GLOW Camp

   This past weekend I attended GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Camp for my district. Ten students from my school attended, as well as 10 students from the JSS in Tsabong and the JSS in Middlepits, and guidance teachers from each school. The four other volunteers in my district and I had been working on planning this camp for a few months so it was exciting to finally be going. A combi van picked up myself, the guidance teacher I work with PACT club with, Mr. Molio, and the ten students from Werda in the morning at the school. There was a fuel issue so we had to wait for a long time before leaving and then wait in Tsabong to change vehicles so that we could get out to the camp at Lubu ( near Middlepits) which was about 3.5 hours from Werda. We ended up joining the Tsabong PCV, guidance teacher, and students to ride a bus the rest of our way. Unfortunately our bus broke down when we were about 20 minutes away from the camp! It was a crazy day of transport, but the students were all so wonderful and patient. We played games on the side of the road to stay entertained and many of them had bought snacks in Tsabong so they shared with each other and stayed in pleasant moods. We finally got to the camp at around 8pm. We had assigned the girls to room with students from other schools, and even though they were told this would happen ahead of time, my students from Werda were a bit anxious about that when we actually got to the camp. We had a good conversation about it though and they ended up promising me they would give it a try and let me know if they were having any problems.

   Saturday of the camp was great. We had expected that the students may have been tired and difficult to wake up because of getting in so late Friday, eating dinner late, and bathing late/ staying up later then had been planned, but most of them were awake at 4:30am! They were so excited to get the day started. We joked that they were vampire children that never slept or something haha.  The girls were all so engaged in all of the sessions and participated so well. We started out the day with some introductions and made mailboxes. Every participant at the camp, including PCVs and guidance teachers, had a mailbox with their name on it. Then everyone wrote positive messages to each other and left them in the mailboxes. Between Saturday and Sunday we held sessions on gender based violence, a STEPS film about teenagers and relationships, inter-generational and transactional sex, behavior change, decision making, contraceptives, self-esteem, and leadership. We also played a lot of team building games and icebreakers. I led the sessions about inter-generational and transactional sex and decision making. For the inter-generational/transactional sex session, I first asked them to list what types of "goods" may be exchanged for sex and we had a discussion about different relationships in which transactional sex could take place. I then split them up into 4 groups and had them create skits in which they acted out how transactional sex could take place in a dating relationship, boss/ employee relationship, teacher/ student relationship/ or relationship between an older person/ teenager in general. They got very into the skits. I also included information about asserting oneself, and we came up with different ways that they can say "no" to someone who is trying to pressure them into sex. For decision making we played a game called "Forced Choices" where they had to pick one side of the room or the other. I started out with simple things like "ice cream or cake" and worked up to more difficult decisions like "I think it is ok to have sex before marriage" or "I do not think it is ok to have sex before marriage". We then talked about all of the factors that impact decision making, difficult decisions that they are being asked to make at this point in their life or may be asked to make, and decision making around sex. I read a scenario to them about a girl whose boyfriend was pressuring her into having sex without a condom and goes along with it and we talked about the possible consequences of that decision as well as different ways that the girl could have handled the situation or things she could have said and done.Some of the girls demonstrated ways that someone can use body language to be assertive as well as saying some of the "no" phrases they came up with in an assertive way.

   My favorite thing about the camp was how much the girls really started to open up and speak up and how openly and honestly we were able to talk by the second day. My favorite difficult conversation was one about LGBT issues in Botswana. We had been talking about relationships in general following a STEPS presentation by two of the other volunteers at the camp. Then one of the students raised her hand and asked what do do if another girl told her that she had a crush on her because she didn't like girls and didn't want to be mean. Another student raised her hand and made a comment about how it was wrong to be gay and devilish and a few other students clapped. It was a difficult moment, but it led to a great conversation about respecting others feelings and views. The guidance teacher from my school even spent a few minute talking about how difficult it must be for someone to be gay in Botswana and how even if someone believes that it is wrong themselves, they can still be kind to someone who is gay and accept them as they are. Some of the students spoke up about agreeing that it was important to be kind and that it wasn't a choice to be gay. I also asked them if any of them have ever had a boy tell them they had a crush on them who they did not like back. They laughed and said yes, of course. I asked them what they would have done in that situation, and they said "say no in a nice way" to which I said they could do the same thing if a girl told them she had a crush on them and they didn't feel the same way about the girl. We also reminded them of the camp rules we had set at the beginning about respecting each other and that it was possible that someone at the camp could be gay or if not there was definitely at least one student at their schools who is gay. They seemed to get it and did a great job of talking about respecting one anthers' beliefs and feelings after this.

   The last day we had a little award ceremony during which everyone received certificates. We also asked if a student from each school could speak a little bit about the camp or pass on encouraging words to her peers. The student from my school who spoke is one of the shyest students and she stood up and talked bout how she is usually shy and never thought she'd be able to make a speech in front of a big group of people and that now she "knows who she is" and felt like she could. She also talked about how the students came together and are "no longer strangers but friends" and how they can work together and accept each others' different views. I was so proud of her that I teared up a little. I'm really proud of all of the students that attended the GLOW camp because they tried so hard and care so much. It is inspiring to see that these girls will be the future of Botswana