Friday, October 23, 2009

From Camp to Club to Garden

(Please note- those of you who are on facebook, the post below is verbatim for the Note I already posted, to spare you from reading it twice!)

As some of you may recall, last winter during the three month school vacations, I decided to put on a sports, art and community service camp for some of the girl students in my community. I had noticed that in my classes, the girls were much quieter and more self-consciouss than the boys, and whenever I saw kids playing sports around town, they were usually only boys. I hoped that in putting on this camp, I could help to build the girls' self-confidence and solidarity between them. I also hoped that in accomplishing a service project in the community, the girls would see their own leadership potential, and other community members would recognize it as well. I shared my idea with friends and family members in the US, and they responded by promptly sending their generous donations to make it all possible.

The camp was very exhausting, but a great success. I was impressed by the turn-out (some days, as many as 20 girls), especially because it was harvest time and many of the girls were needed to help in the fields. We had so much fun, and the girls decided to extend the two week camp to three. As part of the camp, we did a community diagnostic and identified a service project. The girls were immediately captivated by the idea of a community garden. They were passionate about creating a green space of beauty in the community. I knew that the garden would not be something we could accomplish in the time-frame of the camp, but the girls agreed to form a club to continue the project.

After the camp, the most dedicated girls continued to meet with me about once a month (the most frequently we were able to) to continue to plan the garden. It was a very long process, whose steps included: meeting with the local authorities to determine if planting a garden in a public space was feasible, meeting with the principal when we decided on the school as our location, designing a garden that we could afford, creating a budget, creating a plan for the ongoing maintenance of the garden, making a field trip to visit a greenhouse in the nearest city (almost 2 hours away) to see the plants available, formally presenting our idea and plans to the teachers to gain their support, and securing transportation to bring the plants from the greenhouse. (We also spent a good deal of time chatting and just goofing off.)

We were held up by many factors, including finding a location for the garden, the teachers' contention that there wasn't enough space in the school courtyard, the girls frequently forgetting when we had meetings planned, my inability to always meet because of Peace Corps functions and other activities, and the girls' shy hesitation to ask a community member to provide transportation for us.

But at last, almost 10 months later, we planted our garden. To see more photos of the planting and learn more about it, check out this link to my facebook album titled "The story of a garden": I have never seen such incredible hard workers as these girls. They got up at 5:30 am on Sunday to dig up soil and haul it, load after load, to the school. Then they met again in the afternoon and worked until long after dark in the pouring rain, breaking the earth, shoveling soil, laying grass, and planting the flowers, then got up at 5:30 am again the next day to finish the job. I could see how much this garden meant to these girls, particularly the club's president who was not able to continue her education after middle school for financial reason. For her, I believe this project of the garden has brought a new purpose into her life. It was a joy to see their satisfaction and happiness to have completed it.





















Of course, the story of the garden and club is not finished yet. School vacations are about to begin once more, and we will all be on a rotational schedule to water and tend the garden each day for the next three months. When school starts again, we will have to implement our plan to maintain the garden with the help of the student council. I hope that we can make presentations in all of the classrooms about the garden and how it came about, to discourage students from littering in the garden (a problem I have already seen) and from cutting/damaging the flowers.
As far as the girls, they have already told me that they hope to keep meeting, so that we can do other activities on a smaller scale, such as cooking classes, sports and art projects, as well as just hanging out. (Hopefully I can work in some health topics and information about obtaining scholarships as well.) My work with them as been one of the most rewarding experiences of my Peace Corps service thusfar. I deeply admire their spirit, their strength, their kindness and their sense of humor, and I have learned a lot from them.

I want to thank all of you who believed in me and made this possible with your contributions. It is a testament to your genoristy that we were able to hold a three week camp as well as plant a garden with the funds you gave. It has meant a lot to me... and so much to these outstanding Guatemalan girls. Wish you could meet them to see it for yourselves, but please take my word for it.

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