A couple of Fridays ago, I took a 19-year-old girl out from Baoba to Mantancitas, a larger city about one hour away. Marlene and I went to stay three days with Regina, another youth Peace Corps volunteer. Regina was giving a workshop for her Escojo group, and she invited me and one of the members of my group. After receiving the invitation, I immediately knew that I was going to ask Marlene to accompany me. Marlene has the ability to really be a leader in the Escojo group and with the youth in general. Although she left the high school just a few months before graduating, she is extremely smart and sassy and always one of the first ones to participate in my activities. So she and I went to Matancitas, gave a lecture on the consequences of alcohol and drugs, and she is now officially an Escojo graduate and multiplier!
And I just returned from a weekend long trip to the regional Escojo conference with two of my youths. The conference was in Jarabacoa, about 2 hours from Baoba, and neither one of the kids who went with me had ever been there before. Because the conference is a huge privilege, I made everyone who wanted to go write an essay on why they deserved to go this conference. I then chose the two people to go based on their essays, their attendance to past Escojo meetings and their participation in the meetings. The two that I chose to go were Meri, a 19-year-old (the cousin of Marlene), who is very responsible and has the potential to be a leader in the group, and Andy, a 15-year-old who is incredibly smart (he graduates from high school this year!). Both of them live with their grandmothers and are kept on a pretty tight leash, so this gave them the opportunity to get out of Baoba and travel and meet other kids their age.
The conference went amazingly well. I was nervous about using public transportation in a country that I don’t know using a language that I don’t know (I don’t like traveling to unknown areas when I’m alone, much less when I am in charge of two teenagers), but luckily we made it to Jarabacoa safely. (SIDENOTE: On the return trip, Regina, the volunteer from Matancitas, got on the wrong bus with her youth and ended up in Santo Domingo, about 4 hours from her site. She then had to travel directly back to Matancitas that night, and arrived at her site after 9 p.m., whereas my kids and I arrived in Baoba (which is one hour further than Regina’s site) at 4:30 p.m. yikes!) There were 75 youth at the conference, all from the central region of the country, and 12 other Peace Corps volunteers. During the three days, the kids acted in dramas, performed in a talent show, and learned about HIV/AIDS, the consequences of adolescents being pregnant, mental health, how to raise funds for the group, and how to give effective lectures. They played volleyball, made bracelets out of string and beads, and ate way too much food. And at the end of the conference, Andy, Meri and I sat down to plan what activities our Escojo group will do in the upcoming months. We are going to have a couple of fundraisers (a raffle, a movie night, sell homemade bracelets) to raise enough money to travel to Matancitas for a little day trip. The group will graduate in May, so in June the kids will plan and give their first lecture to the community of Baoba. We are also inviting the Escojo group that is in La Capilla to come visit us for the day. And now Meri and Andy (and Marlene too since she technically already graduated from the course) have the responsibility to help me finish giving the lectures to the rest of the group, which they are excited about.
After taking them to the conference, I think I now know how my mom felt when she accompanied me on all of those field trips in elementary school. I made sure that the kids always were where they were supposed to be, that they went to bed on time, that their suitcases were packed, that they were on the same bus as me, that they ate all of their dinner, and that they called home to tell their parents they were safe and having a good time. Andy had a bad cold, so I was also in charge of taking care of him and holding his dirty Kleenex when it was time for him to participate in an activity. It was a great weekend, and I think it really increased their confidence and trust in me, and I certainly learned a lot about how great both of them are.
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