A Kickball Kind of Day

The campers started asking to play kickball yesterday so today we gave the people what they wanted and played the favorite Boquilla pastime.  I would say that in La Boquilla 90% of the time girls are playing sports, they are playing kickball.  The other 10% get split between soccer, softball, and volleyball.  Now I am not sure why this is, but kickball is most definitely considered a girls sport in La Boquilla or at least after one year I have never seen a group of boys playing the great American P.E. classic.  Needless to say the girls had a fantastic time out in the scorching sun.

Tomorrow will mark the end of the two week Little Lebowski Peri-Urban achievers camp.  These past two weeks have flown by and I couldn't be more excited to end the camp with the decathlon and the handing out of the certificates we have planned for tomorrow.          

Dance of the Day: The Cupid Shuffle

One of the girls from the younger group getting ready to bat

Skits and Games

Yesterday the girls were placed into groups of four and given a location, i.e. the beach, a restaurant, school, or a park.  They were told the following day they were going to present their environmental protection--the current topic we are discussing-- skits to the camp.  Well today was that day and the majority of the groups got really into the project and had performances that were really impressive and some even made me laugh.  We then started the workshop on 'What Makes a Good Leader' and will continue with this topic tomorrow.

The girls couldn't wait to hit the beach and start playing after the taller!  This was because we started playing actual softball games and yesterday's game was tied at 2-2.  Unfortunately, I had to be the bearer of bad news and tell them that we would have to switch teams because there were girls that were there yesterday that weren't there today and there were some that came today, but missed yesterday.  Not to mention I didn't write down who was on what team--my bad girls.  In addition to having two fellow Peace Corps friends that are helping out at the camp, I talked to a few high schoolers and offered them leadership opportunities as 'camp counselors.'  So the games are really their time to shine.  They are the coaches of the two teams and have to create the lineup and shuffle their players in the field.  I am proud to say that with limited training, one Sunday I spoke to them and gave them a brief rundown of what their responsibilities would be, they are doing a good job coaching up these girls. 

Quote of the Day: One of the campers got a splinter during the softball portion of the day and one of our camp counselor said, "Don't worry I have a knife" and started going to work with the knife on the grils finger.

Dance of the Day: Gangnam style

One of the camp counselors teaching one of his players how to hit properly 

Recycling is Cool!

The workshop today was on environmental awareness and the benefits of recycling.  The day started off with a bang as we taught the 30 some odd girls the Soulja Boy dance.  There really isn't a better transition into trash than dancing to Soulja Boy.  My favorite part of the workshop was when we were discussing recycling.  Side note:  There is no recycling in La Boquilla and so everyone just throws everything together and it is all brought to the dump.  So with this in mind we spoke about recycling in terms of how products can be reused opposed to being thrown away.  As we spoke about what you can do with plastic bags one girl claimed, "make a dress."  Soon enough this answer was getting thrown out there for all sorts of different products.  Girls claimed to have dresses made from plastic bags, bags of water (that is how water is consumed on the coast), and two liter soda bottles.  Although I have never seen a recycled dress, I can only assume that it will be all the rage with the elementary school girls of La Boquilla next season.  I will keep everyone posted.

Dance of the Day: the Soulja Boy

Quote of the Day:  During the discussion on recycling, we were asking the girls how they could reuse certain products.  When the subject got changed to batteries, my friend said that you can take your used batteries into the city and dispose of them at a grocery store.  One of the girls though he was asking a question and just said, "No!"  We had to then tell her that this was not a question, but indeed a fact and all of the other girls had a good laugh.

Also I think this may have been the best day yet!

During a skit where I was given a red card for littering while playing soccer.9

Feast or Famine

Last Friday the camp was cancelled due to a number of reasons, but the main one being lack of attendance--famine.  However, my friend had the brilliant idea of changing the times of the camp--start earlier and no afternoon games-- and passing out some flyers over the weekend with my community counterpart.  Now roll around to earlier today and as we both showed up at 8:00 we were greeted by.....NOBODY!  As another one of my friends, guest counselor for the day, showed up at 8:10 we started to get a little nervous as NONE of the girls nor my community counterpart had showen up yet.  So I left my friends and went on a woMANhunt of La Boquilla at around 8:15.  I found my counterpart with six campers and we walked back to the school and waited.  We waited an entire hour and by 9:00 there were at least 40 campers that had arrived--Feast!!!!

We were not expecting a turnout like this as last week we averaged around 12-15, a much more manageable number.  We soon split the girls into groups according to age and assigned each group a sticker.  The girls in the youngest group got pizza stickers, the middle group got animal stickers, and the oldest group got smily face stickers.  Then we went outside and PLAY(ED) BALL!

Dance of the day:  Movin' Like Bernie (If you don't know it search it on YouTube)

One legged relay race (picture taken by my counterpart)

Telling the girls the importance of 'squashing the bug' (picture taken by my counterpart again.  Isn't she the best?!)

Day 5

Canceled :(..........  Look out for day 6 on Monday

ULTIMATE!

