G.L.O.W. = Girls Leading Our World

            I have just finished a long week at Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) – it was a lot of fun, but exhausting.  I was a counselor, so I was with my campers all day for a week.  I woke up at 5:50 every morning to get the girls ready for bathing, and I went to sleep at around 10:30 – 11:00.   By the end of the week, all I wanted to do was sleep for days.  Nevertheless, I had a great time at GLOW, and I am glad I participated this year.  I will admit, I was a little “anti” Camp GLOW.  I think a lot of it had to do with volunteers constantly bragging how great it is, how it changes lives, etc. etc.  While I do think it is a great camp and the girls have a lot of fun experiencing a sort of “summer camp,” I’m realistic and know that Camp GLOW isn’t solving all of Uganda’s problems.  After this past week though, I have to give GLOW a little more credit because it is a great project.  For one week, girls get to break out of their shell a little bit.  They can be loud and shout, wear trousers, play games, not be at the beck and call of their families, have fun and maybe even learn a life skill or two.  It was great to see my group of campers start to become a little more outgoing and independent.  I was even happier to see Eva and Carol (the two girls I nominated) having so much fun at the camp – I definitely saw a different side to them, as they got more confident.  However, I am now pretty camped out, and I would like to get all of the camp songs stuck out of my head! 

            My group was the “Ostriches,” and they were a great group of girls.  My Ugandan co-counselor, Deborah, was awesome.  She was really outgoing and kind of crazy, but the girls loved her.  I think I finally found someone who is a little more competitive than me.  On the first day, we did an obstacle course race.  The Ostriches were against the Buffaloes (Caroline’s group), and we were in the lead up until the very end.  One of the girls in my group didn’t quite understand the rules, so she messed up and we ended up losing the race.  Deborah was pissed.  She started yelling, “Ah! This one can’t manage.  She has lost it for us!”  I was dying laughing, while at the same time trying to control the situation – I didn’t want one of our campers to start crying on the first day.  Deborah, however, finally cooled down and we had a group hug while she said, “It’s ok, it’s just a game.  We are all winners.”  Got to hand it to Deborah though, she definitely wasn’t coddling the kids! 

            I had one camper, Miriam, who was from the Kampala area, and it was really interesting to see the difference between her and the campers from the village.  I am used to working with girls from Budaka, and they don’t have much exposure to pop culture and electronics.  So, Miriam was making me laugh.  The first day at camp, we had a “communication” session.  Michelle, one of the counselors, asked the girls to discuss the different types of communication.  Miriam answered, “the social network.”  Awesome.  Especially because I think very few, if any, of my students at Namengo Girls have Facebook – or know what it is for that matter.

            The first night we were at camp, Miriam saw me playing with my iPhone, and she asked if she could see it.  I couldn’t help but think, “Oh crap!”  My neighbors always ask to play with my iPhone, and they always change the settings, drain my Internet time and ask to play with it constantly.  I think the camper saw the reluctance on my face because she said, “I hope I’m not disturbing you.  You don’t have to let me see it.”  I was seriously shocked at her politeness, but I am a sucker, and I was going to let her play with it regardless if she was polite or not.  So she starts flipping through my photos and comes to a photo of me with the Will Smith wax figure.  She starts going nuts and asking me if it’s real.  Trying to explain the wax museum was…interesting.  She probably thinks Americans are crazy for having a museum dedicated to wax figures of celebrities.

            On Wednesday, I led the “Teamwork” session, and it was a blast because I just played games.  The first game was Akatogo – a sort of musical chairs type game.  Everyone got in a circle and took off their shoes, while one person stood in the middle with their shoes still on.  The person in the middle would say a sentence that pertained to them like, “The wind blows for those that like ice cream” or “The wind blows for anyone with a sister.”  Anyone in the circle who fell into that category had to run and find a new pair of shoes to stand behind (along with the person in the middle).  Whoever was left without a pair of shoes would stand in the middle and call a new statement.  It was fun to play, but I had to intentionally lose so I could change up the statements – girls got stuck on food statements like, “For those that like rice” and clothing statements like, “For those wearing skirts.”

            The second game I played was “Anima Wars,” which was so entertaining to watch, I couldn’t stop laughing.  Animal wars is like group “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” but with animals.  There were two teams, and as a group each team would decide if they would be Lion, Buffalo or Snake.  Both teams would then line up across from each other back to back, and at the count of three, they would turn around and both say their animal.  Lion beat buffalo, buffalo beat snake, and snake beat lion.  The losing team had to turn and run to their home base, while the winning team chased them and tried to tag them.  If you were tagged, then you had to move to the other team.  This game was hilarious to watch because the campers would get both excited and confused, and then not know which way to run.  So they were going all over the place.  I finally had to find out what each team was going to yell beforehand, so at the count of three I could point in the direction they had to run. 

