A Reflection of My Life after living in Uganda as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Fantastic Staff

Camp GLOW is being run by the best PCV’s and Ugandan woman in Uganda! Things are going so well all due to the team work of our fantastic staff members.

I am so proud of our counselors. They are essentially “on” 24/7. They have occasional times off throughout the day but for the most part they are interacting, guiding and encouraging their group of girls constantly. It’s been so uplifting to see the counselors take the techniques and games we discussed and taught them at counselor training and use them with their groups. During out counselor meetings they have been able to seek advice for any problems they’ve encountered and other counselors have offered sound guidance and examples. I love how they are working together! The groups have really meshed. It’s beautiful to see the bonds that are being created between the counselors and campers. I am so proud of our counselors for their key role in making campers feel loved, supported and affirmed.

I am so continually impressed and encouraged by our staff. We (the directors and me (Lauren, Celeste, me)) have 5 extra PCV staff members who take pictures, run errands and go and do what we tell them. They are incredibly helpful and all move with selfless attitudes doing what needs to get done without complaining.

On Monday we sent Hunter to Kampala to print extra manuals, get certificates printed and pick up random items like toilet paper. He left at 8:30 in the morning. Hunter didn’t return until 11 pm! He spent the entire day running errands and sitting at the printers. He came back with a smile on his face and stories of the nice people he met along the way.

Cassandra is continually offering to help when she sees me walking with my arms full. After our counselor meeting yesterday I was walking to the kitchen to wash all the cups from tea. Cassandra met me along the road and turned to accompany me to the kitchen where we washed together making the task go quickly.

Dan works to write blog posts to keep our website updated so all our friends and families can follow along with us as we go through each day at camp. He also is willing to jump in for a counselor when they need a break or can’t do an activity.

Tony is always smiling, joking with the girls and snapping pictures capturing the candid moments. He worked hard to create a slide show to show the girls our week thus far last night which went over as a major success.

Caleb stood under the blazing sun taking pictures of every group under the Camp GLOW banner and retaking pictures when a camper’s head would be turned or someone’s eyes would be closed. Yesterday he worked tirelessly leading the arts and crafts sessions, something he wasn’t fully comfortable with. He also takes pictures and edits them every night to be used for the website or slide show.

While Celeste, Lauren and I worked hard at laying out the foundation and organization of camp, it is truly our staff who is making camp a success. I am very thankful for each staff member we have and their dedication to these Ugandan girls. They are the change-agents.

2 comments:

  1. That's so awesome to have such a supportive group. Keep up the good work!

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  2. I'm so happy things are going this well! You've done a lot of good foundation building to make it run this smoothly.

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