Winter Break

The last day of school was June 6, which began the start of my winter break. Since it started, I have been non-stop busy for the past few weeks and that this is the first time that I’ve been able to update my blog this month! The first part of my time off was spent working at GRS Camps and this past week I have been at a workshop.

GRS Camps:

GRS stands for Grassroots Soccer, a non-profit organization that aims to educate about HIV/AIDS and to promote healthy behaviors to prevent HIV/AIDS through soccer related drills and games.

The day after school let out, I went to Matt’s site to help start his GRS camp. It was scheduled for 9am but no students showed up until around noon. A few students finally trickled in and we were able to play some fun games and start the “interventions”, which are the practices that introduce the HIV/AIDS topic in by doing a soccer related game or drill. We continued throughout the week and eventually they graduated 30-something students from the program. I went home early on Thursday to rest and finish work at school.

Morgan and Joe explaining a game to players

Matt playing a game with the participants

The following Sunday, I went to Sarah’s site to start another GRS camp. We got there at 9, and students slowly trickled in for the next 2 hours before we had enough students to start. Throughout the week, we had to coordinate with the winter school classes to make sure that the students could attend the GRS camp. I had to leave early again, but in the end, we graduated 33 students.

Sarah running a session about facts of HIV/AIDS

Having fun in the Classroom

One of the big cultural differences about Basotho culture that affected our camps is the concept of time and time management. Most of the time during the camps, students were late or just didn’t show up. This also applied to teachers that had agreed to help with the camps. Some students only came a few days, some would come very late, and some would have to leave early. There are definitely a few good students who show up on time and who are committed – usually the same students who already practice the healthy sexual and lifestyle behaviors. But many students who signed up did not show up at all – often because of household chores and obligations. This was the biggest challenge of the camps, but I was happy to be able to help out and I learned a lot about GRS.

The students who did attend were able to have fun, fill their time productively, and hopefully learn about AIDS/HIV. I hope to facilitate more GRS camps in the future or even run one of my own – I had so much fun with the students and it’s nice to see them outside of the classroom.

Workshop:

The workshop I’ve been at was actually 2 separate workshops combined into one – HIV/AIDS Capacity Building and Project Design and Management (PDM). Each volunteer brought a counterpart – a person in the local community that we would want to work with on projects.

The first 2 days, we focused on HIV/AIDS issues – going over the facts, discussing the best ways to teach about it, and how we could start to change the culture to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. There were many in depth conversations and shared ideas. We were also shown many of the resources that Peace Corps along with other organizations have already compiled to help educate about HIV/AIDS.

The next 2 days were for PDM – an introduction on starting secondary projects. The first 6 months at site, our main goals were to get adjusted and learn about the needs of the community. Most of the villages that we live in do not have the basic infrastructure needed to have a good education and health. Now, we can finally start implementing projects to address those needs by applying for grants and getting funding. We also discussed the steps for running a project and the key elements of successful, sustainable projects. It was encouraging and exciting and I hope to be able to get some secondary projects done and share my stories with you!

It was my birthday during the workshop so  Peace Corps staff brought me a cake!