Monday, March 8, 2010

Campamento Survivor, Colorado, 2010

So Campamento Survivor, Colorado, 2010 was a huge success. I would have written about it sooner except that I got hit with an intestinal virus about two weeks ago and have been laid up since then. Apparently this virus is going around Costa Rica and it’s bad. It gave me a fever of over 103 and headaches and stomach aches and chills and good old fashioned diarrhea. Those are all the details. I went to the doc and he gave me some meds, and I took them and now I’m all better.
Preparation for this camp involved four overnight trips to the island to hack away at the jungle with machetes, cleaning out an area large enough to put up tents, a kitchen area, an area for charlas and an area to play games. We also had to cut boards from downed trees to build outhouses and basic showers, as well as tables for the kitchen and benches to sit on for charlas. Needless to say, Cristian, my community counterpart, and I along with a couple other dedicated souls spent a fair amount of time on the island getting it ready beforehand. Thanks to a Kids-to-Kids grant and generous donations from people back home, we were able to purchase the tents (extremely cheap at Pequeño Mundo in San Jose if you need one) and other materials needed for this camp, and provide transportation for all. We ended up taking 26 adolescents from my site on this four-day adventure, about a three hour bus ride and twenty minute boat ride from my community in the very northeast part of the country.
Upon arrival, the campers were divided into three tribes, each tribe competing against the others in games and activities throughout the camp. We brought in a couple from San Jose to lead the games and competitive activities, which ranged from dramas and skills challenges, to hunting leaders in the jungle and disaster simulations where the kids had to work as a team navigating various scenarios with members of the tribe handicapped due to a previous airplane crash. One of these scenarios even involved crawling commando-style through mud dragging the disabled members of the tribe behind. I've got pictures!
The kids loved the camp, and back in my site every time I see one of them conversation always comes back to the camp. They all learned something knew, most improved their ability to work as a group and each found their competitive spirit, in addition to taking a lot away from the charlas, which PCV Jerred Clouse helped out a lot with by giving two on personal filters and superación personal.
Cristian and I have followed up Campamento Survivor with weekly meetings, called Chicos del Barrio, with camp participants. We have a group of about 15-20 camp participants, depending on the day, who come to the meetings, along with about 10-15 kids from the community who did not attend the camp but wish to participate in these meetings, in which we play games, talk about general themes, and try to continue the competive spirit among each tribe. With this group we hope to be able to do projects in the community, such as sporting events or community cleanup activities led by kids from Chicos del Barrio.
A success story from the camp is a change I’ve noticed in an adolescent called Dustin, a 16 year-old who came into the camp with very little guidance in his life. He spent much of his time in the street or hanging out at the local internet café with friends. He had a very bad vocabulary in public and did not seem to care what others thought of him and his actions. I was in fact, a little preoccupied at how he would do during the camp. As it turned out, my worries were without base. Dustin quickly transformed into one of the best leaders at the camp. Others respected his ideas and followed his lead, especially the members of his tribe. Family life has been hard for Dustin; he was dealt a tough hand and therefore had been taking his frustrations into his life outside the home. However, with a new network of friends and having had such a successful experience during the camp, Dustin now has a more positive attitude about him. He is more friendly and well-behaved in public and is a regular at the Chicos del Barrio meetings. The changes visible in Dustin are a constant reminder of the success that has been Campamento Survivor, Colorado, a success Cristian and I hope to repeat in another camp, this time for older youth, with an age range of about 16-24. But we’ll see what the future holds.
In the meantime, I’m busy working on planning the construction of a community park, for which we’ve received money from the government to surround it with a fence and build benches. Now we’re working on getting donations from an organization called CRUSA, in order to put in a play structure for kids. That’s going to require a lot of meetings, sending in a large and complicated grant proposal, and patience. So along with my other projects I’ll be plenty busy for a while. Hope everything is well with everyone.