Monday June 25, 2012  Africa:  Day 15

            

            During the van ride to the camp we put together a brief outline of a presentation on stress and coping.  We weren’t sure if we would even be able to present anything because the Canadian interns were doing a session on financial empowerment  and it wasn’t clear if we were even going to be part of the agenda.  

            We all gathered in a school for women to learn beauty skills, fashion, interior design, and cooking.  The financial empowerment part went about as we expected.  The girls were speaking so fast and quiet that it would be hard for anyone to understand, let alone those in the audience who are trying to understand the American accent.  The vocabulary was too inflated for the purpose of the presentation, and the audience (including me) was quickly losing interest.  Liz and Liyam then did a very quick presentation on stress and coping which seemed to be very well received.  Our Liberian refugee counterpart kept commenting afterward how beneficial learning the relaxation exercises were for him.  I’m kind of worried about him.  Each day we see him he looks more and more haggard. 

            After the presentations we met with a man in the nutrition center and talked with him about various programs they have at the camp to help feed the orphaned children, and take care of the malnourished.  This is not an easy task considering they estimate that about 85-90% of the population are suffering from malnutrition. 

            The man also told us to go talk to the main office of the NGO that runs this center.  We met with a manager of an organization that was started by none other than the evening radio host Delilah.  Putting my personal opinions about her radio show aside, she is helping to do some incredible work here at the camp.

            On our way home we had the driver drop us off at the airport so we could buy tickets for our safari weekend trip in a few weeks.  Then we met with our supervisor here at the university, and spent the rest of the evening working on a lesson plan for tomorrow’s presentation on stress and coping.