Gone camping

This year's Camp ALMA - the annual leadership camp for high school girls that we hold in Cajamarca - was a big struggle, but thankfully also a big success. The struggles came in the form of the logistical headache that is coordinating with Peruvian community partners. This was the first year that our region put on the entire camp without any external funding - this meant a ton more involvement from local counterparts, and consequently a lot more stress for we PCV planners. But, it's also a step towards making our camps more sustainable, which is a positive thing. Although the camp didn't run as smoothly as in past years, it was great to see the enthusiasm and support we received from our socios, and it still turned out to be a weekend full of fun and growth for our campers. So, here's some photos to show you some of what we were up to last weekend:

Jess, Linnea and I brought five girls from the schools we work at in Cajabamba

Upon arriving at camp, we split the girls into teams, so that they get to meet and work with girls from other communities. I was in charge of the green team, and my girls named our team "Green Girrls" (the second "r" was originally a spelling error, but I told them girls with two "r"s had extra attitude so they kept it).

First step to a successful camp: lots of icebreaker games

One of the camp's many workshops - this one was to learn about scholarship opportunities for college, and others included sexual health, leadership, gender equality, planning for the future, self esteem, etc.

Each team did a group project over the course of the weekend, choosing a problem they saw in their communities and planning a volunteer project they could carry out to address that problem - this is my team presenting their project on domestic violence.

But of course, camp is also a time for fun: field games

Dancing, led by Jackie as always

And a bonfire complete with s'mores

Finally, a pic of the whole camp: 39 girls, 17 PCVs, and some Peruvian counterparts