GLOW!

Hey Friends,

Well after 6 months of planning Camp GLOW has finally come and gone. Overall I would say it was a big success. It seemed that the girls all had a great time and even learned a little which is always nice. For us, the two other PCVs I planned it with and me, it was a long week and tiring week but definately worth it. A lot happened during the week but I'll just cover some of the highlights...

We opened the camp with a bonfire that included the Zambians teaching us a few games and us teaching them the hokey pokey. They seemed to really enjoy it and thought shaking our backsides all around was particularly funny. We did have a few girls homesick that night but by the end of the week they all stayed up late singing to enjoy their last bit of time together. Throughout the week we saw a lot of the girls open up, especailly in their dramas. We also had the girls meet in small groups with PCVs and mentors, and the first day many girls refused to talk and even cried but by the end everyone was sharing and asking questions.

We were also very lucky to have a great group of mentors who had alot of ideas about how to bring GLOW back to their communities. Arianna and I had a special bonding time with them during our sex and sexuality talk when they really opened up to each other about their private lives. It was great to see them come together. They even wrote us a song that they performed at the closing ceremony. It was great to have so many strong female role models for our girls.

We covered a lot of topics throughout the week but one of my favorite sessions was on body image. We started the whole thing off with us going around the room saying our favorite part of the body and one of our amazing mentors was brave enough to say it was her vagina! It was a great moment of embracing being a woman. We ended the session with us all chanting "I'm beautiful," which the girls continued to chant for the rest of the week.

The girls had a blast having three-legged and sack races in our Olympics and got really into making friendship bracelets. We had a lot of fun dancing with them and trying to each them some American games.

Peace Corps was able to get the Permanet Secreatary (she runs all the departments) of Eastern Provience to come and officiate at the closing ceremony. It was so nice for the girls to see a woman who also grew up in the village and who has risen to such a position of power. She seemed to really embrace the idea of GLOW and connect with the girls. Plus we even got press coverage with the camp making the news on the radio and even some print media.

Of course we had a few bumps along the way, mainly with our partners at the YWCA not coming through for us. But it was a learning experience for all of us and hopefully a great starting point for future GLOWs.

Today we read through the evaluations and it was wonderful to see all the things the girls and mentors shared. While a lot of times its hard to see how we are making a difference here in Zambia, I really felt like we made a big one in these girl's lives. Its hard being a girl anywhere in the world, and especially here, but I think that we made it a little easier for these girls if only for a week and hopefully armed them with skills to better their futures.

I just want to end with a big thank-you to all who donated to the project, we couldn't have done without you!

Love,
Allie