On” when they asked me repeatedly if I knew the Titanic song).

However, in the past 2 months I’ve developed friendships with some fellow music loving volunteers (Phil, Eli, Andrea…you know who you are) and have found the courage/inspiration to dust off Fulano (the name of my dominican guitar) and start playing again.

So, for your hopefully not too harsh criticism and enjoyment, are a few samples. First is a video of me playing Adele’s “Someone Like You” (thanks, Andrea for showing me this song!).

And here’s a recording of something Eli and I wrote together. We didn’t get to finish it so it’s a bit short, but you’ll get the idea. Eli’s playing the guitar part and I’m singing.

I’d also love ideas of new songs to try and learn, so send me your ideas and/or requests!

Life just got busy again

A weird dynamic of being in the Peace Corps is the upward and downward swings of busy-ness. Volunteers talk about it a lot….it´s really hard to be balanced. Most of the time we´ve got almost nothing going on, or we can hardly keep up.

When Brian and I got back from our trip to the states, at first I felt like I would never get things going again. Kids were busy with school, they didn´t seem that excited for the new groups I was starting, and a few meetings completely flopped. But, predictably, the momentum has caught up with me and I´m starting to feel like a crazy person, going from preparing charlas, to working on writing grants, to planning events, to going to meetings, to visiting other volunteers, to trying to keep up with house work, to attempting to find some down time.

If I´m honest with myself, I prefer to be a little stressed out. I like feeling productive, and a little pressure keeps me motivated. However, I do let it get to me at times and that results in some not so pleasant Kristy moments (sorry, Brian).

I´m trying to be more mindful of how I handle things like stress, and guilt for not being more stressed out. Peace Corps life is going to naturally slow down and speed up, but I have the responsibility of maintaining a healthy mental and emotional life in spite of all the external factors.

The other day, I was having a difficult time getting in touch with some people who I needed to talk to for a grant I was writing, and on top of that, I had been given some misinformation that meant I might have to start over. I could feel my temperature rising and rather than pace around the apartment like a crazy person pulling out my hair, I made myself sit down and play spider solitaire on my computer for a good half an hour until I calmed down. I ate a sandwich and went back to work as a professional and effective Peace Corps volunteer. For those that know me, that was my equivalent of running a half marathon after eating burger king – it took a lot of self-will and I wanted to throw up a little. But, it showed me it was possible and I´m excited to be maturing in this way.

Anyway, I have a long way to go, but one step at a time, right?

What’s coming next…

Now that we’re back after our vacation, I’m gearing up for another 13 months of Peace Corps project goodness. Here’s a preview of a little bit of what I’ll be working on.

Chicas Brillantes: I’ll be starting a new girls group, but this time for teenagers. The two girls that went to Camp Glow with me will also be helping me lead and organize. My baking class went over really well in the community, so my plan is to squish the two together. We’ll start the meeting with the preparing of a new cake recipe, then while it’s cooking on the stove, we’ll do the charla/activity, then by the time we finish that, the cake should be ready to eat and enjoy! The girls are also interested in art projects so we’ll do some of that too.

I’m also working on writing a short recipe/how to bake book we can print and sell as another fund raising method for the girls group. People in the neighborhood are always asking me how I make my banana bread so I think it’ll be a good seller.

Escojo Mi Vida: El Artistico, the organization that Brian is working with has asked me to come teach the Escojo curriculum over there. I’ll be going over there once a week to teach a class of 20 students or so. I’ll be charging 100 pesos per student (about $3) so I can have some transport cash to bring graduates from my Escojo group to come and help me do charlas.

Deportes Para La Vida: My plan with the 2 students I took to the DPV training is to go through the course with all the Escojo Graduates, then with them facilitate a field day of games and activities for the kids in our barrio on the Saturday after December 1st, World AIDS day. We’ll probably have it at the school, give a short charla, then play the games from the DPV curriculum. We’ll have teams, prizes, snacks, etc.

English Discussion Group: So far, I’ve already graduated a basic english class and and advanced english class. My plan is to now meet with these students once a week for a discussion group. The focus will be less on teaching, and just getting everyone to practice talking. We’ll have a new subject every week and take turns answering questions.

