Camp 5 - Last One!!!

Day 1
For my final week of camp, I am working with Leigh (volunteer) and Chris, the craziest and loudest field staff World Camp has. So from the beginning, I figured it would be a pretty fun week. This camp is the closest of all the camps – it only takes 45 minutes to get there. It also seems to be the calmest, because pulling up on the first day we had the smallest number all session of children rushing the bus and chanting azungu (white people). Because there are people leaving on Friday and they need a day to pack, we made this camp a three day camp, so the schedule was a little altered. Morning songs was the smallest circle we have ever had, so this school is definitely small. My class ended up with 18 kids, though, and we are the dancing hares. The kids in my class are so smart. They already knew most of what we were teaching them about HIV/AIDS, which is encouraging! For instance, one of our lessons is about how you can’t tell if someone has HIV just by looking at them, and pretty much every class of students thinks that you can by certain physical characteristics so it turns into a ten or fifteen minute lesson. But our students immediately responded with the correct answer, that you can only tell if someone has HIV by a blood test, the first time we asked if our imaginary character had HIV. They also already knew the difference between HIV and AIDS, which honestly I didn’t even understand completely before working for World Camp. So I was very happy with my students! We also did condom demonstration today, and it was by far the best one I have done. Chris was hilarious, and kind of obscene, but it was so much fun. I’m kind of sad I won’t ever be doing it again! After lunch consisted just of environment lessons, and I think the kids got a little bored and were being super shy. They weren’t answering questions and it was sort of sad. But we got through it all by the end of the day. I ended the day in really high spirits, and hoped that tomorrow the kids would be a little less shy and have more fun. [Additional side note: The kids in our class all make name tags so that we know their names and can keep up with who has eaten lunch. Today I look up and sitting front and center of my class are two kids. Their names? Happy and Lonely. Sitting side by side. I had to hide my face behind my journal to laugh. Which sounds bad, but honestly it was just hilariously ironic. And apparently Lonely doesn’t actually mean lonely – parents just name their kids words that they hear sometimes…so I don’t feel as bad that I got the giggles.]

Day 2
We were down two volunteers from sickness this day. In fact, at least half of all the volunteers were sick either with stomach issues or sinus, so we had a little trouble getting excited. Luckily, Ian (coordinator) was there to lead morning songs, and he was by far the craziest and most enthusiastic and most hilarious song leader of all the session. So he got us all laughing and pumped for the day. We did Boom-Chika-Boom mummy style, which was quite interesting – not sure the kids really got it. Human knot was just as complicated as ever, but I had a lot of fun getting to participate in the partner trust stand up with the kids. We ran a little behind all day today, but I don’t think it really mattered in the end. During HIV/AIDS review the kids got all of the answers right, so they were obviously more on top of their game than I was since I accidentally asked them if they could get mosquito bites from kissing – hahaha. This was another school where when we started talking about caring for someone with HIV, they told me that no one in their community really helps people with HIV. Which is hard and disheartening, but at least we can educate the kids about how they can reach out to someone with HIV, and maybe they will be willing to do so after going through the camp. After lunch, I tried to make a better connection with the kids, and I think it was successful. During morning songs I always tend to lead or at least be involved with Pasi, which is kind of like the Chichewa version of head, shoulders, knees, and toes. So for some reason the past couple of camps I have been known as Chiuno girl (which is the word for hips in Chichewa). So the kids of my class started singing that to me – which was probably just their way of making fun of me – but I went with it anyway and did the song, after which they started teaching me all the other parts of the body in Chichewa. This tends to be the only way I end up bonding with students, but hey that’s okay. Sing, dance, and teach each other parts of the body in a different language – who knew that would be the recipe for success? After lunch we had empowerment sessions, and this was actually the most talkative group of girls I have had all summer. We didn’t even have to do anonymous questions because they were asking questions out loud on their own. They had a lot of questions about pregnancy, but not too many about other things, especially since only 4 of them admitted to liking boys. Although it was cute because we went around the circle to say what we liked about boys (when we were introducing ourselves), and those girls said that they liked when a boy helped them with their studies. There were some questions about transactional sex, rape, and a consensus that sex is the boy’s decision, but these were all things we worked through and discussed, so I hope the girls really feel better about making decisions that are right for them, regardless of what others think. So yeah, the day went pretty good.

