Camp is Cold...

This past week I helped run a residential summer camp for kids from the ages of 10-14 years old, along with other volunteers in the Southern Nations. Each volunteer was giving the opportunity to bring 2 kids from their towns to the campsite near the regional capital. The focus was on HIV/AIDS and life skills. Overall I would say the camp was a success and the kids got a lot from the program, but one night was especially significant for me.


Some of the kids selected by some of the volunteers were orphans that were picked up right from the street. They had no home or adult supervision whatsoever. They were fighting and insulting other kids and rapidly became a discipline/safety issue for all involved. These are kids that must survive on their own and have the scarcity mentality engraved on their behavior patterns. They live with the truth that it is, “only the fittest survive”. They live with the reality of not knowing where their next meal is coming from or when it will be provided. Therefore their actions reflect opportunistic thoughts of, “I need to eat as much as possible now and hoard what I can.”, and “I don’t trust you and will fight you if I perceive you as a threat in any way”. It was clear that they had lived through some traumatic events in their lifetimes.


Some of the other kids expressed concerns and feared to sleep in the same room with them overnight. It was apparent that they needed to be separated from the other kids. As a staff we discussed dismissing them from the program but dismissal presented two challenges. One was the fact that these particular kids were homeless in the same town we were running the camp. This meant that if they were not with us they could and would likely continue to hang around the campsite. This could lead to resentful harassment of the other campers and continued disruption. The other was the ideological struggle of giving up on kids that have already been abandoned and have no one to believe in them. As a staff we struggled to come to a consensus and it was late so I volunteered to sleep with the key kids in question and we would finalize a decision in the morning.


The only available place to sleep on the compound, apart from the other kids, was a nearby activity room. The floor was lined with an old thin foam cushion and had a roof and four walls. One of those four walls had large ventilation space (4ft high x 15ft long) from one edge to the other and nothing to cover it. We took 2 blankets and a couple pillows and went to bed.


They mildly protested and didn’t want to be separated from the rest of the group but they quickly fell asleep shortly after I let them know, in my firm voice, that that wasn’t an option. In addition to the ventilated wall, the other walls are made from a type of particle board and paneling with cracks and holes in it. This left us vulnerable to the night wind and rodents which kept us company until morning.


It was cold! 2 blankets were not enough for the 5 of us. And when I realized this, I thought of how this is the way these kids live each day without a viable alternative. They slept through the noise of fighting dogs, the cold, and rodents shuffling around in the dark, oblivious to it all. This was their frame of reference. And because I couldn’t sleep, I noticed when they cuddled up next to me for warmth. I was sandwiched in between 2 kids on either side of me. They clung together like a bunch of bananas, and I couldn’t help but chuckle as they seemed to fart on each other in sequence.


I understood how and why they are so bonded to each other. Even though they viciously fight each other at times, they are each others family. They keep each other warm at night when they don’t have four walls of protection, and when they have no tarp/roof to shelter them from the rain. At one point I got up to re-cover them with the blankets that had been pulled away by the wild sleeping of the two alpha males. I was acutely present in that moment as I spread the blankets over these children that normally don’t have blankets and was reminded that they have no one, no adult to care for them or cover them when they are cold on the streets.
When I returned to lie down between the kids, I recognized one of the chants we used during camp to quiet the kids and sit them down, being muttered by one of the orphans; “kuch belu”, faded from his mouth.


Camp was affecting them. The survival skills they came with are important and very necessary; however it does not excuse their actions towards the other kids. Safety is our primary concern for each of our campers. I realized that we couldn’t just send them away but had to help them follow the structure of the camp and teach them new survival skills. If they are one day going to be productive citizens they will need to learn how to thrive in some sort of structure, and who else is going to teach them how to do so? What other opportunities will they have?


The next day another volunteer, a translator, and I sat them down to a meeting about our expectations, how we believe they can meet them, and how we’re going to support them throughout the rest of the week. They responded really well and gathered together for a group hug afterwards. It was a touching moment to see the understanding in their eyes and their desire to meet the expectations of someone who believed in them.


The final 2 days had a significant decrease in fighting and behavioral issues. Although we did end up sending 2 kids back to their homes. One was HIV positive and became very sick. The other was a homeless kid from another town and thought it would be better to be homeless with his new friends in a bigger city and continued to be a flight risk. For liability purposes we decided to send him back to his original community so the people of the community knew that we didn’t lose him and he wasn’t injured while under our supervision.


By the end of camp some of the other kids had even befriended the kids from the streets and signed each others camp photographs.


The volunteer who brought the orphans is going to attempt to follow up with them and get them enrolled in a school in the town. The kids seemed very open to the idea, and hopefully that too can become a part of their reality.


Next blog coming soon: Taxi Cab Confessions