#summerofsuccess

The look when you have had a successful Day! #goreallalife #grrreallas #g1 #Gorealla #goreallifeawaits #summerofsuccess

As I wrote several weeks ago, PCVs in Yap have spent the better part of the past year planning a summer camp for rising eighth and ninth graders at our respective schools. We were very excited to partner with the Yap Sports Council in order to host the camp. SOS Camp was founded 12 years ago by PCVs during the recover from Typhoon Sudal (SOS = Summer of Sudal). Eventually the camp was taken over by YSC and became summer of sports, but the YSC staff was happy to let us take the lead on camp and add a lot of non sports material. We based our camp on six pillars: leadership, gender equality, self-esteem, aspirations, volunteerism, and health. Each PCV on Yap was responsible for a number of pillar activities as well as bringing a Yapese counterpart or two to camp as fellow counselors. We hosted camp at the complex, which allowed campers to experience a sports in a new context. They were able to try out real coaching (not just pick up) in volleyball, basketball, wrestling, weightlifting, and table tennis. Though the planning for camp has been going on since September, we really kicked into high gear about a month ago. We wound up registering 40 students for camp, making four teams of ten, one per PCV with her respective counterparts. The rules for camp were pretty simple, respect yourself and fellow campers, no drugs, alcohol or betel nut, and no violence. For almost all of our students, this was the first time they were experiencing a retreat or camp anything like this, so we really didn't know what to expect. Monday was all about getting to know your teammates. In Yap, students stick to their municipal groups, few kids have friends from other municipalities, and the division only deepens in high school, so one of our goals for camp was for students to make friends from outside their school, which will hopefully carry through to high school. We did some of the well known ice breakers, human knot, two truths and a lie, and also went over the rules and expectations for camp. Campers could earn points for their team in a number of ways, but primarily by participating (vocally) in our sessions. The other big way to score team points was by taking good care of an egg. Sex Education is basically non existent here, and teenage pregnancy is a reality, so in preparation for later sessions on SexEd and goal setting, each camper was given an egg to take care of throughout the week. This might sound familiar to many of you, it's the same exercise that many middle/high schools conduct to illustrate the difficulty of raising a baby. The campers had to bring their egg to camp everyday (we marked them to make sure they weren't broken and replaced) and ask counselors to babysit when the campers played sports. The teams lost points when an egg was forgotten somewhere or cracked, or, in one case, eaten by a family member. By the end of the week, out of 37 eggs, only 8 were still "alive." Monday afternoon also hosted a leadership session where we discussed what qualities make a good leader, what informal leaders are like, and how setting a good example is one type of leadership. The campers were then asked to self-evaluate how well they exemplify the different qualities we discussed, and determine some ways to improve the qualities that they don't do so well on. We found that while the girls filled out the evaluation honestly, the boys gave themselves very high marks across the board. I'll end it there since this is already pretty lengthy, but I have lots more to talk about, so check back soon!