7.28.2008

Science Camp

I helped out with a science camp that was put on by Annie, a volunteer in my region, to help give hands on experience to girls who were in the equivalent of 7th and 8th grade to help prepare them for the test they have to take to get to the high school level. Here is account of the way things went down as I remember them… Enjoy!


Day 1: Arrive in Tessaoua

We arrived late in the afternoon on Saturday, July19th to meet and greet the lycée (high school) staff. We brought with us about 150 pounds of grains (rice, pasta, and couscous) also set up our shower area and went over the schedule to prepare for the week. There were six of us this first day including one of the three Jenns who would arrive during the week.

Getting ready for science camp took me back to a special place, with so many fond memories... Camp Beckwith. Most of the nostalgia came from writing the schedule, finalizing group lists, making name tags, and finalizing plans for morning and afternoon sessions. To all of my Beckwith friends… Camp Beckwith Rules!

High point: Playing Scrabble Junior with two boys who lived on the lycée grounds.

Low point: Seeing how much prep work was going to be needed.

Day 2: Training Day

I woke up early with pre camp excitement and went walking around the lycée grounds taking pictures until Annie woke up. We walked down to one of the bus stations to pick up the second of the Jenns. Once we returned we continued with preparations for the week. The five lycée girls, who would be acting as counselors hadn't arrived yet and none of the groups (one or two volunteers and one lycée student) had learned their experiments yet. On top of that, the chef de laboratoire had said he wasn't going to show up if he didn't get per diem. Thankfully, he did show up and all other or at least most other glitches worked out.

Each group set up their respective labs: a chemistry lab, physics lab, two earth sciences labs and the computer session that I was working with.

Just like the previous night and the following night, we went to the night market to find food. This night, Nate and I ended up splitting street meat and tuwo and sauce. Tuwo is millet flour that has been boiled until it is somewhere between the consistency of play dough and mashed potatoes. Some volunteers refuse to eat tuwo, but we didn't bring much money and you can get a lot of tuwo for not much money. It's what most people eat for most meals in Niger.

High point: Finding tsalla for breakfast on the way back from the bus station. Oh life's simple pleasures.

Low point: Getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Day 3: Second Day of Training

Uh oh! I started to get ciwon ciki, stomach aches. I wasn't surprised because of all of the random street food we'd been eating and I guess it was Murphy's Law in play, but our latrines were about 200 yards from our base of operations. Needless to say, I had the path worn thin after only a few hours. Later I began relying on raw garlic to make my stomach a less friendly place for bacteria to thrive and I slept most of the day away. As if some cruel joke, I also developed an ear infection. Despite sleeping most of the day away, it was the only night I had a mattress and I slept pretty well.

That afternoon, 3 more volunteers showed up including the final Jenn.

High point: On our way to the night market for food, I saw some kids playing Streets of Rage on a Sega Master System (the European version of Sega Genesis). I stopped, asked if I could play and the other kid and I got to level 4 and only lost one life...

Low point: ...then someone bumped the TV and we had to start over. Oh well, I was getting hungry.

Update: Ear is better now and stomach still giving me concern. Just found out I have giardia, amoebas, and bacteria… the tri-fecta!

Day 4: The Girls Arrive

We got everything finalized and waited on the collège (middle school) girls to arrive. After that there was a safety session in one of the labs and we played ice breakers and then attempted to watch the movie, Bend it like Beckham. Due to tech problems we watched it in English without French subtitles. The girls enjoyed it anyway.

After dinner I was exhausted and despite not having a mattress I slept like a little baby log.

High Point: Feeling like I was working at summer camp again.

Low Point: Realizing how bad I was at eating rice and sauce with my hand.

Day 5: First Day of "Classes"

Annie's counterpart led the first two morning sessions one on "Best Study Methods" and the other on "Obstacles to Girls Education". The parts that I sat in on (and understood) seemed to go really well. He is a very patient and dedicated educator.

