I know I am not the most eloquent when it comes to writing so I am going to do my best here because this of all my blog entries deserves it. A volunteer who was serving in the Southern African country Lesotho was killed. It is a terrible tragedy and while I did not get the honor to meet Thomas I have heard a lot about him since I have been over here. He graduated from the University of Florida in 2008 (the same year I did) and started his Peace Corps service in November 2009 (this was 8 months after I started) he was working as an education volunteer. I have read his blog and the people who know him are so proud of him that I know he was an amazing, strong, motivated, powerful, life changing person. It is a tragedy to lose such a great volunteer. I will be keeping his family and friends in my thoughts and prayers everyday. I can not imagine what the community in Lesotho and back in Florida are going through but I will pray for them to have strength to get through this.
Hearing about this made me so sad for many reasons; while I did not know Thomas personally we were part of a very small family. He was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Even though we may not all know each other we are all part of one big family. We are a small group of Americans who dedicate two years of their life to work in communities where you hope to do even the smallest amount of good. There are many volunteers who are serving or who have served, while we don’t all know each other we are all there to support each other any where around the world. Thomas was a graduate of the University of Florida. There are not many UF PCV’s nearby and when you meet one you immediately start talking about Florida Field, The Swamp, University Ave and the most important person in all our PC lives, our recruiter. When they made those commercials about the GatorNation we all laughed, but it was true. You meet someone from UF and you immediately say “Go Gators.” When I came I was in a group with one other Gator Grad. We knew we were lucky because our recruiter took the time to put us together and helped up get ready for Namibia. It is not just the fact we went to UF together it is that we have a common person in our life who takes the time to make us feel special. I know that Amy, our recruiter, took the time to get us here and she has continued to stay in touch. She has many volunteers and she is so busy, but she takes the time to make us feel like we are her only thing she has to do. It is because of her that our UF Peace Corps family is so close. I know she makes all of us around the world serving as a UF PCV feel special. I also know that Thomas was a very special person to her and that means he was a fantastic person and I wish I could have gotten to get to know him.
I have been thinking about this tragedy all day and it has reminded me to be grateful for the time I have here and how lucky I am to get to be getting to do what I want to do. I am so deeply saddened for the loss of Thomas and in his honor I am making sure I do not take any day for granted.
I hope that all who read this blog will also keep Thomas and his family and friends in your thoughts, prayers or whatever you do!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Everyone Wants Acceptance 2010
So I am not sure how we pulled it off. There were many hoops to jump but somehow we did it. With the help of the community, volunteers and people at home we made it happen. EWA (ehh-waaa) was a two day conference where we brought learners from Kavango and Caprivi to learn about gender equality, HIV/AIDS and leadership. It was jammed packed with sessions. Let me try to give a recap.
Pre- Conference:
We had some issues since last year. The conference was supposed to happen and the PCV’s had put together it they had prepared everything for EWA 2009 and they lost the funding. So we had to tell the learners who were invited and the facilitators who were trained that it was not happening It was really sad to see all the hard work that had been put in and then for it not to happen. When the PCV’s who had organized finished their service I said I would step up and make it happen this year. The beginning of the year we had our first meeting and we had it all planned out, we had support and potential funding. Then I spent the next few months focusing on Camp GLOW and my primary job. Once GLOW was over I dedicated all my time to making EWA happen. Our first big blow came when our funders told us that they could not provide funding. I was so tired and I just wanted to give up, but another volunteer, Lee, would not let me. He kept asking “whats up with EWA?” and we worked on getting as much as we could for free. The first thing was getting a place to hold the conference. One of the local secondary schools let us use their hostel facilities free of charge!!! From there things just fell into place. It’s funny how things always seem to work out somehow here, no matter how bad it gets it works out. We had worked out everything planning the conference and before we knew it August 25th had come and it was time for the camp!!
Day 1 : Arrival Day: This was not as bad as we thought it was going to be. This is basically a transport day. We rely on the Ministries to help us with transport. We got everything ready and all the kids arrived (except one town because of communication problems). That night we just welcomed and divided the kids. They played the animal game- the kids get the name of animals on a piece of paper and they have to act out the animals until the find other animals who are acting the same some examples are dog, elephant, monkey, etc. This was pretty funny I think the volunteers got more into it than the kids. Then we put the kids to bed. The hostel was really nice and clean and the hostel staff was beyond helpful.
