Toward the end of last term we held our first Girls' Club meeting and I haven't shared about it yet so thought I would. Only 12 girls came but I'm hoping it will grow a bit but not too big. Clubs are really nice change of pace because I can be a little more informal with my students. We opened by discussing what we want the Girls' Club to be and by brainstorming topics for discussion in the future. Then we did an intro activity where every girl wrote their name in the middle of piece of paper and then around it wrote what they like. My example included eating mangoes, reading, and laughing so of course those were copied but they are great things after all. Each girl took turns sharing three or so items they wrote down and it was nice for me to get to know them outside of the classroom better. Next I did my small spiel on goal setting. I found this exercise online called Tree of Life where you draw a tree and talk through the parts of the tree and likens them to things in your life. For example, after talking about roots we discussed support in their life that help them grow like school, food, friends, etc. When we talked about goals they have for the future it was cool to see some of the careers they came up with; in addition to the normal doctor, nurse, and teacher some said soldier, police officer, and lawyer. Finally we talked about forces of nature that can destroy a tree like lightning and wind similar to outside forces that can prevent people from achieving their goals. Up until this point my illustration was pretty effective but I tried to draw a lightning bolt and the girls had no clue what it was. Even when I said lightning they all had confused looks on their faces until one of the girls started saying the Buli word for lightning. It's so funny what words they don't know sometimes. Even though I try to anticipate points of confusion stuff will come up that I have to explain further. The meeting was kept short and sweet so last we had an ending came called Market Lorry which I adapted from the Peace Corps Life Skills manual game Life Boat and they had a lot of fun doing as indicated by their laughter. I figured lorries are more relevant than boats to their lives here since I assume most of my girls have never been in a boat. When we closed I told them we'd meet again in May since it was nearing the end of the term and they were disappointed we weren't meeting sooner so I took that as a good sign!
I want to end by sharing a cute story from today. After school sometimes different primary school children will come to 'paint' in my coloring books or play with other toys I have. One of my now former form 3 students Dennis' sister Amotelie came today and was playing with a doll. She spent a long time dressing here and braiding her hair and then asked me for a two-yard of cloth. She proceeded to strap the doll on her back like mothers do to their babies. I was cracking up and when my Headmaster dropped by he laughed with me. As I thought about it more later, it reminded me of myself as a kid pushing my baby doll in a stroller while dressed up in high heels and sunglasses. Just a different cultural context...
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