Camp LION and a Tidal Wave of Good News

Camp LION
(photos by Jim Tanton)

Well, my eye is still twitching from lack of sleep after directing Camp LION, if that's any indication of that week. I've now had two weeks to recover and catch up on sleep (and my blog), but my lower lashes are still twitching and I officially look like a crazy person.
Whew.
Camp LION (Leaders In Our Nation) is the first of its kind, directed by four PCVs and one Ugandan co-director. Eric, Matthew, Cindy, Immaculate and I wanted a leadership camp that emphasized and developed leadership skills for Ugandan youth. And that's exactly what we did.
Camp LION is a regional camp, meaning that our campers (both male and female, between the ages of 15-19) came from eastern Uganda, including Mbale, Soroti, Kumi, Tororo and Jinja district. A brief history of camps in Peace Corps Uganda: the typical model is to have a girls' camp (GLOW-Girls Leading Our World) and boys' camp (BUILD- Boys of Uganda In Leadership Development) operating simultaneously but separately during school break, and then coming together on the last day for Gender Equality Day. These camps usually focus on life skills, reproductive health, malaria, RUMPs (reusable menstrual pads) and HIV/AIDS awareness, but with relatively little emphasis on how to "take camp home" and affect others in their communities.
That's where our brainchild for Camp LION came in, to have sessions that focused on skills that make a leader, such as public speaking, goal setting, money management, as well as a big emphasis on community service. The highlight of our camp was an unprecedented activity: Volunteer Day. Matthew Raymond, my co-director, envisioned having our campers go out in the community and volunteer for the morning, such as planting trees, cleaning up rubbish and volunteering at a local hospital and an orphanage. Our first two days of camp were focused around sessions on leadership, IGAs (Income-Generating Activities) and reproductive health (from condom demonstrations to menstrual cycles to sexual health discussions). On Wednesday morning, we went out into the community and volunteered all morning.

Volunteer Day: tree-planting around Mbale

Volunteer Day: volunteering at Mbale Hospital Children's Ward

Our campers generated a lot of interest from the locals, who would stop and say, "What are you doing? What are you planting those trees for?" In some cases, some people decided to even join in. We were so excited by the notion that if this much interest in community service could be generated in one morning, imagine what these kids could do back home. That morning, I went with a group of campers to children's home for orphans and vulnerable children. We spent the morning playing games, reading books, doing arts and crafts and singing songs. I was so proud of our campers who really took initiative, bonded with the children and by the end were leading their own camp-style "Reflection" session with the kids.

Thursday was another block of sessions, and then Friday was our "Presentation Day." Campers were able to choose a topic from the week's sessions and come up with an "elevator speech" to pitch to their communities. We wanted campers to feel prepared to go back to their communities and present a topic to the community leadership, such as the Parent-Teacher Association, the LC1 or community elders. After spending a week honing their leadership skills and doing community service, they were able to practice how to "take camp home" and pitch an idea to the community. For example, some campers, including males, enjoyed the session on how to make RUMPs (reusable menstrual pads). Many girls in Uganda (and elsewhere) miss a significant amount of school when they have their menstrual periods. The boys knew that while they couldn't use RUMPs for themselves, they were useful for sisters, friends, mothers and aunts. It is also an Income-Generating Activity to sew a pad from old fabric and sell it to the community, so they got to practice how they would "pitch" this idea to people back home.

Another innovation to our camp was the creation of a Counselor-In-Training (CIT) program. I had been a CIT back during my summer camp days, but it had never crossed my mind to do at a Ugandan youth leadership camp. Another one of Matthew's million-dollar ideas. We had three CITs in our program, all former campers and who were on their way to be counselors. Theresa, Semu and Brian were stellar CITs, always willing to help and interact with campers. They helped with logistics and got to shadow each camper group. The CIT program was great for another reason-- we had one of Ugandan counselors drop out during camp, and Brian was able to step in as a counselor.

