Winter Camping?

23:40 07 January 2009

I just had an extremely productive meeting in regards to the winter camp that I will help run with a fellow volunteer named Lorenzo. PEPFAR, a special Presidential fund designed to help fight HIV/AIDS internationally, provided Peace Corps with a decent chunk of change with the idea that volunteers are in uniquely good positions to education HCNs about HIV/AIDS. This was decided to be done through a series of winter life-skills camps throughout the country. Volunteers were given to the opportunity to attend a session to learn about the logistical aspects of holding a camp and Lorenzo attended. The camp will be in my village and we decided together to hold an Arts camp which obviously encompassed HIV/AIDS education and life skills such as team-building and team-work activities. Part of the project plan and the grant that Lorenzo wrote involves a community contribution of at least 10% of the cost of the camp. This contribution can come in a variety of form and is not usually a monetary donation- the use of a space without rent charged can be monetarily quantified as a community contribution and families hosting out of village children can also be counted as community contribution as well.

We approached the Director of the Dotz, the Children’s Education Center, in my village with the hope that she would provide her space free of charge and we could pay for the utilities, electricity or coal, that we used as well as any supplies we needed when we were there. Amazingly, the Director not only agreed to the usage of the space but insisted that any costs incurred with the space would be provided without charge. This is an amazing contribution on her part personally and really gave me a lot of faith on the possibility of change in this country. There are really people here that want to better there country and occasionally for volunteers it is hard to see with the near continuous setbacks we face, but the victories are really incredible. In addition to finding a space for camp during these meetings, we also secured a café that, for the equivalent of $250 will provide lunch, bread, and tea to each of our children for five days! That comes out to a staggeringly good $1.25 per meal, which is pretty good even by Kyrgyz standards!

Needless to say, this has been a productive day. I feel comfortable that it is okay for me to rest now for a bit. Oh, and today is my six month anniversary in country! Wow, it is amazing, so far the time has passed really quickly, it’s hard to believe that I have been here already half of a year (another year and three quarters to go)