Muevelo: My little girls dance group is starting back up after our break over the summer. We’ve already done tap, salsa, cha cha, and tae kwon do, and I’m planning/hoping to teach (or getting guest teachers to teach) yoga, hip hop, ballet, and irish step dancing (Sarita! Come to my site!). 

Conferences/Camps: I’ve also got a few camps and conferences coming up in the next few months. Brian and I are both going to a 3 day Brigada Verde camp, which is focused on the environment, conservation, and biology. We can each take 2 kids and are both helping give a couple of the charlas. I also have a regional Chicas Brillantes conference which is basically a smaller version of Camp Glow. Finally, I’m going to be helping coordinate next summer’s Camp Glow with 2 other volunteers. It’s going to be a big job but I’m super excited to be a part of a project I love so much. Volunteer Zach and I are going to be the coordinators, and Volunteer Tina is going to be our budget/money guru.

Volunteer Advisory Committee: I’ve been serving as my region’s (south east part of the country) representative on VAC (this committee is the ‘go between’ the volunteers and the administration of Peace Corps DR) since last winter, and I’ve recently taken over as the chairperson of the committee. What that entails is organizing our meetings with the Peace Corps staff at the office every 4 months, running my regional “mini-vac” meetings, and coordinating an All Volunteer Conference that happens every spring. I think it’s really awesome that Peace Corps has this outlet for volunteers to voice concerns and communicate with the people that are leading us, and I feel really honored to be able to serve my fellow volunteers in this capacity.

Other (Documentation/Sanitation/Celebrando): These are some projects I’m wanting to work on, but I don’t yet have a super clear path on how they’re going to happen.

Documentation is working to help get kids get their official papers so they can show they’re Dominican Citizens. This is important because for whatever reason, a lot of kids don’t get documented (because their parents are illegal immigrants, because they weren’t born in a hospital, etc etc), but without it, they can’t go to high school, get a job….I’ve been working with one of my youth to get his papers together, and this week I’m going to La Romana to meet the Judge that I’ll need to work with. I’m new at this so I’m kind of fumbling in the dark, but I think it’s a really worth while project to pursue so I’m hoping that this first case will work out, and I’ll be ready to try it again with some other kids.

Brian and I have been working with our neighborhood association to pursue a sanitation project that would include the building of latrines, and the installation of septic tank filters. The problem is, we’re not water volunteers and once again, we’re just taking it a step at a time and trying to figure it out as we go. We’ve had a couple of planning meetings with the community and we’re talking to other volunteers that are more knowledgeable than us, but it’s definitely one baby step at a time.

Celebrando is the world cultures and geography class Brian and I want to teach together, we just haven’t decided when/where/how we’re going to do it. I know we’ll get to it eventually, but I think we might have to wait until after Christmas as the fall/winter is already so jam packed.

PHEW! At least I’ll have plenty to do! As always, I appreciate the prayers and encouragement of you folks back home, and I can’t wait to update with how everything is going. Wish me luck!

Celebrando, States, and Deportes

So my feelings of guilt for not posting for over a month have caught up with me and I’m going to try to do a summary of the highlights from August and September so far. Suffice it to say, it’s been a busy but awesome month and a half.

Celebrando Del Este

This was a 3 day conference focused on World Cultures, Geography, Ethnic foods etc. Brian and I brought 4 teenage girls from our community and hopefully they’ll be helping us run a “Celebrando del Mundo” course before in the fall/winter. A few highlights:

The youth painted a giant map of the world and used it for geography games. This is a big deal as most could not even point out where the DR was beforehand.

Brian helping me teach Swing dancing as part of a four station dancing around the world activity we did. Other dances included Salsa, Zumba, and Irish Step Dancing

Watching Brian give his charla on Morocco during our Global Village activity. The kids "visited" 9 different countries and had to answer questions correctly while passing through "customs" in order to be able to get a stamp in their "passport" and move on.

Brian and I with the four girls we brought. They are all in either my English class, or my Escojo group.

