Week Two: The Finals

You're a good soldier
Choosing your battles
Pick yourself up
And dust yourself off
And back in the saddle

You're on the frontline
Everyone's watching
You know it's serious
We're getting closer
This isnt over

Futsal in foreground, basketball in back.

The pressure is on
You feel it
But you've got it all
Believe it

When you fall get up Oh oh...
And if you fall get up Oh oh...
Tsamina mina Zangalewa
Cuz this is Africa

-Waka Waka by Shakira

Winning boys team holding up the cup.

Week two of kids camp offered a new set of obstacles and activities, most notably the cup finals: futsal for the boys and basketball for the girls.

PCVs Luis Chidas and Joey Grassi performing a skit on hand washing and using latrines.

But before I discuss the finals, I would like to highlight a bit of activity that passed in the second week. Kids learned about the importance of role models, environment, deforestation, the importance of latrines, nutrition and sanitation, and my personal favorite activity of the week: the library.

Playing the game Hangman with l'environnement

Every participant was asked to meet at the local library on Tuesday morning at 9AM. I asked the librarians the week prior to discuss the selection of the library and the different activities offered by the facility. A modest dwelling sitting off the main road behind a failed construction site, the small library does contain a large variety of books including children’s books and comics, novels (Mostly French and African literature), magazines including National Geographics, and most importantly encyclopedias. Teachers often ask students to do small research projects here and students are often left at a loss with how to go about finding the necessary information. My hope is that with the new knowledge passed to the students about the library my hope is that kids will continue using it throughout their studies; it only costs 200 CFA per year, or 40 cents! Several students have gone and paid for a membership and I expect more to follow, they all seemed to enjoy themselves.

At the library.

That puts us at Friday, the day of the Cup. Four other volunteers came to town to watch the cup and the director of Peace Corps Burkina after that. Cleats were given to the winners of the futsal tournament and jerseys (DC Stoddert Soccer!) to the basketball winners. After the tournaments, the girls and boys both put on theatrical presentations about malaria and HIV/AIDS respectively. The girls, impressively, wrote their own play and I was especially proud of their efforts. After the plays I awarded the winning teams with their prizes and then gave all the participants, including star performers in the class room, prizes. In the end I feel that the camp was a great success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Giving prizes to two standout boys, Roland and Kadé.

In the following days after the cup, several students have returned to thank me and show off their new jerseys and shoes. I don’t like to boast about my service, but I really feel that a lot of the kids really listened to the lessons I gave them and my hope is that these 24 kids will become leaders in their own right in the years to come. My friend has offered to coach the girls after I leave, which is a tremendous relief knowing that they will have the chance to continue playing basketball after I leave.

The girls with Country Director Shannon Meehan, Rodrique Laconté, and me.

One thing in particular that I found very interesting was the different people that the students chose to be their role models. Most girls chose their mothers as well as some of the volunteers who helped during the camp-no surprise there. What was a big shocker was how many boys chose their mothers as their role models. Only one boy chose his father, almost half chose their mother. One boy chose me as his role model, an honor but I think he was just searching for brownie points; a shame for him since school is already over.

In short it was a wonderful way to finish up service. Go out on top with your head held high, it’s the way to do it. I have one more week in Tenkodogo and then it’s off to Ouagadougou to finish up properly before going to Kenya, Belize, and beyond!