(not quite) Home for the Holidays

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and will have an equally nice New Year celebration...
As for me, I had a great time over the holidays! I came to Tamale with about 20 of my fellow volunteers to cook, bake, watch Christmas movies, and shoot off fireworks (because, after all, what's Christmas without fireworks?). It was a lot of fun-we ate until we made ourselves sick, lounged around a LOT, and enjoyed each others' company, but it still didn't FEEL like Christmas very much. It's hard for me to get in the holiday spirit without even remotely cold weather and no family around... But like I said, I still had a great time with everyone here! It was a pretty good "first Christmas away from home."

Last week, before coming to Tamale to celebrate Christmas, we finally put on the football camp that I've been helping to plan since October. We arrived in Savelugu on Sunday morning to put the final preparations in place before students started arriving on Sunday afternoon. I brought along 11 other Peace Corps volunteers to help with the camp, and soon the kids started showing up. We ended up having 61 kids representing about 30 villages in the Northern Region, ranging in age from 11-20 years old (I know that sounds strange to have such an age range, but somehow it worked out).  I quickly realized that although I had initially thought the camp would be led by the two other volunteers who I work closely with, I was basically the one in charge. This had  turned into "my" camp, since I had done the majority of the prep work and I had come up with the schedule and activities...

I have never been "in charge" of something as big as this project before, even before joining Peace Corps. I felt slightly overwhelmed and worried that I would not be able to execute the plans we had made, but God gave me a lot of grace and things went very smoothly. Starting on Monday morning and continuing on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, we had some football players from the Real Tamale United national football team graciously donate their time to lead drills for the boys and girls. Thank God they came, because there's no way the American volunteers (especially me) could have planned drills and set up scrimmages for hours without their help. After playing football all morning, our afternoons were devoted to education and small group sessions. We brought in various guest speakers, including a man living with HIV and a local radio personality named Mama Rush, to encourage the children and challenge them to pursue education and be an example to their friends. The guest speakers were absolutely fantastic; I could not have asked for better people to come and talk to the kids. Each day, the students were glued to whichever speaker was leading the discussion, and I think many kids lives were affected by their stories.

After listening to guest speakers, we spent the rest of our afternoons in small group formatted lessions, and Peace Corps volunteers led discussions on HIV/AIDS, stigmatization, gender equality, family planning, and setting goals for the future. We encouraged the kids to teach their friends and classmates what they had learned and be peer educators in their villages. There was a strong emphasis on continuing education and challenging the children to think about what they wanted to do in their lives professionally, considering many children in this area of the country drop out of school after Jr. High to be farmers or take over household responsibilities in their families. I was blown away by my fellow PC volunteers' commitment to really making connections with these kids, and I think the students really felt inspired by the volunteers and their words of encouragement. On the final day, when we broke into small groups to discuss our role models and share our plans for the future, one of the young girls chose me as her role model. She said she wanted to be like me and teach the children in her village about health. She said I was strong and not afraid to speak, and that I inspired her. I was beyond touched when I heard her say those things, it brought tears to my eyes.

On the final evening of the camp, a local football team approached me to ask if our campers could play a football match with them. I agreed that it would be fun, and soon there were huge crowds gathered to watch the big game. Our girls lost their game, but they played so well, and it was great to see how much they had improved during the week. Once our boys got on the field, we knew it would be a great game, and our campers fought their way to a 2-1 victory! The moment the game was over, all of the campers and PC volunteers rushed the field-there was yelling and dancing and jumping with joy :) We all danced and chanted back to the "barracks" where we were staying, and all of the campers went up to the balcony on the second floor of the building and starting singing and dancing in celebration while the PC volunteers watched below. The entire camp, all of the hard work and stress and lack of sleep, was worth it for that one moment. It was pure joy, seeing those boys and girls celebrate their week of new friendships, improved football skills, and confidence in themselves. It was a beautiful moment for me, and I found myself getting emotional again.

Overall, the camp was a huge success. I feel so blessed by all of the help I got from fellow volunteers and all of the hard work that Ghanaians did to facilitate the event. I know that those kids left that camp with new friendships and more knowledge about HIV, which they can share with their friends and family, and that, to me, was the best outcome I could have asked for.

So now, after the madness of the past month, I'm headed back to Gushie to settle in for a while. I probably won't be updating this blog for a little while, so I hope you have a great New Year's and that you are blessed until we talk again!