Postcards from a Peace Corps Volunteer.

1 May

So you’re thinking- what is Camp GLOW?

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is a week-long camp dedicated to girls’ leadership, an initiative by Peace Corps. The main goals are to boost self-confidence, leadership skills, and the believe that young women can make a difference in her local community and the world. Most PCVs in Ethiopia are participating in a Camp GLOW (there are 12 different sites this summer) and for 11 of us in the Southern Nations Region, we will be having one at a town called Sodo.

In Ethiopia, it is still largely a male-dominant society where women are expected to stay home and do all the house work, and behave as 2nd class citizens. Female students are more likely to drop out of school due to responsibilities at home and are not always encouraged to do well in school. Other serious issues include: child marriage (for girls), female genital mutilation (fgm), abuse, and fistula (a disease which is often an outcome of child marriage)– which now, thankfully, are on the decline. In recent years, the government has made gender equality a priority in Ethiopia, but often, in communities outside of the capital and larger cities, the oppression still exists. (Lacy’s post)

So our camp is going to have both girls and boys (Camp G-GLOW: Girls and Guys Leading Our World), where we will address gender issues, as well as have sessions on HIV/AIDS education, goals and values, decision making, health and hygiene, nutrition, and self-awareness / esteem, to name a few. The boys will learn to support and encourage gender equality, and the girls will become empowered leaders. Each PCV will be bringing 4 campers from our towns with us.

The dates are July 29 - August 4, and our pre-camp meeting will be next week, May 9th and 10th to organize all the lessons and details. (Above is the draft logo I drew up that for our Sodo Camp GLOW t-shirts!)

Also, if you’d like to contribute in a small way (which translates into a big way for us)- check out our Camp GLOW Sodo supplies/materials wish-list, and please send me an email (ohnsoonkim@gmail.com) with anything you’d like to purchase for the campers. (Thank you in advance - I will email you back with the shipping address in the States you can make it out to.)

I’m extremely excited for our summer camp- and I’ll keep you all updated in our process!

1 May

Leku’s bus station (the empty space in the first photo is usually filled with minibuses) and views while riding in the front seat (gabina).

1 May

Saturday, April 20th.

My first training for English teachers of Leku’s cluster schools, on lesson planning and objectives, and having shai/buna (tea/coffee) afterwards.

As an education volunteer in Ethiopia, we have a slightly different program than most education programs in Peace Corps. We are technically not English teachers, since we don’t have our own classes to teach every day, but are English Teacher Trainers. Our primary goal is to provide trainings / workshops or mentoring programs for teachers- to improve their English and teaching methodologies in their classrooms (active learning, classroom management, grammar skills, etc.).

Our second goal is to improve the students’ English, through weekly English clubs and activities. (We are also here to give support in HIV/AIDs prevention and awareness, Malaria education, gender equality and female support.)

What I truly appreciate about being an education volunteer here is that we have some structure (the school / semester calendar) but also room for flexibility- to choose what types of clubs and programs we want to do for our teachers and students.

12 Apr

This week for English club, we discussed the importance of reading and made colorful signs (thank you Peace Corps office for the supplies) to encourage students to read. After making them, some of my club students and I posted them in our library together.

Another PCV did a mural in her school “Readers are Leaders!” to encourage a reading culture, so that is where I got the line, and the other quote is the Dr. Suess quote: “The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the more places you’ll go!”