            On Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Ambassador came to see the camp and talk to the girls.  He talked to the counselors first because he wanted to thank us for our hard work (we are so important!).  Sister Valentine, the headmistress of the school where we held the camp, was ecstatic when he came.  She kept saying to him that she was so “overwhelmed” and “god bless him for coming.”  She then presented him with a trough of gifts – four pineapples, two huge pumpkins, a tray of eggs, four handmade purses and four huge school calendars.  It was hilarious!  Then we all walked outside and the campers performed the camp song, while some were at the front dancing and singing – including Miriam and Carol!  Yay!  My campers thought the U.S. Ambassador’s speech was fantastic, and they loved it.  For those that have Facebook, you can check out the ambassador's page, Scott DeLisi, and he posted some photos.  For those that do not, I pulled some of them off of his Facebook page, and you can see them below.    

            We played capture the flag on Wednesday night, which was a lot of fun to play in the dark.  The girls got dressed up in all dark clothes so that they could be stealth.  Miriam told me that I should put shoe polish on my face/body because my white skin would stand out, and they’d lose the game.  I did not take this advice.  I ended up supervising the game instead to make sure there was no cheating and to make sure girls kept their clothes on.  (Some girls were taking off their shirts so they were basically invisible).

            Thursday night we had a Talent Show, and it was really entertaining.  The first group that went did a skit on HIV/AIDS, and I seriously wish I had video taped it.  The skit was about a young girl who starts prostituting herself in order to get money for school fees.  One of the lines was, “$10 with a condom or $30 without!”  In the end, the girl got HIV and pregnant – so moral of the story, abstain from sex.  I could not believe these girls came up with the skit on their own.  Some groups danced – one girl in particular could really shake her butt!  My group, the ostriches, made up a song to the tune of Justin Bieber’s “Baby, Baby,” and they were really excited to sing it.  They practiced all day, and even practiced through dinner.  However, when it came time to perform, they got a serious case of stage fright.  So, I ended up going on stage with them to sing and dance – I made a complete fool of myself.  Chelsea said it looked like I was on drugs, while Josephine said I was so nice for embarrassing myself to make my campers feel better.  Unfortunately, this was not caught on tape – so I have no idea how absurd I actually looked. 

            On Friday, the last day of camp, we had a Field Day with BUILD (Boys of Uganda in Leadership and Development), which is the boys’ camp.  There were games and obstacle courses, and I think the campers had a lot of fun.  In the afternoon, we had a closing ceremony, and all the girls got certificates and photos.  We ended the night with a dance party, which was a riot.  Seriously, Ugandans can dance.  The Americans, unfortunately, have no rhythm and we looked pretty pathetic dancing with them.  We did, however, teach them the Cupid Shuffle, which they loved, so that was the last song of the dance.

            On Saturday, I woke up really early because I escorted the campers that lived up North back home.  It was an 8-hour bus ride, yuck!  Fortunately, Joey and Michelle were coming back from Kampala too because they were there for mid-service medical.  So they helped me get the girls back, and Joey was super nice and brought me a sandwich (she is the best!).  I am now in Kitgum, which is where Joey lives.  It’s way up North, you can see the mountains that border Sudan – so she is quite far.  Her house is awesome though, and I never want to leave.  Hot shower, fast Internet, kitchen with an oven and she has a generator.  I am going to stay here for a bit, and then head back to site before I leave for Paris (yay!!!). 

            For those that want to know, this was my camper’s Ostrich song (to the beat of the Biebs):

You know we love you, you know we care

Just shout whenever, we’ll be there

We love Camp GLOW, we love the campers

And we will never ever be apart

We are the ostrich, we aren’t playin’

We love camp GLOW, that’s what we’re sayin’

We have feathers, a lot of pride

And we are at camp GLOW for the first time

And we are like ostrich, ostrich, ostrich, ohhhhhh

Like ostrich, ostrich, ostrich, nooooo

Like ostrich, ostrich, ostrich, ohhhhh

And you’ll always be mine, mine. 

            So cute!  For those that want to read more about the activities that went on last week, check out the GLOW blog: glowuganda2012.blogspot.com

           Below are some pics and videos from the week:  

The dorm for the week - 95 girls in one room! Ah!  Thankfully, I got bottom bunk.  (Yes, those are 3-tiered bunk beds)

Playing water, flour and air.  Caroline got water!

I got air :)

Camp Song: To the beat of "I love My Life" by Demarco.  Written by Maggie and Mary!

Listening to the campers sing their song

US Ambassador giving his speech

U.S. Ambassador with the kids

Counselors and TASO with the Ambassador and our Country Director

:) - Not my camper

The following I took a picture of the photo, so it's not the greatest quality...kind of bootleg

Counselors

Big group - you can see the real photo on the GLOW blog

The Ostriches

The best package EVER - from Joey's dad.  Going to be eating well this week :)

Below is a compilation video from Camp: Learning the Cupid Shuffle, Zebras performing, Ostriches getting stage fright and the Buffaloes' hilarious skit (Caroline's group):