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Published: April 16th 2007
April 16, 2007 Masiye Teen Camp
Camp Theme - The Storm is Over -Set your Future in Motion
Thursday April 12, 2007 - The weekend started out with tragedy. Literally 2 minutes before we were to leave Dakotah slipped on the concrete out back and scraped up her leg, elbow, cheek and chin. There was some serious pain happening. I got out the first aid supplies and started to work cleaning out the gravel when the call came. They are on their way to pick us up. We had to decide whether we were going to call it off or not. I told them we would be waiting for them on the road then Kotah and I discussed. She made me decide. I knew she would regret missing out on this because of a moment of pain. With peroxide, polysporin, Tylenol, open wounds and tears we headed for the roadside.
The truck pulled up. Dakotah was able to climb into the cab of the Nissan Quadcab Shortbox pick-up with six other people. And I climbed into the box with 12 other people, a baby and the luggage. Off we go, doing 120 km per hour down the wide tar road. The guys took care to hold on to me as there was only enough floor space for one of my feet and I was perched on the side of the box. The really challenging time was when we pulled up to a police road check. They check that the people in the front seat have seat belts on… We had to all be sitting within the box of the pickup, not on the edges…There were people on top of people on top of bags as we pulled through the police check and until we were out of their sight. We arrived at camp a little under an hour later with stiff legs and sore bottoms.
There was about an hour before the kids arrived. They came from KweKwe (Quay-quay) about six hours away. This camp session was sponsored by Plan International. All of these kids were identified through a committee for the protection of children in the community. This committee is made up of people from Plan, Social welfare and the Board of Education. Plan helps to provide food in proportion to what the orphan or vulnerable child needs and provides for school fees, uniforms, and stationary as well as counseling and psycho-social support. They help to raise the children within their communities. Plan is funded partly by a sponsorship program somewhat like world vision where you get a family profile sent to you after your monthly donation … Plan International is also doing a lot of work trying to get all the organizations who are helping orphaned and vulnerable children networking and have developed a database that is available to the Education Department, Social Welfare Department and to other organizations.
59 children came for this camp almost equal between boys and girls. They range in age from about 8 to 19 years old. When they arrived they were pretty reserved. Not too many smiles but again, it had been a long ride and late supper for them. Wake up is at 6:15am to the sound of a big cow bell ringing. 6:30 kids are expected to report for morning exorcises. Well that didn’t happen. Someone didn’t realize that 59 kids can not shower in 15 minutes and they hadn’t been told not to. So about 7 o’clock the kids were all there and we spent a little time getting them into groups just before breakfast. There was a talk after breakfast about child abuse. They asked the children to, with their group, develop a skit about sexual abuse against children. That was something. I would not have expected them to ask the kids to play out abuse on each other. The leaders were speaking Ndebeilie and Shona so I don’t know what all was said to follow up after the skits. Once that was over we took our groups on an orientation tour of the camp. There is a really good set up at the Masiye Camp site. They have a lot of land to work with. On the way through the traditional village toward the dam (that’s the lake behind a dam) we heard the sound of someone flying down the zip-line. Half of the kids turned and started running. They thought it was the sound of a wild animal. After calming them down we saw the canoe area, the zipline, the pool (with little water and lots of dragonfly larvae) and the high balcony. We walked through the amphitheater then headed over to the low ropes area. Spread throughout the bushes there are games such as balance beam, tire game, spider web and trust fall. And the Wall. This wall is about 16 feet high made of vertical timbers bolted together so that little fingers can’t grip between them. The objective is to get all of the kids over the wall. This is a teamwork and planning exorcize. These kids kept trying to climb the wall by themselves to no avail. Eventually one guy had another stand on his shoulders and they pushed the top kid on their hands until he could reach the top and drag himself over. Once one guy was up there he helped pull the next up and so on. But when they got the second to last kid over the wall they realized that now there is no way to get the last one up. He is left standing there. They didn’t even try a pyramid. I commented to the other counselors that these kids need to watch cartoons to increase their creative problem solving skills. I took this exorcize to show that these kids don’t have much experience with teamwork or thinking things through to the end with logical thinking. Perhaps they just do as their told.
