Day 1 and onward – Leadership Camp

January 12-17, 2008
No sessions in the AM – we prepped for afternoon circus camp. It was a scorching hot day though rain is expected tomorrow. We had 200 kids (aged 10-20) for Intro to Circus… organized chaos! We demonstrated juggling and stilts, then divided the gang into groups to create some semblance of order. A dozen girls immediately learned to juggle three balls, and it’s interesting – we teach the two ball toss (“Up, Up, Catch, Catch”) before they go to three balls, but ALL the kids intuitively chuck the first two balls from their dominant hand. Then they know when in the pattern to add the third ball. Whatever… it works!

The boys focused on stilts and diabolo. As the afternoon progressed the groups merged and the kids migrated to their equipment of choice. I lead a group of girls to the stilts to bust up the boys club and once the ice was broken, they clamoured for a try.

Best photo op of Camp: a tall young woman in a satin dress (think bridesmaid) kicking up dust on 3’ stilts.

Dean and I and many helpers dashed from station to station to give instruction and support. Halfway through our three-hour session we gathered the troupes for focus games and team building exercises, plus some good old fashioned tag. This tactic both harnessed the wild playground energy and afforded us some time in the shade.

The kids work hard, and there was tons of laughter (plus some shrieking from the gals on stilts) all afternoon. It’s our hope we’ve whetted their appetite – if the rain holds off we have two smaller groups for each of the remaining days, so our student-teacher ration will improve!


Good eats and er, not so good eats
A sample menu:

Breakfast: apple pieces (and sometimes tinned peaches!) plus granola shortly after the rooster squawks at 6am. We do breakfast at M’e Blandina’s in our hut.
Lunch: scrambled eggs, cabbage and papa. Best meal of the camp it would turn out.
Dinner: boiled chicken, rice and beans. Tolerable. Which is not to slight the cooks – the kitchen ladies work their tails off and churn out good stuff, compared to the average Basotho diet. It’s just… BOILED chicken?! Ick.
Snack or meal replacement: buns. Holy smoke these folks consume a lot of carbs…


Showcase #1
Dean, AKA Ntate (En-dawt-eh) Coco and yours truly, as Dame de Nettoyage, hosted the evening showcase. Dean’s kid volunteer was fabulous (though he did admit afterwards he thought she was a he). We clowned and performed in an effort to teach the kids how to be a good audience – this, in anticipation of their own final show at the end of Camp. After our show we showcased ten female 3-ball jugglers on stage.


Cleanliness is next to Godliness
Or something. Anyway, the process here is as follows: sweep the red dirt out, track the red dirt back in. Or if it’s rainy, smear the red mud around with a mucky mop-like device.
We had a good laugh when chicken poop dropped out of our sorry looking six-stringed mop!

Our gear is brown and dusty and so too is our skin. Well, some bits are downright red from the sun – we’re at a high elevation in these mountains and it quickly becomes apparent when you’ve missed a spot with the sunscreen.


Animal Kingdom and The Circus Show
This morning, like every morning, we were woken by the rooster squawking. The extra hubbub turned out to be the 14 baby chicks that appeared overnight. A donkey was lead past our rondavel door while the neighbour’s cow mooed deeply. A scrawny dog showed up, its ribs protruding, to scope out the new additions. On my way to Camp I passed two piglets on the hunt for eats, a runaway cow and three horses tethered to a common patch of grass. The animals have a lot to munch on because the land is green – much greener than last year. It’s the torrential rains we’re getting. And did I mention the rain?!

A mild set back to an outdoor circus camp. The powdery red dirt has become mud, and squelchy mud, at that. Though the temperature cooled yesterday (owing to the TORRENTIAL RAIN) it’s warming up again, resulting in a grey-ish humid day. And it’s our BIG DAY!

The circus show is scheduled for 5:30pm so we’re hopeful the skies will clear. If necessary, we’ll perform in the Hall, but it won’t be quite as magical.

Our circus area is under a canopy of trees; one tree holds the trapeze bar. There’s lots of room for staging the show, corralling the kids and seating our audience. And the Hall? The students performed their pre-show showcase in there this week, and last night, in lieu of the scheduled traditional Canadian camp fire, we hosted a talent show and dance party. The rain will do that…

Anyway, the Hall is great – there’s a stage, plus plastic chairs for the audience. But after heavy rain and all day traffic, it’s dusty, and anyway, the mountain scenery behind our circus plot is stunning!


Speech Writing and Sponsor Letters Class
I mentioned in my earlier post that Dean and I were asked to lead this session twice each morning. Well Dean ditched early on – first to repair stilts, then to sleep off a violent bout “stomach problems”, and today, fully recovered, he’s run into town to check email and pick up some groceries. Turns out it’s a one person job anyway – I get each group for one and a half hours during which time the kids either write a letter to their sponsor, or if they don’t have one, a speech. But take note: just because a kid doesn’t have a sponsor doesn’t mean they don’t need one. With High School comes school fees, and in many cases, a need to board. Plus shoes and a uniform… all costs that could well keep a student out of school. It’s when we’re face to face with the kid and their story that the choice to help is a no-brainer. A Starbucks a day equals the annual fee. Easy math eh?

I began each class by handing out loose leaf and pens. And because leaders typically find themselves speaking in front of people, I decided to ask each student to present themselves to the class and share some basic personal information. It was a mild jolt to realize that 20% of the kids had to estimate their age.

I’d go on to outline the format of a speech on the chalkboard (that whole vertical writing thing is tricky!) and the students would hunker down to write. A few of the younger ones wrote in Sesotho but mostly letters and speeches would be drafted in English and re-written in careful handwriting for a final copy. The letters, both sent and received, are so important – the kids cherish their mail.

Margo: one young woman is taking French and wanted a French pen pal. I volunteered you, and have her first letter to you in my bag…


And so, The Show
The rained stayed away and we dragged the gear from the Hall to the outdoor site in short order. The line up was posted on big sheets of paper and each kid was given a scarf to sport, for a touch of colour and distinction. (We also colour coded them by act – the stilt walkers wore red, the juggling crew wore blue and the singers wore yellow. Slightly genius. Might have worked better had we been able to remember which colour meant what.) The scarves were a huge hit and, like last year’s green tees, helped to make the performers feel special.

Chairs were hauled outside for teachers and staff and the locals gathered in a clump to watch as well. We were on a tight timeline as the show preceded dinner and those hard-working kitchen ladies are a force to reckon with.

Stilt walking, magic, trapeze, juggling, skipping, mask, puppets, yo yo, diabolo, plate spinning and singing, with Dean as the host. With so many kids, it felt chaotic but everyone had a ball and the show was deemed a success. We were graced with a gorgeous sunset and then we stormed the Hall for the final dinner.

The next morning, clean up and send off day, Dean and I were tickled to see dozens of kids sporting their scarves in various creative styles.


Off Roading On Our Day Off
If only I could adequately describe the bumpy red dirt road we take home…

Our dinner in Hlotse took longer than we’d planned on (C’mon: how long can a cheese and tomato sandwich take? 90 minutes, that’s how long…) and then the skies opened so Dean put his driving skills to test on the half-hour ride home. Dramatic lightning illuminated the mountains as we endeavoured not to hydroplane. When we finally turned off the paved road onto the trail, it had been pouring, hard, for over an hour. Our wee Chico slithered in the mud and we narrowly missed smashing into the boulder that for some reason, is and always has been two-thirds into the width of the road. Why not just move it, you ask. Yup, good question. In any case, we made it safely and were relieved to turn in to M’e Blandina’s yard of corn stalks in one piece.