Lucy Sung
ED2 -- Gicumbi District, Northern Province
The Following two articles are from SOMA, the volunteer produced journal of PC/Rwanda.
GLOW: Fierce, Fabulous,
Fantastic Flaviah
By
Lucy Sung, ED2
I
have a student named Flaviah, also known as Flamboyant Flaviah, or Miss Flavour
Empress, but I like to call her My Flaviah. I received her GLOW camp
application last year in 2011. She asked me many questions and gave me a draft
to look at before formally submitting her application. I knew she was special
the moment she gave me a high five.
She
was part of my hero cabin, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and quickly rose in the group
as a leader. She led the cheers, made sure everyone was together, and shot her
hand up in the air during all sessions. My favorite moment was during Caitlyn
Griffith’s Love and Sex lesson, “What is sex?” Flaviah rose from her seat to
explain, “Sex is when a boy and a girl meet… in bed.” I wondered if she ever
had a fortune cookie and played the “…In Bed” game. I watched her write
furiously about her future goals and look torn between choosing dancing or
jewelry making for afternoon activities. I’m afraid we both became addicted to
friendship bracelet making, much to the disapproval of Katie Hall. We both had
the need, the need for crafts.
This
year, she is president of our school’s GLOW Club at College De Rushaki. The
leaders of the club meet weekly on Friday mornings over tea and peanut butter
sandwiches, and Flaviah always opens up by asking, “What are your highs and
lows of this week?” She is my bridge at the school, helping me to explain
things in Kinyarwanda when I run out ways in English. She is in my Senior 6
English class and encourages her shy classmates to speak up and not be afraid
to make mistakes. I can see the gears moving and light bulbs lighting up in her
mind from her essays and poems on how the egg came before the chicken and why
family planning is important. For the Gicumbi district reading competition, she
came to ask if I had Harry Potter books to lend her, but we agreed on “Things
Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe might be a better choice. When Peace Corps Rwanda
field tested the Life Skills Manual in Kinyarwanda, I gave her the HIV
prevention sections and was returned with constructive feedback after she led
the lessons. It felt good to reach a place where the students become the
teachers.
After
Ed 2’s COS Conference, Flaviah and I sped away to Kayonza for GLOW Camp 2012 in
the Eastern Province, where I was a facilitator again and Flaviah returned as a
junior facilitator. This time, it wasn’t just me admiring her spirit, all PCVs
and Rwandan facilitators gushed about Flaviah. I was told that she taught all
campers the GLOW Cheer in the dusty bus park of Kayonza, she reprimanded those
who did not help to keep the grounds clean, and she always had a smile on her
face. I caught myself bragging about her, as I am doing here, but what else do
proud teachers do? During the carnival, I got her good with a water balloon,
causing her to shriek, “Teacher! My skirt!” I laughed in glee, having reclaimed
payback when Flaviah and students doused me with buckets of water on my
birthday. Flaviah did it again, stalking people whose birthdays fell during
camp with her buckets. Flaviah was named Super Star for a day for her energy
and passion, and she gave a great radio story during the talent show with jr.
facilitators Marithe and Eliza, highlighted by Matt Teel singing the opening
and closing song of Amakuru radio
show.
I
finally understand why people say the journey is equally as important as the
end product. Flaviah has shown me over time how quickly youth can rise to
accept a challenge and why solidarity and independent souls are beautiful. In
Rwanda, most people, men and women, are eager to say there is gender equality,
but are slow to recognize reality that majority of girls and women are denied
access to proper education, health, and economic opportunities. Julie Greene
and Sarah Lasseron’s lessons on Gender Roles and Equality helped to drive the
message home to our 100+ campers that they are part of the movement of youth to
bring justice and advocacy for girls in Rwanda. It gives me hope that we are
moving in the right direction towards opening doors and opportunities for
girls. For My Flaviah, I know she’ll kick the door down and enter with hands
high up in the air.
