Girls Leading Our World

That was the name of the camp we did this weekend, and it was a good time. A bunch of volunteers brought 13- to 16-year-old girls to the same place we always have camps -- a bunch of cabins on a beautiful lake in the crater of a volcano. I brought three girls from my community.
The overall theme of the camp was leadership and teaching the girls life skills they would need -- including sex ed, which was even more awkward and hilarious than middle school sex ed in the States. There were also really good presentations on money management, domestic violence, goal setting, resume and job interviewing skills, etc. etc. I led a session about keeping a journal, some teamwork games, some roleplays about sex and relationship issues, and some more roleplays about combating traditional gender prejudice to get an education and a job.

And of course, we had time to swim in the lake!

Some camp pictures...The girls from my community playing one of the teamwork games
The journaling session
Gabi and Fatima slogging through the mud at the bottom of the lake

I'm glad the camp is over so I can take a breath -- I got home yesterday just in time for dinner and immediately passed out, considering my girls kept waking me up at 5 a.m. I will NOT miss the early-to-rise culture here! But I can't take too deep a breath -- tomorrow we finally start building the eco-friendly stoves, and I'm trying to juggle a school vegetable garden project on top of that.

Paz y amor!