Summertime

School’s out and summer’s in full swing. And just like back home, students take summertime to enjoy hanging out and taking a break from school work. For a lot of students here, that means traveling. After getting their final results from exams and school they hit the road – they go back to their village or to a bigger city like the capital. They usually go work or visit other family. So now at the end of July, Banyo has just about no students left which can make doing work and activities a little difficult when you don’t have participants. However, there are initiatives going on that focus on educating youth. Here are some from this month:

- Vacances sans SIDA which was organized by a youth club and held sessions and debates at the hospital for a week

- Colonie de Vacances which my postmate and I organized to teach about HIV/AIDs and theatre. Participants created skits at the end of the week.

- Weekly activities such as learning to cook, sew and about HIV and STDs organized by the youth delegation

All the activities are meant to empower youthand alsoobviously give them something to do when there’s no school. The activities arefree and open to all youth which here a youth is anywhere from about 10 – 25 or older (kind of like as long as you aren’t married and have kids).It can be difficult sometimes because of student’s unpredictable schedules and also because everyday students leave for vacation. But for those who do attend, they really learn a lot and have fun. And with only about a month left before school starts again, students are really trying to make the most of their time left.