GLOW

Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) is a Peace Corps initiative and Peace Corps Belize picked this up by doing a summer camp for girls ages 10-12. This year will be our 3rd Camp GLOW and I’m super excited to be a part. One goal of the camp is to then train the girls to start their own club, something Santa Teresa has recently shown interest in. Florentina and I made a trip to Poite for a quick presentation by Lilly, explaining GLOW through power point. Our next step was to get the girls together to see what they were interested in. I had mentioned an Earth Day Trash Clean-up during a staff meeting, which wasn’t received well, but Florentina thought it was a great idea for a first GLOW activity. The girls at the introductory meeting were on board and excited, even made beautiful signs inviting the Standard IV – VI girls. “Come and keep our village beautiful. It’s interesting.” I also asked a few girls who had went to camp to share a little about their experience and we brainstormed ideas for future meetings… play games, bake cakes, help elderly people in the village. What sweethearts, already knowing the importance of giving back. So, we did our trash clean-up, filling six or so buckets before covering half the village. We hope to finish the rest and continue to pick up on a regular basis. Of course I was telling them they could pick up trash everyday if they would like, but we should try as a group once a month.
Our next activity was baking cakes, which we did over the fire hearth at Florentina’s house. The girls collected fire wood and mixed the batter creating three different cakes, coconut, chocolate, and a cinnamon one. All three were delicious. They then took the slices to sell, telling their customers about GLOW and asking between a shilling and a dollar for each piece depending on the size. It was so much fun and we even made a little money. I’m excited for our next bake sale.
I was out of town the following Saturday but some girls did go to elderly people’s houses in the village, asking what they could do to help. This will be a repeated activity as well and I can’t wait to be part of it. Since then I’ve been either gone, or a few girls have just come by my house Saturday afternoons to play games or paint their nails. We’re waiting for Florentina to get back from her month long training in Belize City (I miss that girl!) to do another fundraiser. Soon though, I’ll have to hand out the applications for Camp GLOW which will be in Belmopan the middle of July. Wow! Time is really flying by. Loves and Hugs!