Day 2: Gender Day
The first day the kids were up and knocking at 5 am!! They were ready for the day to start. We started with a good discussion on the difference of sex and gender and then we talked about their views about gender. The day had some really great discussions. We had 7 facilitators, they were trained last year and volunteered to come back and work at the conference, who led the sessions. The facilitators did fantastic they really helped us get the conference to happen. The day continued we played games and did more sessions and the night ended with a HIV/AIDS intro where the kids asked some really good questions. We ended the night teaching the kids about the female and male reproductive systems, how to use a condom and other questions they had about anything.
Day 3: Leadership Day
This was the day where the kids work on communication and how to be a good leader. The idea is that they will go back to their community and start a club. We also invited 6 career panelists to come and talk about how they got to where they were and just to inspire the kids. We had a pharmacist, doctor, lodge owner, accountant, procurement officer and principal. The day went well and the kids really enjoyed the people who came to talk to us.
Day 4: Departure Day
While I enjoyed the camp I was ready to get the next part of my holiday going. We all worked together and cleaned the hostel, washed down the bathrooms and packed everything to go. The transport came on time (this does not happen EVER!) and we were home by lunch time!!
It was a great camp and I am really grateful to all the people who helped. I am glad I got to be part of it and meet some new kids from different villages and regions that I would have never gotten to meet. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE (PCV’s, Facilitators, RPCV’s, family and friends in America and the people in the Rundu Community who donated time, supplies, energy) who helped make EWA 2010 happen!!
Side note: We did not have time to write the thank you cards with the kids so I will be spending this week writing thank you cards to everyone. I apologize for the delay in y are thank you cards if you are getting one.
Pre- Conference:
We had some issues since last year. The conference was supposed to happen and the PCV’s had put together it they had prepared everything for EWA 2009 and they lost the funding. So we had to tell the learners who were invited and the facilitators who were trained that it was not happening It was really sad to see all the hard work that had been put in and then for it not to happen. When the PCV’s who had organized finished their service I said I would step up and make it happen this year. The beginning of the year we had our first meeting and we had it all planned out, we had support and potential funding. Then I spent the next few months focusing on Camp GLOW and my primary job. Once GLOW was over I dedicated all my time to making EWA happen. Our first big blow came when our funders told us that they could not provide funding. I was so tired and I just wanted to give up, but another volunteer, Lee, would not let me. He kept asking “whats up with EWA?” and we worked on getting as much as we could for free. The first thing was getting a place to hold the conference. One of the local secondary schools let us use their hostel facilities free of charge!!! From there things just fell into place. It’s funny how things always seem to work out somehow here, no matter how bad it gets it works out. We had worked out everything planning the conference and before we knew it August 25th had come and it was time for the camp!!
Day 1 : Arrival Day: This was not as bad as we thought it was going to be. This is basically a transport day. We rely on the Ministries to help us with transport. We got everything ready and all the kids arrived (except one town because of communication problems). That night we just welcomed and divided the kids. They played the animal game- the kids get the name of animals on a piece of paper and they have to act out the animals until the find other animals who are acting the same some examples are dog, elephant, monkey, etc. This was pretty funny I think the volunteers got more into it than the kids. Then we put the kids to bed. The hostel was really nice and clean and the hostel staff was beyond helpful.
Day 2: Gender Day
The first day the kids were up and knocking at 5 am!! They were ready for the day to start. We started with a good discussion on the difference of sex and gender and then we talked about their views about gender. The day had some really great discussions. We had 7 facilitators, they were trained last year and volunteered to come back and work at the conference, who led the sessions. The facilitators did fantastic they really helped us get the conference to happen. The day continued we played games and did more sessions and the night ended with a HIV/AIDS intro where the kids asked some really good questions. We ended the night teaching the kids about the female and male reproductive systems, how to use a condom and other questions they had about anything.
Day 3: Leadership Day
This was the day where the kids work on communication and how to be a good leader. The idea is that they will go back to their community and start a club. We also invited 6 career panelists to come and talk about how they got to where they were and just to inspire the kids. We had a pharmacist, doctor, lodge owner, accountant, procurement officer and principal. The day went well and the kids really enjoyed the people who came to talk to us.
Day 4: Departure Day
While I enjoyed the camp I was ready to get the next part of my holiday going. We all worked together and cleaned the hostel, washed down the bathrooms and packed everything to go. The transport came on time (this does not happen EVER!) and we were home by lunch time!!
It was a great camp and I am really grateful to all the people who helped. I am glad I got to be part of it and meet some new kids from different villages and regions that I would have never gotten to meet. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE (PCV’s, Facilitators, RPCV’s, family and friends in America and the people in the Rundu Community who donated time, supplies, energy) who helped make EWA 2010 happen!!
Side note: We did not have time to write the thank you cards with the kids so I will be spending this week writing thank you cards to everyone. I apologize for the delay in y are thank you cards if you are getting one.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