While at camp I received two African names. The councilors called me Nothanda (no-tanda) which means Mother of Love. Derrick and the sponsors named me Mahgwenya (ma-gwen-ya). Dakotah got a name too but we can’t remember what it is. We’ll have to email one of the guys to ask them what it was.
Originally I didn’t think that Dakotah was adjusting well to being a camp councilor but talking with her after I think she did a better job than me. She adjusted and got more comfortable with the kids than I did. Dakotah did much better communicating with the kids. It took until the last day to have the kids talking to me and teaching me things. There was just a few draws on her mind that distracted her from her work like the zip-line and getting food in her belly.
The room we were assigned smelled the same as the one we stayed in last time so we took care to air the room out well to avoid having Dakotah get sick again. We left the door and windows open all day long and the first night we left the windows open through the night. We were pestered by mosquitoes all night long. There really aren’t that many mosquitoes here but you know how that one or two always finds your ear and nose in the night. We slept with the windows closed from then on. Dakotah did fine the whole time. She did not get sick from the creosote treatment on the poles holding up the thatch roof. I wouldn’t want to breath that in for an extended period of time.
5-6pm is bath time at Masiye for the campers. They go for their showers before dinner and that happens to be the only break for the councilors through the day. Luckily Dakotah and I had access to the Volunteer Kitchen and Bathroom. We are adapting and doing most things we come across in this country (matungas) but it would have been really difficult for Dakotah and I to climb in the showers (without shower curtains) with all those girls trying to get cleaned in one hour. And it seemed that the bathroom floor was always flooded, lacking toilet paper and toilet seats. We did feel blessed that we had a different bathroom to use (whenever it was unlocked anyways).
I survived all weekend without coffee, drinking tea at the breakfast meal. It is served in a great big pot, already mixed with milk and sugar. The meals are always dominated by starches here like sadsa (corn), rice and potatoes. There was a dietary suggestions poster on the wall that indicates that people should eat mostly starches/carbohydrates to provide plenty of energy.
My councilor partner was Clyde (spelled differently though) and some memorable children from our group: Marvelous is a girl in grade 7. During discussion she revealed that her dream is to finish Form 1 (that’s like grade 8) and when we were asking them to identify important people in their lives the only one she said is important in her life is God. She appears to have shingles and she is having trouble with her eyesight. I feel sorry for Marvelous as the skin disease is on her hands so for all the games that we had to hold hands she was hesitant and nobody wanted to hold hands with her. I could see a light in her eyes at the end of the camp though that there is a glimpse of hope for her now that she has been through the activities and blessings provided at Masiye Camp. Another girl: Perpetual, stands out in my mind. Since the first day I could tell she had something to say. Things that she wanted to discuss and contribute but held back. On the last day she really came out of her shell. Perpetual presented a speech in front of the whole camp about school and how doing well at school will shape your future. She had smiles and encouragement for the others in the group. It was great to see the kids in our group interacting on that last day. I couldn’t understand what they were saying but I could tell by the laughing and smiling that they had created bonds that will last longer than the last day at camp.
Overall the weekend was extremely rewarding. We met many wonderful people who have helping children chiseled into their hearts and many wonderful children. I learned a lot about myself and I believe that we were a part of improving those kids’ lives. As some of them identified that going to Masiye Camp is one of the most significant events in their lives.
Dakotah surely did not regret heading out there despite her fresh wounds that Thursday afternoon. I’m sure you’ll read more about her experiences on her Blog page.
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i love masiye camp
i am a student from zimbabwe and i have been to masiye..oh boy love that place soo much..i bet it you guys enjoyed.