Falling off the Burro

Recently I was part of a weekend youth camp.  There were 23 kids and five Peace Corps volunteers, plus three members of the NGO which sponsored the event.  We met at the local environmental center, where the park rangers who supervise the forest preserve are stationed.

We started out with our usual activities in the subjects of reproductive health, including how to avoid unwanted pregnancy and STI’s.  In the “baby game”, a teenager finds out he is the father of a child and we dramatize how his live changes.

Oliver gets the news from his “baby mama”.

In the afternoon it was time for first aid.  The Peace Corps volunteers were the victims, and students had to diagnose and treat us.

Nate gets his pulse checked as they try to figure out what he has.

Steve holds a compress on his "machete wound" as he is helped to get to a doctor.

By far the most popular activity of the day, however, was the “burro” that the park rangers had set up.  I had used one made out of bamboo before, but this one had a very solid log which was able to spin around in a circle.  Kids often use a burro as a teeter totter, but these kids found out that it was much more fun to spin around.  It wasn’t long before a competition sprang up.  Who could stay on the longest as the burro was spun faster and faster?

As it turned out, there really wasn’t a winner in this contest.  As soon as the first person bit the dust, the other would inevitably crash as well. No one seemed to care.  The grass was pretty firm because it hadn’t rained in two months, but each pair would brush off their bumps and bruises and hop back on for a rematch.  I tried it a few times and it was a lot of fun.

Peace Corps volunteers Nathan and Lauren tried it too

Ouch!

We also had sessions on the differences between a healthy relationship and an unhealthy one.  For these teens who were thinking about the future, this was a valuable topic.  We tried to get them to have clear expectations of what behavior they were looking for and willing to accept in a partner, and also to avoid a controlling relationship.  In a machista society such as Panama’s, both the boys and girls need to find a different way of relating to each other than the examples possibly given by their parents.

After the last session on Sunday morning it was time for a short trip to the waterfall.  This is the source of the river which supplies water to our regional capital, Chitré.  There is a huge contrast between this clear water and what arrives at the city.  Actually, it became quite cloudy after a few people stirred it up, but it wasn’t contaminated as it would be farther downstream.

Steve gets some air time

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and take the final picture.  It was my last youth camp in Panama, and though I always finish these camps tired, I had enjoyed it very much.