USA TRIP

After Celebrando, Brian and I took a 3 week trip to the states to visit family and friends for the first time in a year. Super fun and so great to see everyone. We spent 9 days in the NW visiting the Seattle/Kent/Federal Way area and also a couple of days in Oregon in Salem/Portland. After, we flew down to Southern California to visit my family in Yucca Valley, and Brian also drove out to Phoenix for a few days to visit our good friends out their, Joel and Katie.

Spent a day in Seattle with Brian's mom hanging out on Alki Beach, taking the water taxi, and visiting the Seattle waterfront.

Went and saw an awesome Seattle Sounders game with friends Cameron and Bethany. Here we are in front of Century Link Stadium with our Sounders gear and our Starbucks cups. LOVE SEATTLE!

Spending the day with mom and taking the tram in Palm Springs. Really beautiful.

The biggest highlight for me was just getting to spend time with my family. And I love this new family portrait my sister took with all of us together. My little family of four has certainly grown in the past 5 years!

Deportes Para La Vida

Deportes para la vida is a training conference that teaches youth (and some adults) how to educate kids on HIV/AIDS by using games and sports. It started out in Africa (Grassroot Soccer), and has since grown worldwide. We call it Deportes (sports) here and not soccer because baseball is the big thing, but the program can be used with or without any kind of sports. I took two of my Escojo graduates, and we’re planning on multiplying the information to the rest of the group and planning a field day using the games for December 1st, World AIDs day.

Playing "Mis Suportes" showing how those affected by HIV/AIDS need community support and how damaging it can be when they're stigmatized.

The two kids I brought and I receiving our certificates at the graduation ceremony. Somos entrenadores!

Finally, here’s a link to a YouTube video of all the volunteers doing a dance at the Talent Show. Talent Shows are a really big deal at conferences and the Dominicans get really into them. So, we decided to go all out as well and choreograph the whole thing. Aside from being silly and a way to share a little American hip hop culture, it was a super fun bonding experience between the volunteers.

Well, that about wraps it up!

Camp GLOW 2011

Last week I experienced something I haven’t experienced for quite a while….summer camp.

Every summer, Peace Corps DR puts on a girls camp in an ecological reserve called Rancho Campeche. All the volunteers here have the opportunity to apply for a space, but as it is a youth initiative, first choice gets reserved for youth volunteers like myself. I ALMOST didn’t apply, and I’m so grateful now I did. That was way back in January and February when I was still working on my diagnostic, and I think I was so over whelmed at the time, I couldn’t see myself being ready to do it. Anyway, I DID apply, and I got accepted, and we’ve been having meetings to plan this thing for months now. It’s really cool how they’ve set it up. There are a couple of 2 year volunteers that are the coordinators, and then everything else gets planned by committee. That way, we all participate, we all take initiative, and we all feel ownership over the camp.

My duties for the camp included:

• Being on the programming committee. We took all the workshop and activity ideas and organized them into the camp agenda. We got the idea from last year’s camp to give each day a theme. This year we had “Yo Soy Sana” (I am healthy), “Yo So Creativa” (I am creative), “Yo Soy Poderosa” (I am powerful), and “Yo Soy Brillante” (I am brilliant/shiny).
• Being a helper/facilitator for an Improv Drama workshop led/planned by another volunteer. SO FUN. We basically played a bunch of games from Whose Line Is It Anyway like “freeze” and “party host”. The girls thought it was hysterical.
  

  Acting with Sarayu in the improv drama workshop

• Co –facilitating a workshop on leadership and diversity with 2 other volunteers. We talked about 4 leadership styles and gave each a color and movement representation: Verde (green) – classic leader, the one with the vision, wants to get stuff done and doesn’t like side tracks.  Azul (blue) – the sensitive, loyal person, more concerned with people’s feelings.  Mamey (orange) – the fun loving person, the life of the party, super animated and energetic. Amarillo (yellow) – the organizer, the detail oriented person that makes list. We asked the girls to pick which one they thought they were, then we put them in their color groups. Once there, they had to “plan their dream party” and then share with the group. Point being to see what it’s like to work with a group of people that think the same way you do. Then, we switched up the groups to have representatives from every color and they had to plan their perfect girls group activity. We talked about how the process was different, and how sometimes the colors clash, but we’re also the most effective when all the personalities are represented.
  

