Noah's Peace Corps Blog

The dogdays of summer have arrived in Benin. Classes are out, and exams finished. “Knee-high by the Fourth of July” corn in the US is more like “Reach for the Sky Come July” in Benin, even if the rains have been weak. Summer as a Peace Corps Volunteer means summer camps. At least 10 camps fill the weeks of July and early August across the country, inviting hundreds of middle and high-school age students to learn about public health, food security, leadership, English, and to meet new friends. For months I had been a part of a small team organizing Camp UNITE/GLOW in the historic city of Ouidah, which I’m proud to say made it through its scheduled program last week. Camp GLOW is an annual tradition for not only Peace Corps Benin but many other missions across the world. GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World and targets motivated and accomplished young women for instruction in malaria prevention, nutrition, sexual and menstrual health, and leadership. In Benin, we have a Camp GLOW

After meeting the needs of the workforce of host countries, the second goal of the Peace Corps is sharing American culture with host country nationals. What better occasion to embrace Goal 2 than the Fourth of July? A few months ago, I approached my work counterpart and local friends about the prospect of a Fourth of July party. Thinking about ways to attract a broad range of people, we put our sights on a night of sports, food, and media. Instead of calling it a Fourth of July party, it made more sense to emphasize Goal 2 through a Jour de l'Amiti é , or Friendship Day. We were fortunate that the Fourth fell on a Wednesday, meaning that students would be off of school. We coordinated four teams across two villages to compete for men's and women's soccer championships ("Coupes de l'amitié"). The players trained weekly and selected their jerseys before taking the field in front of hundreds of spectators. The terrain and goals were smaller than regulation,