Hole In the Wall Camp

Time has been flying this month and I'm enjoying every minute! The beginning of this month I moved to Mbabane basically to get this HIV+ youth camp started. We stayed up late nights getting prepared as well as waking up early to arrange everything needed before the caregivers/camp counselors arrived for training. Me and my friend/fellow volunteer (Lisa) worked closely with two people from Hole in the Wall (Paul Newman's organization for children living with terminal illnesses). They are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. Robin is sweet and gets things done. She is always smiling and has a gentle spirit about her. She is great on the leadership team. Padraig on the other hand is my long lost brother. We have a lot of similarities, BUT he manages to do everything with 20x more energy, smiles, and he has this personality that makes you want to be his friend. We feed off each others randomness and I'm learning a lot from him. He is this Irish guy with crazy brown hair that he pulls back with a headband and somewhat resembles Jack Black. That alone makes you want to be his friend. His energy never fails and kids are magnetically pulled to him. I'm been so blessed to be working with him and Robin and the Hole in the Wall foundation because they really do the work they set out to do and are amazing people. They have the sweetest job, making kids happy and finding games, cheers, chants, awards to boost their self esteems and hope for life. They help the kids not just cope with being HIV+, but learn to not be limited by it. Its so cool and they make these camps all over the world in some of the poorest and sadest conditions. I hope to be as cool as them one day. :)

I finished my first group of campers yesterday. We had training until Sunday and the campers arrived monday morning. The counselor training was awesome. We did it at a farm with 23 of us (6 other Peace Corps Volunteers we invited to participate and all the rest we Swazi professionals working as teachers or for different Non-Governemnt Organizations). I made a lot of new Swazi friends working in the capital and for Baylor Clinic. My goal was to help those Swazi friends empower their own Swazi children. I really didn't want to have it be about me playing with the kids while the Swazis watched. I really wanted to empower the Swazi counselors to empower their own children. It turns out I didn't even need to. I was given 11 girls in my group who range from 10-13 years old from all parts of Swaziland who go to Baylor Clinic in the capital to refill their ARV meds for HIV. I had two other Swazi women who helped my group. I was so nervous how much I would be able to interact with them with language barriers, but it ended up not being a problem at all. The Swazi women didn't even have to translate for me. I spoke SiSwati when I could, but the kids were so smart they could sometimes speak better English than me. We had so much fun playing and singing. Although I spent about 50% of the camp time in the bathroom. Girls are girls. Swazi, Mexican, British...they all go to the bathroom by the dozen and since they needed to be with an adult all the time...that meant me, "Auntie Sihle", had to go with too. :) I love the two ladies I am grouped with. One girl is really sporty and good at basketball. She always gets involved with the girls. The other one is more "Swazi Style" and singing traditional songs with them and teaches them traditional dances. I am so thankful the kids seemed to like me and trust me. The first night they were scared to sleep alone in the dorms, so it was a late night and eary morning. I woke up to four girls in their pjs asking if it was time to get up yet. 5 am and still have asleep, I forced myslef up and showed them how to use the showers. For many of them, they don't have running water let alone a shower or bath tub. They were so excited. I played crazy 8's with them 24/7 and sang/dance to "Single Ladies" more than what should be allowed. Some were little divas, but I didn't even care. I just joined in.

I am exhausted and our next group will be here tomorrow. They will be full of energy and hormones. A dangerous combo! I have 9 in my new group. They are all 15 years old. I remember that age, so this will be interesting. I'm definately learning a lot. Who knows what stage they are at or their home lives. A lot of them just started their ARV meds (it protects their white blood cells from the virus) so the rumor is they maybe tired. Its so interesting to think of kids in America in the camps I've worked at and the ones here. Every cultures' children are related so much, but their are definately circumstances and differences you see. Its been so fun, but I've seen so much too. The girls take their ARVs together before bed and at night. They were shy at first because at home often times some hide their medication so people won't find out they are HIV+. This new group will be different too from this past one. Most of the past group have HIV+ from their parents. They were born with it. This new group is older, so some of them may have gotten it from having being sexually active. Its going to be a whole new camp. All I know is that its been an amazing experience and these girls have been so generous letting me see what their lives are like living with HIV. The medications, side effects (diarreah, headaches and/or vomiting), and they've shared this experience with me. I pray that this next week we continue to give these kids a safe place to be with other girls that are dealing with the same issues and that we can show them love and support and give them hope. No one is certain how long they have on earth and these kids are have taught me so much more about myself and about life than I could ever teach them. It's so cool. And so humbling.

We finish the 22nd of Decemeber and then I will road trip down the coast. Me and three friends are taking a tent and spending Christmas together under the stars. We will eat sandwiches with a side of malaria pills and soak ourselves in bug spray and sunblock. Once I get back it is party time for the school in my village. We hopefully will have enough donations by then to start helping the school fix their issue on teacher's housing shortage. If you want to be a part of it, their is still time. I would love to work on something like this with all of you at home. Something we could leave here or know that we have directly helped people in Swaziland fulfill a need and empower them by teaching them building skills too. Check out the Peace Corps website under my name to read more about it. Love you guys lots. I miss you so much and hope you have a wonderful holiday season. I think of you guys often.