Women's Leadership Camp at Coco Loco

As you can probably tell by previous posts, I spend a good chunk of my time at Coco Loco located on Chinandega's coast volunteering at their nonprofit Waves of Hope.  This is where you can typically find me on the weekends surfing and advising my women's jewelry group.  This past weekend another Waves of Hope volunteer, Jillian, and I decided to host a women's leadership camp at Coco Loco.  Jillian was a previous Peace Corps Volunteer is Macedonia working in youth development so we immediately had the same ideas of how we wanted the camp to run.

We targeted young ladies between the ages of 12 and 18 and now looking back I didn't realize how big of a range that was and how the various ages differed.  Yet I'm also amazed how well everyone got along.  We had four fun filled days with fourteen participants hitting all ages and even sneaking in some little sisters around 10 and 11. Our topics included leadership, decision making skills, goal setting, effective communication, healthy relationships, the cycle of violence, at home beauty recipes, self-esteem, reproductive health and preventing teen pregnancy along with yoga and other activities to burn off some energy.  I completely forgot how much energy teenagers have!  I would consider myself a high energy "go-go-go" kind of person, but I was exhausted each day.  Thursday and Friday we just had sessions in the afternoon starting at 1 pm so the gals didn't miss school.  Saturday we started at 9 am and after a full day we hit the beach after dinner for a bonfire where the girls shared their favorite part of the camp and what they were taking away from the experience.  At some points during the camp I wondered how much the girls were really getting out of it as I'm used to teaching an older crowd with a longer attention span.  I invited my site mate Lindsay, a health volunteer to come out and I noticed during the preventing teen pregnancy talk some of the youngsters would disappear out of embaressment for a bit, but eventually find their way back out of pure curiousity.  Around the bonfire as they roasted their marsh mellows for smores I got the real scoop on what was going through their heads.  I was really touched to hear that everyone had a different part of the camp that deeply effected them.  Jillian and I even had girls approach us individually to talk about their personal experiences.  I was also pumped to hear that all of them really enjoyed the yoga! One of the more touching moments was when we all sat in a circle and talked about how the machista culture has effected our lives as women.  This machismo mentality tends to foster the mistreatment of women as they are viewed as inferior to men.  We talked about how women need to unite and are more powerful in numbers.  They recognized each other as someone in their community to rely on and trust, they are now more of a team than ever.

I should have guessed that having the girls spend the night would turn in to an all night sleep over party.  We hauled mattresses up to the open air yoga studio to create one huge bed where the girls continued to put on fashion shows and scream throughout the night every time thunder or lightning hit.  It took me back to my slumber parties as a youth and remembering how I never wanted day break to come so the fun wouldn't end. Fortunately we had a banana chocolate pancake breakfast planned bright and early at 6 am.  Over the coarse of the camp the girls had envelopes posted on the yoga studio walls that they had decorated where others could put "kind words".  This self-esteem activity was really neat as everyone got to read all the nice things that others said about them over breakfast.  The first pic below was taken after breakfast at about 7 am, some older girls had already left to head to Sunday classes in the city so you can see how young Nicaraguan teenagers look compared to Americans.  They are generally really petite and skinny until the rice, beans, and fried foods catch up to them.  Don't they look so young?  It really blew me away the first day of camp when I had this vision of what teenagers would look like!

Anyways all of this would not have been possible if it wasn't for the lovely people Jamie, Ben and Earl who started Coco Loco and Waves of Hope two years ago.  Their dedication to improving the community and providing opportunities to local Nicaraguans is amazing!  These three canadians have put a new spin on community development.  They employ all local Nicas at Coco Loco and hand out numerous scholarships for students in the area who are helping to give back to the community.  The Waves of Hope volunteers help out in the schools and give english class.  Waves of Hope is in the process of building a high school as they just finished their primary school a few months ago.  But what's more is the locals are all friends and we are all on the same level.  I surf with the chef of the kitchen, Caludio, in the morning and we sit down for drinks after dinner together.  A local surfer Elton who is extremely talented also comes over to paint a wall at Coco Loco and we all watch surfing videos together over dinner.  I guess I'm trying to say that this place has it right, local Nicaraguans and North Americans working right along side each other to make a difference in the community sustainably.  I consider this place my second home outside Chinandega, but really it's where my heart is.  Pro surfer and friend Holly Beck also has paired up her women's surf retreat with Coco Loco to give back to the community.  Watch a video on Jamie and how Coco Loco and Waves of Hope operate on Holly's website.  Also you can read more about Waves of Hope at their website where I recently posted a blog about my women's jewelry business that I'm advising.
 

7 am after breakfast- No one wanted to say goodbye!

Decision Making Activity where the girls had to put themselves in tough situations and present their reasoning and thought process to come to their decision

At home beauty!  I'm about to apply and avocado and honey face mask!

Team building excersize!  The girls had to fit all team members through a different part of the web to get to the other side.  Planning a strategy a head of time was key!

Jillian is with the girls in a big not and they are trying to make their way in to a circle with out letting go of their hands.