All Hail Camp Takeledougou

A bunch of volunteers met up in Banfora this past weekend to celebrate the independence of the greatest and most glorious country, the United States. After the big fête, I went to Takaledougou to help Amanda with her girls’ camp. It was a lot of fun and very informative for the following reasons:




First, Amanda’s village has no electricity or running water and it was interesting to experience that firsthand. I was surprised at how quickly I became used to it. It was also very romantic taking a bucket bath and cooking dinner by candlelight.











Secondly, Amanda’s village is really lush and pretty, brimming with green everywhere. There is a giant gorge at the edge, and across the gorge is a village with electricity. Josh, who was also helping with the camp, and I hiked 2km across the gorge to get a cold beer.






Lastly, Amanda’s campers were really adorable and spirited. It was also good to see how they reacted to some of the Life Skills exercises, since I have similar ones planned for my own camp. During one exercise that differentiated between idealist and realist images of women, the girls had some interesting takeaways. I asked them to each say one ideal attribute of women as opposed by society that was good and one that was actually an image destroyer. A selected sample of responses:
“Il ne faut pas voler des gens. Il faut être poli."
(You must not steal from people. You must be polite.)
"Il faut être le meilleure cuisinère. Il ne faut pas faire prostitution."
(You must be the best cook. You must not do prostitution.)
"Il faut être gentil. Il ne faut pas saluer les gens."
(You must be nice. You must not greet people. (This little girl didn’t really understand the exercise.))