It was at a Peace Corps Women in Development Conference that I met a small contingent of the Praia Red Cross Theatre Group. Eight of the girls would end up participating in my Girls Exchange.
The Red Cross did a one hour skit on teen pregnancy, school delinquency, and single mother households for my village as part of the month long exchange comprised of three weekends of activities.
Each of the 8 urban girls spent a night with their rural host (girl) on the first weekend. The second night we all packed into the community center like sardines.
This photo shows one rural girl and her neighbors standing around the urban girl who spent the weekend with them. Everybody learned something new!
One of my favorite photos. A rural girl living an hour from the nearest cobblestone road by foot hosted a slightly overweight urban girl who expended a lot of energy in arriving on her hands and feet, as she later joked.
During the second weekend, the same urban girls hosted the rural girls in their houses with lots of planned activities. Imagine having your first ice cream cone as a teenager!
During the third weekend, I fractured my foot in the capital city and was stuck on the sofa on painkillers while the girls performed their final skit. This photo depicts 3 of the urban girls addressing the topic of drug use at school. Two friends are teaching the third girl to smoke pot.
