Estrellas de El Salvador

The lovely and talented girls of Peace Corps El Salvador 2007

Last month the 13 female volunteers in my Peace Corps group realized two girls leadership camps, called “Estrellas de El Salvador.” It was an enormously rewarding experience, but also one of the most ridiculously difficult things I have done here. We began planning and organizing this camp last May and we really had to scramble to get it all together in time. Aside from the obviously huge issues, like writing grants, budgeting, transportation, venue, food, and organizing activities, the smaller, seemingly simple things frequently exploded into HUGE dilemmas. Like when we were told two weeks before the camp that the money we raised would not be available. And when we arrived at the camp and the water was out. And attempting to herd 40 preteen Salvadoran girls... yikes!!

We had a lot we wanted to accomplish, so the girls and the volunteers were kept really busy all three days. We had sessions on leadership, career planning, gender roles, female health, and self defense. Meghan and I did the 2 hour session on gender roles 6 times over the two camps. It was really tough not to preach to the girls or tell them what to think. I mean, obviously our perspective on gender roles is the way everyone should think, right? We began with an activity where we posted the words “Masculine” and “Feminine” a few feet apart on the wall. Then we gave each girl a card with a word or phrase, like “work,” “decision making,” or “violence.” Then the girls stuck the cards where they believed they best corresponded with the words masculine and feminine. Without fail, the words “sports” and “drinking” where placed on the masculine side of the wall, meanwhile the words “cooking” and “raising children” were identified as distinctly feminine. Then we defined and discussed the differences between gender roles (how our society and culture expect us to behave depending on our sex) and sex characteristics (male and female biological capabilities). We talked about where each card had been placed and decided as a group if it could be moved to a more accurate place (nearly all the cards ended up in the middle, reflecting that both men and women have the abilities to do most things). We had some really interesting discussions and I hope the girls are now able to recognize gender roles and some of their affects.

Meghan and I discussing gender roles.

We also had dancing, swimming, yoga, skits, personal diaries, and we ended the last night with bonfires on the beach. Estrellas de El Salvador was very successful and we are considering taking the show on the road and hosting the camp in communities all over the country.