As a note, I'm feeling very proud of our Peace Corps post during these last round of camps- as Volunteers, we put together three innovative camps unique to Uganda. Camp LION, Camp Omwani (an Ag camp focused on coffee production and facilitated by Bukonzo Joint) and Girl Tech (a science camp for girls).

In between sessions, we had a lot of fun. There was cheering, chanting, dancing within our eight camper groups. We had relay races, team-building activities, Afrikan yoga sessions with Ife, drumming circles, bonfires, and night art. Night Art is a great activity led by our three InMovement facilitators, where they have campers doing interactive creative art. That night we were all the in the dining hall, the tables were covered in cloth and markers, crayons, and paintbrushes were strewn across all the tables. We had music and dancing, while the campers and counselors were given prompts for what to draw. For example, I got to pose with two other counselors and the campers had to draw us in one minute. Jim went up with two other bearded men and they had to draw their beards. Another was to draw the person in front of you in 5 years, without looking down.

The last activity of Night Art, little did I know that my life was about to change. For all those who wanted to know the background of that night, here it is. Jim got called up to the center, and then I got called up too. Bagonza, the night's MC, asked us both to strike a pose. I did my best yoga Dancer Pose while Jim goes down on one knee. Hmmm, I thought. What kind of weird pose is he doing? Are we doing some sort of couples' pose, Dirty Dancing style?

It took me a full five seconds to realize what was happening and that Jim was proposing. He told me that he had already called my parents to ask for their blessing and then said those four magic words. I really don't remember the rest, I don't think I even said yes or remembered that there was some sort of ring involved. I just remember feeling so much love that night, as I looked around at all my friends crying, hugging us both and saying congratulations. I happened to be the only dry eyes in the room that night, I was just too excited! And then we had the most epic, monster dance party as we jumped about the room, everybody cheering us on. It was an incredible night. Not many camps witness a proposal--some of the campers didn't even believe it was real, and asked their counselors the next morning if we were reenacting a scene from a movie. Ha! In a place where love and marriage is very different than our culture, it was nice to have a scene of true love, an engagement and a healthy, loving relationship.

Jim and I met in here in the Peace Corps, as many of you know, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to get engaged here. I can't imagine a more perfect way to begin our lives together.

And when it rains, it pours! One last piece of good news. Thanks to everyone's help, I am a winner for Peace Corps' Blog It Home contest and will be going to D.C. for a week of events in September. Thank you again to everyone for the votes and for passing it on. I will be sharing a bit about Uganda and life on this side of the world.

Ife leading a.m. warm-up Afrikan yoga session

Country Director Loucine visits Camp LION for the day and gets her groove on

Brainstorming: campers had 5 minutes to design and make
the tallest structure out of straws and masking tape

Eric "Fixer" Grayson jumping in on a session on HIV stigma

RELAY RACE! My favorite. 

Jenna helping to answer questions during a session on myths about HIV

Volunteer Day: reading to sick children at Mbale Hospital

Our Volunteer Day list of accomplishments

Sulai, a local businessman and community activist, talks to our campers about community service

Checking out the materials to make reusable menstrual pads (RUMPs)

Proper condom use demonstration

Bonfire and dancing. A lot of dancing.

Camp LION's ballin' team of directors.

Our Wall of Leaders for Camp LION's staff and counselors.
We each wrote our favorite leader who inspires us and why.

Immaculate and me, co-directors and co-goofballs.

Our t-shirts. Courtesy of yours truly.

Camp LION

Mandala-making.

Night Art

"Now draw with your neighbor's right hand" -- Night Art.

Happy Birthday, America

Happy 4th of July from Bukinda!

It seems strange that a year has gone by since our Fourth of July party that we hosted last year, with our Ugandan neighbors at the PTC. This year I had vowed to have a proper celebration with the teachers at my school. My counterpart Bright suggested we make it a little more local by serving African milk tea (black tea in hot milk) rather than iced tea (minus the ice…). So we had homemade banana bread, cookies, milk tea and boiled sweet potatoes for our party. It was America's birthday in a Uganda-meets-USA style. 