  Helping facilitate the leadership and diversity workshop

• Co-planning the nightly reflection activities. Every night, we got together in smaller groups (7-10) to reflect on the day. We didn’t make these up – these all came from training or other more experienced volunteers, but they’re still pretty cool so I’ll share them here: Day 1, Sweet and Salty – we passed around peanuts and hard candy and each girl shared something sweet (good) and something salty (bad) about their day. Day 2, Roses and Thorns – Vicky made a beautiful worksheet the girls used to write down a rose (something good) and a thorn (something not so great) about their days. Day 3, The Ball of Encouragement – the volunteers took a volleyball or soccer ball and put everyone’s names from the group on it with masking tape. The first person throws the ball to someone else and says something they appreciate about them. The second person removes their name, and throws it to someone else. This continues until all the names have been removed.  Day 4, Body of Learning – Vicky made another great worksheet that had the outline of a little person with a big heart in the middle. The idea was for the girls to write in the body their camp experiences – something they saw for the eyes, something they did in the hands, something they felt in the heart, etc.
  

  rose and thorn worksheet

  

  Body of learning worksheet

• Finally, photo/video taker. Not because of any special skills or anything. There were 3 of us that volunteered to take photos of as much as possible to try to record everything.

There were so many other great activities too: Art therapy, kick boxing, a professional panel of Dominican women, yoga and stretching, kick ball…..Also, so many good classes and charlas: Healthy relationships, women in history, Conocer tu cuerpo (know your body), and much much more.

Dan´s yoga and stretching class

Some of the girls doing a women in history presentation

Here are a couple of personal highlights:

• Quilting: Phoebe organized this amazing activity where all the girls and volunteers each made a quilting square during the week. When it was all put together, the colored squares also made a butterfly, the symbol of Chicas Brillantes. The girls LOVED it, and many had never done anything like it. We gifted it to the owners of the ranch where we have camp every year in hopes that they would proudly display it for future generations of Camp Glow-ers. One more fun note – many of the girls didn’t turn their squares in on time, which meant that a group of about 7 or 8 volunteers (including myself) stayed up until 3:30am on the last night to sew all the squares together. It turned into a very silly evening with lots and lots of singing. Oh yeah, the electricity also went out at 1, which means we spent the final 2 hours sewing by the light of 2 or 3 headlamps. Locura.
  

  The finished quilt!

• Condom Party. I know there are probably some among my more conservative readers that may not get this, but I’m ok with that. There are 3 methods of prevention that Peace Corps promotes more than anything: Abstinence, Faithfulness, and Condoms. Part of teaching about condoms is making sure that our students are comfortable with them, and that they really understand how to use them correctly. The condom party included condom balloons, condom costumes, and most importantly, lots of condom games. My favorite was a condom relay where 6 teams raced to correctly place condoms on a plantain, do jumping jacks to symbolize “relaciones”, then correctly remove and throw away the condom before tagging in the next team mate. So funny. But really educational! We had to stop and help them if they forgot to check the expiration date, or tried to open it with their teeth, etc.
• Talent Show. Dominicans LOVE talent shows. American teenagers would never survive one of these. People have no fear of getting up and lip singing or dancing or doing really really dramatic skits. It’s a little scary, but pretty funny most of the time.
• My Two Girls: I invited two girls from my Escojo group, Adriana and Noeli. They’re both super sweet and it was so cool getting to watch them experience camp for the first time. And in such different ways. Adriana is way more competitive and into sports, and Noeli is far more introverted and artistic. But they both found their places to shine and made new friends. There were even a few tears on the last day. They also both wrote me these really sweet thank you letters which I will definitely treasure. So, now that we’re back home and camp is over, Adriana and Noeli are going to help me start a new girls group in September! We made a four month plan together, and they’re stoked to start to share with the other girls in the neighborhood what they’ve learned.
  

  The two girls I brought and I at the butterfly ceremony on the last night.