We mixed it up today and instead of playing softball we played Ultimate frisbee!  The girls got a kick out of this and it was a good change of pace.  We ended the sports portion of the day with a furthest throw contest and my neighbor, who I have practiced frisbee with before, won by more than a few feet.  So she made her street--no street names here-- really proud!  Before the sports portion of the day we had a really good talk with the girls about health and exercise.  At one point the girls were giving us examples of healthy and non-healthy foods.  A few of the girls thought that fried fish and fried bananas were healthy food and so we had the difficult task of  explaining why they were not.  This was the first time this week where we could immediately see the girls starting to change the way they were thinking about a topic.

Best day of Little Lebowski's Peri-Urban achievers camp to date-- I hope to say this at least three more times over the next six days of camp.  

Outfit of the day:  A girl showed up to camp with what can only be described as a wedding dress

Dance of the day: Jump on it (Fresh Price of Bel-Air)

Feelin' Good About Ourselves Now

More girls showed up today for a pretty sweet workshop on self-esteem and an exquisite Macarena lesson.  After defining self-esteem, the girls were handed a sheet of paper as we came by and taped the paper to their backs (see picture).  They were then instructed to go around the room and write positive/encouraging comments on each others backs.  Finally, in true Peace Corps fashion we processed how we felt after reading the endearing comments.  Then it was off the the beach for some softball.  Egg toss was brought back by popular demand in addition to throwing relays and the always funny dizzy bat relay--the girls ran to a baseball bat and then spun around three times before wobbling back to tag their teammate.

Dance of the Day: The Macarena

Quote of the day: I was trying to get a group of girls to start the next activity as a sassy fourth grader told me, "Leave me here and let me finish my ice pop"

Some of the girls participating in the self-esteem building activity

 

Less Might Just be More

To start the day I got a call from my community counterpart that is helping out at Little Lebowski's Peri-Urban Achievers camp.  She told me she was going to be late because she had a medical appointment (she never came) and had all of the materials we were going to use for the day.  However,  now that I have been in the Peace Corps for a year I am somewhat of a self proclaimed magician when it comes to pulling ice breakers and activities out of thin air.  So not to worry, my friend and I put on a solid workshop.  However, I was a bit shocked, and at first a little upset, that only about a third of the girls showed up from the first day.  Nevertheless, I feel that the day was a lot more successful as we got to work one on one with the majority of the girls.  Not to mention they could not get enough of the egg toss game we played!

Dance of the Day: The Robot

Quote of the Day:  After being in the sun for a bit, a girl said, "I am burning up and you Gringos don't burn like us Black people"      

Little Lebowski's Peri-Urban Achievers Camp

A PC volunteer friend of mine (working in Barranquilla),  a community member, a few high school students, and myself are starting a two week leadership/softball camp for the girls of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade in La Boquilla.  There will be a workshop followed by softball skill stations in the morning.  Then the girls will return home for a Costeño lunch break, three hours.  We will then return to the beach at 3:00, to a sun that has hopefully set a little bit, and play an actual game.  My goal is to write 10 blogs over the next 14 days; A blog per day of the camp.  These blogs will be short and highlight a cool workshop activity, a funny event, or some of the priceless quotes that these hilarious girls have already said.    

Day 1

In addition to the workshop my friend and I decided that we better teach these girls a dance a day.  So todays task was the Chicken Dance.  After finding out that there was no internet --I should have known-- we had no choice but to sing/hum the song while demonstrating the dance.  And as you can imagine the girls had a field day and the laughter was plentiful.  However, after they calmed down a bit and learned the moves, they all danced the Chicken Dance like I thought only a true Gringo could.

Getting Schooled by Women

One of the highlights of my service thus far has been working with a local NGO, FHES.  I was approached by the NGO when I first arrived in La Boquilla and eagerly took the opportunity to HELP teach english.  However, guess what?.......‘help’ wasn’t the word that they were looking for.  I believe the correct word was TEACH.  So after arriving to my first class totally prepared to HELP and unprepared to TEACH, I was told I had three hours and the class was mine.  So after the lady kindly introduced me she saw herself out of the room and I was thrown to the 13 Boquilleras.  At this point I felt like I was standing center stage and there was a spotlight shining right on my face, and I recall sweating like that was the case.  So, I did what any PCV would do and just fought through it to survive until the next meeting, which I told myself would be much better.  

Now after a year later, and many better meetings, we meet two to three times a week and the class has turned into more than just an English class.  We teach each other about music, food, religion, and these ladies always have plenty of La Boquilla gossip.  A few of the highlights so far have been learning to dance Chapeta, possibly against my will, becoming an official taste tester for food that is often brought to class, learning how to make rosary necklaces, and most recently how to shop at a ‘flea market.’     

During a greatly planned food lesson, if I do say so myself, one of the girls asked (in english) to use the bathroom.  I said yes and didn’t think twice about it.  However, when she came back 15 minutes later with a handful of clothes I didn’t know what was going on.  Then before I could ask Gerledys what she eats for breakfast, the rest of the ladies left the room and charged at full steam down the stairs to the lady with a bunch of clothes laid out, in no particular order, on the ground.  For the next hour I observed and learned how to properly navigate a pop up flea market in La Boquilla.  These women are something else!