Camp GLOW

Camp GLOW is a young women's empowerment camp held once a year by many different Peace Corps posts throughout the world. The camp aims to bring together young women from across the country and encourage them to imagine a different kind of future for themselves and their peers. GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World. In Nicaragua, volunteers throughout the country nominate teenage girls from their communities that are leaders in their community or that have the potential to make a difference in their communities. Volunteers also apply to be selected as Camp Counselors by the Gender And Development (GAD) Committee. Our Camp GLOW took place the 9th-13th of January this year.

How can I put such an impactful, meaningful, thought-provoking experience into words? It’s almost impossible, but I hope to share a bit of the magic we all experienced in one of the nature reserve of the mountainous region of northern Nicaragua.

It was here that I met the future leaders of Nicaragua and our world. This is where I questioned how much energy a group of 60 young girls could possibly have. These were the days where I couldn’t wait to return to my cabin just to hear the crazy stories my campers were chismiando-ing about. It was here that I began to think, for the very first time, that maybe we might actually be making a positive influence in the life of Nicaraguans.

From the beginning we were divided into groups, and as a camp counselor, I had two groups. One was my colored group. This was the group I made sure attended all the sessions and was present in conversations. The second was my cabin group. This was the group I made sure was in bed (or at least in our room) by 10pm each night. The majority of my colored group also happened to be in my same cabin group, which made bonding a bit easier.

We attended sessions on sexuality, women in the media, sex and gender, assertive communication, sexual health, and the one I presented on- leadership. Though all of the sessions were important and engaging, the ones on sex & gender and sexual health were the obvious hits. This is where I think that we, as counselors, made a difference in the lives of Nicaraguan youth. We debunked myths, we clarified and elaborated on misunderstood subjects, and we empowered young girls on how to correctly protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies and STIs (read: we taught 13-17yr old girls how to correctly put on a condom using wooden dildos, among other methods of contraception). While the room felt a little uncomfortable when the counselors in charge of this particular session began passing out wooden dildos and condoms, the girls soon left their pena behind and began unwrapping their condoms and following the 5 steps posted at the front of the room. Everyone was super cautious not to use fingernails to open up the wrapper, or to handle the condom with their nails. Amusingly and endearingly, they yelled out to their friends to remember to pinch the tip before unrolling the condom.

It was beautiful to get to see young women learning how to protect themselves in a country where families refuse to speak about the importance of sexual health, in a country where my host mom changes the channel as soon as a male and female come within inches of possibly kissing on television, and in a country where many young women end up with unwanted pregnancies and must give up their education in order to provide for their child.

Every night we ended the day by answering anonymous questions that had been written down and placed in a small box throughout the day. Most of these questions had to do with, you guessed it, sexuality and sexual health. Girls questioned how someone could get pregnant if they hadn’t yet had their first menstrual period. They asked if “their friend” could become pregnant even if their boyfriend never penetrated her, and only ejaculated on her private parts. They asked if IUDs were truly safe since “they could puncture your uterus and cause hemorrhaging,” and wondered how someone could get pregnant even if they took one birth control pill on the day they had sex (without having consistently been using the pill before and after that particular event).

We answered all of their questions as thoroughly as possible, even acting out how a sperm can swim up the vagina, through the cervix, and towards an egg until it fertilizes it. Volunteers stood up, laid down, and extended their arms, becoming the different reproductive organs and sperm in order to paint a visual picture.

Every day was something new, and everyday the girls would express themselves so eloquently that we, as counselors, would turn to look at each other and pause for a second. I would not be surprised if in a couple of years I see these young women on TV changing Nicaragua for the better.

On one particular day, I sat my girls down near the cafeteria to work on our reflection for the day. Per the recommendation of another counselor, I decided to not sit the girls down to write, but to give them the chance to express their thoughts in a more artistic and liberating form. I told them to go out into the reserve and look around and bring something back that spoke to them. I sent them in all different directions so they wouldn’t group up and goof off. When they returned, 3 of the 5 campers brought back the same species of flower in its different stages of flowering. We were all amazed at the coincidence and symbolic beauty. Laughter filled our space—what were the odds! We clung on to this idea that we are all flowers blooming at different speeds, beautiful, and with a lot to learn and teach one another.

At the end of camp each group presented about their experience or what they learned at camp. My group? We choreographed an interpretive piece on a growing, blooming flower.