* *Written on December 10, 2012**
Two weeks ago I participated in my first Peace Corps camp.
It was a BE camp. BE is an acronym for Boys Excelling. It is the boys
equivalent to GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). GLOW is a Peace Corps wide initiative
and exists in many different PC country posts. For more info on GLOW click on this link: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/08/196065.htm BE is Peace Corps Rwanda specific.
BE Banner. Photo by: Justin McDonald |
BE clubs begin with the volunteers
who work at schools and promote youth development. Whether a health or
education volunteer (the two PC programs we have here), starting a BE/GLOW club
is one of the best ways to teach life skills, and improve youth development.
BE and GLOW was started in my
community about a year and a half ago by my former site mate. (A site mate is
another volunteer who lives at your site in a different training program.) She
was an education volunteer that lived about an hour walking distance away, and
worked at the primary and secondary school. During my first three months, I was
able to attend, observe, and get a better feel for the clubs she started and that
I am now taking over.
The focus of BE and GLOW is for
girls and boys to have a single sex focus group where they can become educated
partners in gender equality, goal setting, public speaking, career planning, decision-making
skills, and learning confidence. While some of these skills may be obvious to American
readers, there is a great void in youth development here in Rwanda.
The education system in Rwanda
needs some work. While there are some Rwandan all-star teachers who really push
their students to be critical thinkers in the classroom, the majority of
classes go like this:
Teacher introduces the subject and
speaks. Teacher writes lesson on the board. Students copy lesson from board. Students
memorize lesson. A day, week, month or many months’ later students are tested
on what they memorized.
The camp. See if you can find me, hint: I'm wearing blue. |
When a young person speaks to you
it is common that they turn their head in the opposite direction of where you
are standing, and/or look at the ground. They usually speak softly and/or
mumble. The indirect eye contact, soft spoken nature, and mumbling makes an
awful combination when trying to understand a bantu language. In the beginning
of my service I was often confused by this behavior, but was later told it is
good culture to act in this way.
So I was completely shocked, and
speechless when I attended my first GLOW club. Peace, a student, walked right
up to me, shook my hand, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Hi, my name
is Peace.” I had never encountered a young person with so much confidence, let
alone a girl with confidence. This is rare. I was so shocked I forgot how to respond
to her, and we were speaking English. How she approached me with such
confidence emulates the importance of GLOW and BE, and gives a nod to their
wonderful teacher.
So how do these things start? The
clubs are started by PCVs in their villages, and after clubs have been strongly
established, PCVs get together and decide: a) if they want to have a camp, b)
when, how, what, where, and why. And finally, a BE/GLOW camp is born.
The camps are held during school
vacations, and are free for students to attend. Each camper is placed into a
hero group with a camp counselor, a PCV. Their group is called a hero group because their group name is
named after a famous person to model their own life after. Ex: Martin Luther
King Jr., Steven Biko, Gandi, Fela Kuti, just to name a few of the great hero
groups we had. This acts as your family for the four days.
During camp there are three days of
classes, with three classes each day focusing on one topic.
Day 1 – Communication and Decision
Making
Day 2 – HIV and Malaria
Day 3 – Gender Equality
After classes there are afternoon
activities including: baseball, kickball, volleyball, soccer, dance, and bread
making classes. There are three meals a day (rare for Rwandans) and after
dinner are the evening activities, which included a bonfire with smores. If you
are ever in Africa I’ve found that smores is one of the coolest cross-cultural
exchange things to do.
Video still of me teaching. Classroom size at BE was about 25 students. |
PCVs volunteer to play different
roles; all PCVs are expected to lead an afternoon activity and help with
evening activities. I played the role of Teacher, teaching a class on Relationship Building and Partnering in
Gender Equality (Day 3), and co-teaching a class on Facts and Myths of HIV and AIDS (Day 2). The classes are ninety
minutes each and when you teach a class you teach three classes in a row. I did
this for two days in a row, and it was exhausting but awesome all rolled into
one. The most common myth in the facts and myths class: AIDS was invented in a
lab in America. In every class I had at least one boy ask “but Teacha, are you
sure AIDS was not invented by Americans?” While no one knows where it came from
for the purposes of the class, and to eliminate confusion, I responded with:
“Yes, AIDS was not invented in America, Americans have AIDS too.” This blows
their minds every time.
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