Moving on.
So starting committees and getting people talking and moving is part of what helped jumpstart me after the overwhelmingly awesome party and slightly unrealistic expectations of some of those people around me.
The other two parts were seeing how I can absolutely change lives here without a single cent. During the training, we received HIV education visual aids that several of the PCVs made together with a Surinamese artist. Up there with the paper clip and rolling luggage, they are one of the most brilliant things I have seen.
The idea was pretty simple - people understand things better when they are presented in a culturally appropriate way. In this case, that means something that doesn't require reading and has people and activities in the picture that look like the audience. So these PCVs got together and made hand-illustrated cards that show local people doing local activities to explain how HIV is transmitted and what you can do about it. They directly address local worries - like if you poop next to someone that has HIV, will you get it? If a mosquito bites them and then you, will you get it?
And they work. I've had them for two weeks and I've had two amazingly spontaneous and comfortable discussions with small groups of young men hanging out on my porch. A common question when you come back from the city is, "So what good did you find there?" When somebody asked me, I pulled out the cards and we went from there. You know they are good because, after I go through them and put them down, the guys snatch them up to go through them again more slowly - and they don't need me to explain it, even though their level of knowledge is not that good.
That, my friends, is lives changed. And brilliant marketing, too. These people have a lot of HIV awareness money thrown at them, but I'd be willing to bet that the $100 those PCVs paid the local artist will buy more awareness than a couple thousand bucks worth of seminars based around a foreign curriculum. Well played and I provided feedback up the chain on that one.
Number two, and a big one here, was Camp Glow. That is why I've a bit behind on blog posts. I helped out a week long camp for Sixth grade girls called Girls Leading Our World. It's a Peace Corps female empowerment camp that is done according to a basic model all over the world, though of course (as expected from above) every iteration is heavily modified to fit local needs.
It was only about 30 girls for 4 days, but wow. You could almost see those girls' lives changing for the better in front of your eyes. I hope that doesn't sound arrogant or...anything bad. Man, my vocabulary is tanking. But just think about the scenario.
First, we at least doubled the size of these girls' world. Most had never been outside their village before or slept away from home. Second, we spent time asking them what they want to do and telling them they can do it. That doesn't happen here. Not like this - not with female role models (and respectful males) of all stripes hitting the points again and again. And third, above all, we spent all the time in between telling them how.
It was a pretty powerful experience. Girls know they should stay in school - but why and how gets glossed over. We helped them connect the dots in some of those basics that we take for granted in the States. Goal setting isn't a given here - people live in the subsistence cycle and that means there isn't always time to take a step back and see how you can get a leg up.
The change from day 1 - a bunch of scared, quiet girls not sure of themselves - to day 4 - girls with new friends and new ideas and a new sense of possibility was incredible.
I still want to do the tangible projects that have metrics and bullet points and all that. But I know really see the other side of how we can change lives here. I never doubted it exactly, but now I've seen and been a part of it in a big way. And I get to do it again next week. I'm going to be taking more of a leadership role in a Boy's camp based around the same concept (we decided against calling it Boy's Leading Our World, however). The goal is to be on the leadership committee for the ones coming up in spring. I'm excited at the prospect.
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