*Cook Group Night* The power hadn’t been going out for a couple weeks, but last night our power went out while people were cooking, and tonight it went out again while my cook group was cooking. The power was out for almost two hours, and just when we resorted to taking all of our food outside to the gas stoves to start cooking, the power came back on. Even though our cooking was delayed, it was pretty bomb-tastic: sweet potato fries, eggs, green peppers, onions, cheese, and toast, and no bake cookies for dessert. Definite success.

Day 3
Last day of camp – soooo crazy. I was determined to have an awesome day. It was definitely the most excited I have been for morning songs. It was my last time to do pasi so I was pretty pumped for it and had a lot of fun – I mean it is my favorite after all (why? BECAUSE IT’S IN CHICHEEEEWAAAAA!!!!) Games consisted of ultimate Frisbee. The kids absolutely love it. I hate it. Mainly because I’m way too competitive so even though they are just kids and have never played before, I get really upset when everyone on the field is cheating and it is just mass chaos. And I got a nail ripped off. So although I tried to play I ended up just watching from the sidelines for the last couple minutes which was fine by me. We had a little free time at the beginning of class as we were waiting for some people to grab things, so we let the kids ask us questions. They asked where we were from and then if we had boyfriends. When we said no, they asked us what we did when we wanted to have sex – yeeeeeeaaaahhhh that created awesome awkward conversations. Later when we did anonymous questions we got some pretty great ones. There were the usual tame ones, like are there black people in America, why don’t you speak Chichewa, and other common sex questions. But we got some pretty hilarious ones, too. For instance, why do you white girls sometimes sit with your legs wide open? Oopsie! Had to apologize and explain to them that we don’t usually wear skirts (which also came up in another question – why don’t you respect your bodies with the way you dress in America?). Also got asked if we planned on getting married since we didn’t have boyfriends. I said I would love to have a boyfriend and get married, I just hadn’t found the right guy yet. To this, they asked me if I would accept a proposal from a black man. When I said yes, four boys raised their hands, one even got to his feet, offering themselves to me. I am one lucky girl. If only I were staying in Malawi – I’d have a great crowd of fifteen year olds to choose from. We had some other questions that were pretty funny, but maybe a little too intense to put on the blog, so again feel free to just ask. [Funny question from another class: If I come to America will I get eaten?] After questions we planted our tree, took pictures, and gave our class their AIDS ribbons which is always kind of a special thing. After lunch we had presentations, and my group’s was probably my favorite of all my classes this summer. One of the boys, Milan, was dressed up as a witch doctor and he looked so cute! Although they kind of improved and the presentation was a bit lengthy, they got across their message about the three ways HIV can be transmitted quite well. I was proud! I ended up having a blast with my class this last day – they really came out of their shells and were a hoot to be around and talk to and hear from. It made me wish that the camp had been four days because I would have loved more time with them. I’m going to miss them, and although I think I still liked my camp 3 class the best, this was definitely a very close second. It was hard to leave at the end of the camp because I knew that it was my last time to be with kids in Malawi. :( Hopefully I’ll be able to visit Crisis Nursery before going home at least.

After camp today we had a field staff appreciation party. We made all of them cards the previous night and had signed all of them. I made Chikabachi’s and it was probably the craftiest thing I have ever done so I was quite proud. We just hung out with all of them on the front porch, drank Fantas, and ate no bake cookies (we were supposed to have cake but the power was out ALL day – it seriously just came back on at 5:00 – darn you deforestation). Good to see all of them one last time I suppose. Kind of sad though!

There are lots of things that I could probably say right now reflection wise, but I don’t really feel like typing it out. So since I am going to have a lot of time over the next couple of days before I leave Sunday, I’ll just put it off til later. So if you were looking for something deep and spiritual from me today, sorry! Give me a bit more time. :)

Much love to you people back home!