Hello Togo!: Apprentice Training and Camp UNITE

The first week in August, I was busy preparing for a 2-day training of apprentices from various trades on the topic of sexual health. I may have mentioned this in a previous entry, but my closest volunteer neighbor, Danielle, is nearing the end of her service, and we wanted to do a project together before she leaves in November. So we put together this training session for apprentices, who normally drop out of school to follow a trade and therefore are not well educated on the subject. We chose 2 apprentices from each workshop with the idea that, after the training, they could bring the knowledge they gain back to their respective workshops and share it with the other apprentices, thereby serving as peer educators of sorts. We did the training for Danielle's village at the end of June, but weren't able to get around to doing it in my village until just a few weeks ago. The training in my village was made a little more complicated due to the need to translate into local languages (thankfully we got by with only having to translate from French into Kabiye and Ewe - in spite of fact that there are more than 6 dominant local languages that exist in my village). The Monday prior to the Thursday and Friday training, I had to walk around my entire village to personally hand out invitations to the 17 workshops, which was a little draining to do in the hot and humid weather - not to mention, I was coming down with a bad cold. But pretty much everybody I invited turned up, which made it worth it. I will admit too that the training did end up going better than I thought, although it's always hard to say how much new knowledge stayed in the apprentices' heads after walking away. I did have other villagers come up to me later feeling left out and asking why they hadn't been invited. It's always hard to please everybody.... I'm glad they were at least interested though.

The Saturday immediately following the training, I left to go up north for Camp UNITE; Peace Corps collaborates with local NGOs in Togo to fund a camp every vacation for boy & girl apprentices, and boy & girl students. Peace Corps volunteers from all over the country nominate motivated adolescents in their villages to be picked to go to camp, and then volunteers themselves work as counselors along with other motivated Togolese counterparts (who are nominated just as the kids are). This year I was a counselor for the girl students' camp week. We had a total of 50 girls and about 16 counselors (Togolese and Americans combined). As the camp is organized by Peace Corps Volunteers, it is very much like camp in the States - songs, dancing, recreational activities, etc. But everyday there were also sessions (led by counselors) on topics such as self-confidence, good communication, puberty & adolescence, HIV & AIDS, rape and sexual harrassment, etc. My 2 sessions to teach were on self-confidence and puberty & adolescence - the latter of which is a personal favorite of mine to teach because Togolese kids always have a ton of questions to ask (since it's kind of taboo to speak about at home). We also had "challenges" which girls worked on in small groups, encouraging them to learn the value of teamwork. Over the course of the week, we additionally took time to work on and present skits and traditional dances. At the end of the week, we had a special visit from the U.S. Ambassador in Togo and the Togolese Secretary of State. One of the groups of girls I worked with pulled together a skit on self-confidence and its role in defending oneself against sexual harrassment as a part of the welcoming ceremony for the special guests. My girls were absolutely HILARIOUS in their skit - they could have won Oscars in my opinion. I was so proud of them.

The first day of camp, the girls were all a little timid and quiet, but by Saturday morning - the day we were all leaving - they were all bawling their eyes out because they didn't want to leave. I guess that means camp was a success! My voice was pretty much gone by the end of the week from all the singing and shouting I did with the kids, and I collapsed from exhaustion on Saturday night, but I really did have fun. I'll definitely do it again next year.

P.S. I now have officially finished 15 months and have exactly 1 year left of my Peace Corps service in Togo!

PICTURES!!

The apprentices in my apprentice training

Me explaining the menstrual cycle

Edwige, my host mom - but also the President of the Association of Seamstresses, translating

A carpenter apprentice taking a turn explaining the reproductive systems

Danielle leading a small group discussion

Emma (the midwife at the dispensaire) and Odile (the intern there) presenting Family Planning methods

CAMP UNITE! Girls working on a challenge with us cheering them on

This is Paggie, a character we invented during stage who was supposed to represent obstacles and discouragement. He was a local peer educator dressed up in a way that frightened the girls but made me laugh.

My presentation during camp on Adolescence and Puberty

Another camp session (every volunteer presented a session in collaboration with a Togolese homologue)

Traditional dance night

Me and the girls in my dorm building explaining the traditional dance we presented. How do you like my traditional outfit? :)

Camp UNITE parade through the village on the last day of camp

Me and Martine, my Togolese homologue during camp

Dancing in the middle of the village

Lots of dancing at camp!

Another challenge

Larissa, me, and 2 girls on our Yellow team

Dances for the closing ceremony

Curious onlookers

The Yellow Team

The Ambassador giving her speech at the closing ceremony

My Yellow team girls' skit on self confidence and its role in defending oneself against sexual harrassment

All the camp participants

The presentation of the end of camp certificates; The certificates were given out in order of dorm building - This is my building doing a little jig after we received ours