I wrote the lyrics to the national anthem on the blackboard so the teachers could follow along, asking questions like "What does 'ramparts' mean?" to which I replied, "No idea!" My favorite part of the party though was when we got everyone up and dancing to American music like "Twist and Shout" and "Born in the USA." I showed the teachers how to "do the twist" and swing dance. We had fun mixing local Bakiga-style dancing with some rockin' moves to old 60s American music. After the party with the teachers, I hightailed it down to Kisoro, where we would celebrate Independence Day with a few fellow PCVs and Ugandan friends. We had a big barbecue at Lake Mutanda, hosted by Sheba. We had a proper grill (made out of an oil drum) to make burgers and franks, chopped up some local potatoes and celery to make potato salad, and pasta salad. We were joined by a few Ugandan friends, Max's guys in the workshop from Rwanda and a few PCVs visiting Kisoro for the first time. We had a dance party to American and Ugandan music, a drumming circle around a big bonfire and some local dancing.

All we were missing were the fireworks!

Showing Paul how to swing dancing

Do the Twist

We're all seeing how low we can go... Frank wins!

Moses and Bright showing their American patriotism

Davis and Constance trying out the banana bread!

Happy Fourth from Lake Mutanda

The Peace Centre

Antony addressing Nyabirerema Primary School

We've had some visitors from Dulwich College in Shanghai, China. It was a small student group of international high school students who are in Uganda for a few weeks to help build an orphanage and practice their cross-cultural communication. They were a diverse group from all over the world, I felt really proud of my school and staff to be able to host them and show them around. Our students loved seeing new, diverse faces and learning about where they come from.

I made some banana cake for them that morning, and ran over to the primary school in the afternoon to spend a few hours at school. I stood nearby with some of my teachers, who were astounded that some of these kids were saying they were American when they had dark skin, and looked like they were of Asian or Indian descent. I explained that Americans are very diverse, from African Americans to Asian and Indian American. Not all Americans look like me! The visitors all introduced themselves and it was hilarious to see how the kids reacted to their names. "Tristan" sounded like "Christine," which the kids found uproariously funny that this boy was named Christine. "Sri" became "Swee" and they thought he was named after candy. We kept joking "Give me a swee!" Another kid was name Taylor, which everyone interpreted as Tiger, which if you ask me, is a pretty sweet name.

Our headmaster quipped with every name, saying some not-so-PC things like "Have you found that plane yet?" to a Malaysian girl and "Are you the next Chairman?" to a wispy Japanese girl named Mao. They also performed a few songs for the kids and gave them a message to work hard and try and learn many things. Adorable!

Their group leader Antony spent some time here in the late 90s as a volunteer in the Bukinda community. It was interesting to talk to him about what has changed and what has stayed the same in 15 years. One of the biggest visible changes here is the proliferation of mobile phones and the newly paved road to Kabale.

On Sunday afternoon, their home-stay hosts in Bukinda hosted a big meal and invited all the neighbors and officials from around. We had speeches from their hosts Peace and Golden, from folks working at the PTC and other prominent members of the community. The visiting students then performed a few songs, and we all learned the Bakiga dance with the women of the group. This involves dancing in a big circle to drums, and stamping your feet and waving your arms to the beat. It was a blast! This student group was also here to help build The Peace Centre, which will function as an orphanage and will be run by Peace. They are also hoping to build a program that hosts gap years students for eight months, so students spending a gap year between high school and college can work with the Peace Centre in Bukinda.

I also had a nice visit from one of our Peace Corps staff who was passing through Bukinda. The Principal and I gave a tour of the kitchen and our new cookstoves, one of which was piled high with matooke wrapped in banana leaves, and the other one cooking rice. This special-occasion food was being prepared for an official visit from the newly appointed Bishop of Kigezi. We had a feast for lunch, including rice, karo, matooke, potatoes, sweet potatoes, goat, beef, chicken and g-nut sauce. Ugandan food is getting better and better every time I eat! The matooke and the rice were delicious, both cooked in the new stoves.

Students introducing themselves, including their age, their nationality and their favorite subject

Singing songs