This month has been quite the busy one. It's the month of national camps and it's right before school starts for Paraguayans. There is Camp GAD (Gender and Diversity) which is for boys and girls and is a smaller camp teaching about..you guessed it, gender and diversity. Then there is Camp GLOW, which is an all girls camp and teaches young girls all the reasons it's awesome to be a woman. Women Empowerment WOO! Then there is Camp CDV (deporte y vida---sports and life), this is an all boys camp that focuses on leadership and values through sports.
I went to Camp GAD and CDV and they were such awesome experiences, although very different!
GAD was a small camp of 14 youth (7 boys and 7 girls, magically) and it was just so awesome! It was great to have small groups because we really got to focus on discussion and everyone had a chance to speak their minds. The theme this year was Sound Body, Sound Mind. So we focused on things like physical fitness and being healthy as well as how to be mentally healthy. We had some guest speakers come in to talk about nutrition, body image and domestic violence as well as stress management and team building. The participants got to have great dialog about gender differences and what it means to be a male/female in Paraguay, which is such an important thing for youth to recognize. I loved having a small camp because you felt like you were really getting to know these kids even though it was only a 4 day camp! We made Tie-Dye shirts at the end and got to swim (which was crucial considering it was about a million degrees!)
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| yay! Tie-dye |
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| sugar mail! this is where you write nice notes to other participants! such a feel good little activity! |
CDV was totally different. For one thing, there were 42 teenage boys at this camp! woah. This camp was held in Asuncion at the Secretaria Nacional de Deportes, which is a pretty big deal because it's a beautiful sports facility! As I said before, this camp focused on leadership and values taught through sports. There were 6 teams and they competed in different events and learned new sports like ultimate Frisbee, football, volleyball, kickball, martial arts, etc. During these sports they would be focusing on the importance of different things while playing like respect, communication, team work, good sportsmanship, etc. there were also some guest speakers that came in to talk about nutrition, diversity, difference in gender, and discrimination. These boys learned so much during the 4 days and it was great to see their passion for sports! Each night they would have a discussion about what they learned and it's importance with their team leaders. The discussions are really the best part about camp because you get to see what the kids are really taking away from the days activities!
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| learning Basketball! |
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| martial arts? ha |
both of these camps were amazing and it was so wonderful to see these youth become leaders and to see them form friendships with people from all around the country!
