As with everything we do with this group, we didn’t really know how to run a camp, but thought we could figure it out. We invited Diana to come along to help, all of us brought our kids and Paul came too. All but two of the Lobas were able to come, so there were 10 of them! It was amazing to have that support from the parents, in fact, many of the families came to the Clinic to say goodbye to the girls and take pictures of them with their phones as they got in the ambulances! For several of them it was the first time they slept away from home.
The first night we set guidelines for the camp together with the girls and posted them on the wall…we were immediately afforded an opportunity to go back over them when several of the girls had trouble sleeping on pads on the hacienda porch floor and kept others up with their talking and shining flashlights.
On Saturday morning we did team-building and trust-building activities, and they spent two hours picking coffee in pairs. We held a contest to see which team could pick the most coffee, Gabriel from the co-op measured it at the end of the exercise and declared a winner. Although nobody actually liked picking coffee, they all participated and were all sorely disappointed at the end to learn they’d only earned $0.52 each.In the afternoon Diana organized everyone to make a piñata and party favors for a village party while Jessenia and I carried out individual interviews with each of the girls.
These interviews were my favorite part of the camp by far. We had asked each of the girls to write down their goals for the next year, and so when we sat down we talked with them about what we had observed in them in the past year, anticipated possible obstacles to meeting their goals, and talked over possible ways around those obstacles. In part, this was a chance for Jessenia and I together to reinforce good behavior and offer constructive criticism –it was gratifying to see some of the girls’ faces light up with pleasure at hearing positive things about themselves. But we also got to learn more about many of the girls – we were thrilled to find out that one of the girls who hasn’t gone to school for years has been secretly studying and just passed 3rd/4th grade! She’s now headed to 5th/6th and we told her if she wants to keep a secret that’s fine, but that she should invite us to her graduation next year! Jessenia offered insight and support to one of the girls who has a lot of responsibilities at home following a death in her family – she often has to cook for 10 people. We talked with one of the girls who is a natural leader about the pressures that leaders can feel – she has been uncharacteristically crying and getting angry at others – and talked about how she can take care of herself better. Each girl got a hug from both of us and I don’t think I’m mistaken in my observation that we gained a new level of confidence with most of the girls over the camp.
Diana and Jessenia organized the village party late in the afternoon with participation from all the Lobas – it was the most organized piñata I think I’ve ever been to! The Lobas really enjoyed doing something for the kids in the community – they had been affected by seeing the kids working. Everyone up at El Porvenir hauls their own water – 20 gallons per family – from the hacienda. Several of the Lobas saw a little boy struggling to carry his family’s water up the steps to his horse, so they carried the jugs themselves and gave the boy a tangerine to eat while they figured out how to get the jugs onto the horse. They were then shocked to see him – barefoot but for his spurs – lead his horse over to a low wall where he could climb into the saddle and pull the last jug onto the saddle horn with a rope before head off for home.
Saturday night we walked out to the viewpoint and had a bonfire with marshmallow roasting, and Sunday morning we had our closing circle activities there.Not every moment of the camp went swimmingly, of course. There times of hurt feelings and a few small disciplinary issues, par for the course. But in the end, no one can take memories of this camp away from the Lobas. They have all slept away from home, picked coffee, hauled water for hand washing and drinking.
I don’t know if any of the advice Jessenia and I doled out will take hold, but there was one solid moment of hope where I began to feel it might. During a free time at the end of the camp all the girls all crowded together on the mats talking to each other. “You don’t want to get together with a boy too soon,” said one to another. “First you have to finish school, there’s plenty of time for that later.” All the advice that means so little from Jessenia or me takes on much more weight one Loba to another. - Becca 
