So the week
before I met up with the Nomad for my Zambia trip, I participated in a
leadership camp for kids. Camp GLOW (Girls and Guys Leading our World.)
Some of you
lovely people who’d heard about it beforehand, were kind enough to give
donations. Thank you all for your generosity!
I was tech
person #2. This meant my job was to run about taking a thousand or so photos
and make a slideshow video to show at the start of each day. I also facilitated on
the side, and helped decorate all of the things.
Day of
set-up, I was looking to avoid heavy lifting.
I’m strong,
mind you, but they were hefting 4 meter solid wood dining tables up a winding
flight of stairs. I’m not coordinated enough for that stuff. Either I or the
table or both would be broken. I helped with the navigation and maneuvering of
the first and quickly looked around for a project that would give the illusion
of my being occupied.
Luckily for
me, K— is sprawled on the floor making signs… ‘Whatcha doin?’ I ask. ‘We need
dinosaurs,’ she says, as she thrusts butcher paper and markers toward me. ‘You
can draw dinosaurs, right?’ (Our theme for camp was dinosaurs, and the 'Race Against Extinction'... Our motto? "Dig deep. Discover yourself.")
I eye the
door where they’re grunting and shoving in a second table. ‘Yeah, sure.
Dinosaurs. Which ones you need?’
For the next
two hours K— ordered me about telling me what to sketch and we colored in
dinosaurs. It was like second grade art class bliss. We took over other
people’s projects too. It was a little rude. But we fancied ourselves art
directors.
And then the
children started to arrive.
Combi after
combi.
It was a bit
of madness. The whole week.
Each day was
fully booked.
It was
amazing and exhausting.
I got to
work with some of the brightest kids from all over the country…
And I took
thousands of photos.
Here are
some of my favorite shots of Camp GLOW 2014:
