Today we finished our first week
of summer camp and GLOW. I must say that it was a successful week. We’re all exhausted.
I just woke up from a nap and everyone else is still asleep. Those kids just
took it all out of us.
We have about 60 kids in our
summer camp. We meet in a little church in one of the slums. We bought every
child a notebook and pencil to work with. We finally got in the groove today
schedule-wise: first we do something active to tire the kids out. Today we
played Gangnum Style and made snakes/trains. I led one of the trains for a
while. The kids are super fun and so energetic. I love that they come to summer
camp even though they’re on break. After we tire them out we get them working
on the English alphabet, thinking of words and pictures for each letter. They
are far more familiar with the alphabet than we thought, but it’s a good review
for them. We usually split them into groups by age so we can move at a more
appropriate pace. Some of the children have a fantastic grasp on English, some
not so much. They speak Telegu, so we have a couple of translators there to
help us communicate. One woman from SAPID, our partner organization that is
helping us to organize the camp, is a fantastic resource – her name is Urmi,
and she is so kind and funny. We have kind of adopted her as our group mom. She
takes good care of us. A couple of members from the local LDS church join us as
translators too – a teenage boy called Ammon and a young adult called Jon.
They’re fun and their knowledge of both English and Telegu is so helpful. I
really wish I could speak Telegu. It would be so useful right now.
Right after summer camp we head
over to a neighboring community for GLOW. We have 17-ish girls in our group.
Yesterday we introduced the idea of SMART goals to them (Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic, Time-Based). Today we finished up SMART goals and taught
them basic personal hygiene like face-washing and teeth-brushing (this is when
it comes in handy to have a dentist brother who taught me the proper way to
brush teeth). The most effective part of the lesson was the part about washing
hands. Our volunteer Meera illustrated the concepts of germs with glitter – she
put glitter on her hands, then shook some of the girls hands and the glitter
spread. I love this example for talking about germs. The girls seemed to get
what it meant, and hopefully now they will be better about washing their hands.
Next week we tackle the taboo
topic of menstruation. The mothers don’t teach their daughters about what
menstruation is, so the girls are left thinking something is wrong with them –
they’re not allowed to, in some situations, go to school or be in the kitchen
during their periods. They don’t have access to pads either, so we’re going to
research a way to make homemade pads and other ways of handling it. Mostly we
just want them to know it’s a normal part of life and it’s healthy to have a
period.
My time here is run basically
like a full-time job – we work from 10am-6pm and then after we are free to do
other things. We went to an exhibition near our house on Wednesday night. An
exhibition is basically a carnival. They have big stands full of bangles and
clothes and random toys. They have carnival games and even a haunted house,
which we all got up the nerve to go through. It ended up being not scary at all
until the end. It was a little gory and creepy though. Eliza had her face
hidden in my backpack the entire time.
I am the only blonde person I
have seen since I’ve been here. People stare at us everywhere we go. Not only
are we white but we are usually loud – Americans are just loud. It’s a fact.
People don’t have any qualms about staring, so we stare back. Usually we wave
and say hello and they’ll say hi back. It’s weird to be stared at everywhere I
go. It makes me feel a bit like a celebrity, but mostly just really self-conscious.
The food finally got to me yesterday
and I vomited. I threw up out the door of the bus on the way back from the
slums. The driver was really nice and kept asking if I was okay. Annie held the
hair out of my face while we rode home – she’s so sweet. I’m here with the
nicest people in the world. I assumed I’d throw up at some point, but I was of
course hoping it wouldn’t happen. I’m fine today. I’m still a little queasy but
much better. I still feel like I never want to eat food ever again. I’m hoping
that will pass by tomorrow. I’ve also had bouts of homesickness as per usual
Jenny behavior. All in all, all is well. I’m very happy to be here and I have
learned a ton about myself and life. What an amazing experience. This is a very
grateful Jenny.
