Petite à Petite

 There is so much work to be done to get this library project off the ground! First and foremost, I need to raise the money to pay for it!! If you would like to donate, the link is: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-686-010

However, while we wait for the money to come in, there are a lot of things that need to be done. Before anything, we needed to clean out the building and start repairing, well, everything. As it turns out, there is a lot of repairs that need to be done. We're still working on that, but at least the initial cleaning is done (notice the dust masks-- it was really dirty!!)

Once the building was decent (it's still ugly and there's no furniture, but at least it's relatively clean) my sitemate Beth and I decided to hold a camp for 22 students from Beth's village, which was followed by another camp for 22 more students from my village. The kids are in the equivalent of 5th grade (CM2, if you know the French school system at all) and they were unruly. They loved camp, however, because we sang songs, ran races, jumped rope, learned about everything from hygiene to AIDS to protecting the environment to preventing malaria, and read. We even gave them breakfast and lunch every day (each camp was 3 days, so we had a total of 6 days) and it only cost $40...total! They also really enjoyed reading "Bouba and Zaza" books, which are kid-friendly, Africa themed, in French and they are a series of books and all of which have good messages. If the library is successful, I'll buy more of these books and the kids can read them all the time!

We taught a number of sessions during the two camps; here is Beth teaching about brushing teeth.

 And here I am teaching about nutrition (pulled out the ol' nutrition wheel again...) and we're working on a worksheet together. The scraps of fabric tied around their heads signify their "team" which we divide them into in order to organize activities, each team has its own fabric and name (like "lion" or "elephant" or whatever the kids want to be called).

We hope to do more camps and clubs like this once the library is up and running. It's important to have books for people to read, but I think it's just as (if not more) important to have fun, dynamic programs in place so villagers will want to come to the library and use the materials.

Yay camp!!

Once again, donations can be made at: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-686-010