When our first group arrived in the afternoon, I honestly had no expectation of how the session might go. First things first, I hoped Allah would bless us with electricity. Basically, Fatima the lycée student in my group nailed her part and we realized that we wouldn't get through all of the activities we created for each group. We eliminated creating the Nigerien flag in Paint.

Fatima reviewed the technology vocabulary that we had been going over for the last couple of days and then helped each girl use the mouse, open a program, close it, and she demonstrated what is capable with different tools in Microsoft Word and Paint. Neither Frances nor I knew that she was going to make each girl practice each action. It was time consuming, but worth it for the girls.

For the next activity, they sat down two or three to a computer (depending on how many computers were available/working and opened Microsoft Word. They then typed their names then we took turns making the text larger and larger and changing the fonts and colors. Once we finished with their names, some of them wanted to write their boyfriend's names. Then, we took turns typing sentences in French (if it wasn't for Word's ability to correct my spelling and grammar I would have looked like a fool).

High point: Our session going so well.

Low point: My horrible French grammar.

Day 6: Day of the Lizard

Day two of classes went just as well as the first day the only difference was we had two classes instead of just one. Fatima felt even more comfortable and the collège girls responded even better to the whole session because of that. That was amazing because I thought they had responded so well the first session.

During our afternoon break we heard screams coming from the rooms where the girls were staying. A few of us ran down there and discovered the girls throwing rocks at a giant lizard which had become quite comfortable on the wall above the door leading into one of the rooms. It's definitely the largest lizard I've seen in Niger. Although the size tends to increase upon each telling of the story I'm pretty sure that the lizard was about 15 - 18 inches long and it was a portly fellow. We got a few long sticks and knocked it off the wall and it ran off into the school grounds amidst high pitched screams. We tracked it down and took pictures. My favorite pictures though are of the girls watching the lizard.

For the evening activity we divided the girls into two groups. One group played soccer and the other participated in a self defense class led by Jenn W. Both groups seemed to really enjoy their activities and I had a lot of fun helping with the self defense class despite having to be the bad guy as I was the only boy with the group.

Also, Jenn F. had been sick and left that afternoon leaving us with only two Jenns.

High point: Two words, lizard hunt.

Low point: Having a volunteer leave for Maradi due to illness.

Day 7: Soccer

Again things went well with the classes and again I think Fatima did even better each time. When the last class was finished, I was both glad and sad that they were over. Glad because giving instructions in a foreign language consumes a lot of patience and energy and being sick I was just tired. Sad because I really enjoy teaching people how to use technology and I won't be doing it for a while because my commune doesn't have electricity.

In the afternoon, Jenn B. also was quite sick and also left for Maradi. Then we were down to the strongest or the luckiest of the Jenns, Jenn W.

In the evening, we played soccer until prayer call and my team won 1-0.

High point: After soccer one of the collège girls, Binta, asked if I'd help her work on penalty kicks.

Low point: Losing a second Jenn.

Day 8: Fête

The morning session was a discussion panel of professional women who worked in the sciences. It went really well and the girls in addition to asking them questions went around the room and said what they wanted to do when they grew up. Some of the girls wanted to be teachers, nurses, doctors, government ministers, and president.

There was also an evaluation session where the girls were asked several questions about what they enjoyed most/least and if they would attend again. Annie seemed to be pleased with the feedback she received.

We had a closing fête (party) where we played bingo, pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, and had 3 legged races. I couldn't have imagined the games going any smoother and the girls had such a good time. After our dinner of guinea fowl and couscous, we set up the projector and laptop to play Hausa music videos. The girls loved it, but they did let me know which songs they didn't like and we skipped them. After I saw several yawns and people getting tired I played a slide show of pictures taken from the week. Every time someone was in a picture all of her friends would shout out her name… every time.

After the slide show all the girls pretty much went to bed, it was a long week. We volunteers spent another few hours cleaning up.

High point: Fatima coming up after we set up the projector and wanting to know more about the things that we didn't teach the girls in the computer session.

Low point: Despite being excited about going to Maradi the next day, I really enjoyed the week and didn't want it to end.


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Update: 10.10.08
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