BE:
BEness
By Megan Haggerty Foster, H3
“Take 55
teenage boys, 4 Rwandan teachers, and a dozen Peace Corps Volunteers. Mix
thoroughly, sprinkling in icebreakers, games, paper mache, bonfires, and
lessons about sex-ed and leadership. Keep everyone busy and make sure no one
ever gets quite enough sleep. Place in a warm school in the Rwandan
countryside for one week and allow the mixture to rise. For extra flavor,
consider adding a dash of bedbugs, to taste.” – PCV Nick McClure, ED 3
Donning
my camp-counselor persona and venturing into a new part of Rwanda, I landed in
Nyanza’s Camp BE (Boys Excelling). That week, my life was filled to the brim
with games, teaching about gender roles and peer pressure, and lots of arts and
crafts. Although I had a lot of fun, it’s a good thing that I never tried to
become a teacher. Sustaining my enthusiasm non-stop from 7AM to 10PM beyond
that week seems relatively impossible; but, it was so much fun. I try to think
back on my camp experiences, almost 15 years ago. How was the experience
different? Well, I hadn’t been learning about preventing HIV or gender roles. I
do remember staying in large burlap tents, my dysfunctional attempts at arts
and crafts, singing songs, and playing games. Although my art work attempts
haven’t improved too substantially since I was nine, I did work hard at BE camp
to bring out this inner enthusiast and kid person that is supposedly lurking
somewhere inside me. Surprisingly, I found that person.
As a
group leader, I met with a group of 13 boys, two junior facilitators and an
adult facilitator every day, playing new games, listening about what they were
learning, answering any questions, and making camp feel like a place where magic
happens. I heard my Kinyarwanda getting better every day, and surprised myself
with the ability to explain all these random games in Kinyarwanda without
stumbling too much or confusing my audience. The games were even successful
too! One of my favorites was “monkey, monkey, gorilla,” a Rwandan version, of
“duck, duck, goose.”
The boys were impressive. “They
are so eager to learn and so willing to put themselves out there, to a degree
that we would be hard-pressed to find with high school youth back in America,”
said PCV Christine Hooyman, H3. I
saw this in my gender roles lesson, where the boys asked questions like, “what
if we see a girl who is being treated poorly, what do we do?” and “how can we
work to make our lives and girl’s lives more equal?” and “how do we change?”
During HIV awareness videos, my group told me how they would help protect
themselves and others from HIV. I was concerned as a wave of “wows” echoed
through the audience when a woman was scolding a man for assuming she’d have
sex with him because he brought her gifts. I was surprised, however, when my
boys voiced appreciation for her because of her reaction to the man.
The camp
left me hopeful and proud, and more confident in the future of Rwanda. I think
about my male co-workers who have told me they would never carry a baby on
their backs because people will laugh at them, or how some believe it’s a man’s
right to decide when his wife will have sex with him. I see these men, who I
respect, yet also loathe at times for their behavior, and superior mentality
towards the opposite gender, then I think about these young boys, how much
potential they have, and who they may or may not become, and it’s inspiring.
BE’s
talent show was filled with surprise, from talented artists to absurdly good
dancers, singers, rappers, and comedians. The lyrics to Carly Rae Jepsen’s
“Call Me Maybe” still can’t seem to leave my head from the show. We also did a
“barrier burn” a twist on the “I can’t funeral.” Campers wrote down things on pieces of paper
that they feel are barriers to their own successes, then stepping forward
amidst the dark group encircling the fire, they voiced their barrier. All of us
watched the barriers burn as each piece of paper was thrown into the hot coals.
This was followed by a s’mores extravaganza, complete with a ridiculous amount
of marshmallows carried over from the states by some friends of a PCV. The
night continued to the sounds of camp songs around the fire, and an encore
presentation of the Jr. facilitators singing “We are the World.”
From
my seat during Nyanza’s BE camp, it was immensely successful, fun, and
inspiring for all of us. Like my group, I will also continue to strive for what
they wrote on their group flag, “With all sides of the earth, with unity and
peace, we will have a brighter future.”
