Lessons Learned

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

A week ago today we were arriving at the cabana and everything was coming together for the first camp, or not, as it were. Here are some reflects on the success of our first GLOW/TOBE camp outside of Simeria and how it could have gone differently.

The Red Cross did eventually follow through on everything they said they would do: just not in the way we expected, or in the way we Americans considered the most efficent. We were told food donations were aquired, though they were never produced because we didn't need them at the time we learned of them because we had already made a menu and purchased food for 20 people on our own. And then we found out we only had 9 campers. So we had plenty of food.

The Red Cross promised us transportation, but at the last minute we found out there was a problem with the driver and we ended up taking 5 taxis (paid for by Red Cross) to the camp location and showing up several hours later than planned. This turned out all right though because we still had our first session on Self Esteem on schedule and our activities for the first day ran smoothly.

The Red Cross invited a speaker to teach sessions on Anti-Human Trafficking, Drug Prevention and AIDS/STD prevention, however I don't know what was communicated to the speaker. I was told several different things: she was staying at the camp with us and the camp would cover the cost of her food because she was a volunteer, she would change the schedule and teach all her sessions in one day. In actuality she showed up one day to teach one session on drug prevention and then didn't contact us again. In my opinon, it ended up being a good thing that the Peace Corps volunteers got to take over the sessions on Human trafficking and AIDS/STDs because we got to talk to the students informally and asked them what they already knew on these topics - which turned out to be quite a lot! We also got to tie the topics into other things we covered in the camp like self-respect, communication, trust and healthy relationships. In other words we got to spread the message: It's not just about using condoms, its about communicating with your partner, respecting yourself and making sure your partner respects you.

Overall I'm very proud of the way the camp went, however there were many disapointing aspects of the pre-camp planning and coordination. This was reflected in the feedback I got from the other Peace Corps volunteers that their definately needed to be more communication between the Red Cross and the PC volunteers. However, I don't know how it could have been different since I was trying, desperately trying, every day to find out more about what was going on. Communication, when only one person is trying to communicate is not communication.

I actually thought about canceling this camp the week before. However, on the Friday before the week of camp I spoke to both Otilia and the contact she gave me to work through due to her illness and both assured me it would be all right. I still appreciate how frustrating this entire process was for all the other Peace Corps volunteers who gave their time and paid their transportation to be involved in this camp. Most of them arrived last Monday to find I didn't have any answers to how many students were showing up, what they were going to eat, when we were buying the food, how much food was donated, did we have enough tents, what does the space and facility look like, etc. etc.

I decided not to cancel the camp the week before because I took my communications with the Red Cross that Friday to mean that they were still interested and were planning on coming through for us - which they did in their own way. I also thought it wouldn't be fair to cancel at that point and not give our Romanian partner organization a chance to either fail or come through. There was a lot we didn't know the answer to - such as are they really going to provide transportation? - but until the day transportation was supposed to be provided they didn't have a chance to come through for us or not. I didn't want to pull out because they hadn't given us enough assurances on our timetable. I didn't think that was the right thing to expect.

I was told by someone not at the camp that I could have encouraged more communication between the Red Cross and myself if I had been willing to express anger or threaten to call of the camp. As it was, I was not willing to do this because of the situation with Otilia's illness. I had no idea how serious her illness was, and several times thought the worst. Once, I misunderstood what was said to me in Romanian and thought she was in the hospital. I later found out she wasn't in the hospital.

However, Romanians and Americans have different ideas about the neccessity for following through, in general, and definately when one is sick. Romanians think of sickness differently, and Americans will kill themselves by continuing to work when they are sick. I decided that it was not my place as a foreigner to insist to someone who is sick that they follow through on their committment to a project. Or it wouldn't have been my place if I had been able to reach her on the phone more easily.

Perhaps for the sake of myself and the other Peace Corps volunteers, and for the sake of partner buy-in I should have canceled the camp. But then we wouldn't have reached the nine students who did attend and had only positive feedback to give, and then we wouldn't have five potenial student leaders to facilitate the next camp for the younger students in the Romanian language.

The lessons I'm tempted to take from this are: 1) Maybe think twice about planning a camp with an organization that can only meet with you one day a week to plan, although we started planning in March, and I don't know how interested anyone in Romania is in planning things that far in advance.
2) Consider expressing anger and using threats to get results. That is, if the person you're working with isn't unavailable do to illness.

Other than that I'm not sure if I could have done anything differently. And judging purely based on the feedback of our students, I think its fair to call this camp a successs.