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Written by: Gabriella Reiss
March 22 2024
Welcome to the second day at Dukwi Refugee Camp,
Today at the camp we will be doing a bunch more activities, as well as another fun group activity at the end. When we arrived, we split up into our groups, aided by a couple of residents. Here’s a list of activities:
Art Workshop: Claire and Gabriella ran an art workshop with the elementary school kids where they taught them about Pablo Picasso. After a quick lesson all the kids were instructed to draw themselves in a cubism style. While the class began with 16 students, by the end there were probably 70 kids all around the room, bringing in more chairs and tables and drawing on the floor. These portraits, and later whatever type of artwork the kids wanted to draw, were all photographed by Gabriella as Claire handed distributing materials and trying to organize the group. These photographs are going to be used to create an artwork that is going to be sold at the RefugArt art auction in April.
Photograph Credit to Riley Wittman
Entrepreneurship Course: Riley and Mr. Manolo worked together to present the second auditing last year’s entrepreneurship course to the youth in Dukwi. This course came from a student at ASB a few years ago who went on the Dukwi trip. He graduated to Cornell University and adapted an entrepreneurship course into workshop form. This was given to Mr. Manolo from Win-Win Connection, and with the help of Esade, the university at which Mr. Manolo works, furthered this course to enable participants to complete the course and receive diplomas. Last year, 12 people received diplomas through this course. Today, Riley and Mr. Manolo introduced the course to a new group of students, and presented the first project.
Lego Robotics: Elna, Eloise, and Marshall once again taught the fifth grade kids more about Lego robotics. Today, however, the kids were taught how to code the robots and make them move and avoid obstacles. While it took multiple explanations, the kids did very well. The group was really impressed with how quickly and how well the kids learned how to code the robots. By the ends, many of the kids were even making up their own codes!
Mural Painting: Noe, Vladimir, Dana, and Emilia worked together on finishing up the mural today. Yesterday ended with a fully painted wall and the outline of the tree, so that’s where they picked up today. The group finished the tree and painted a message on it: “learn today, lead tomorrow”. All that is left to do if for the kids at the camp to write their interpretation of this message at the ends of the tree branches. One of the people Noe worked with, a man named Innocence, is an artist who Noe would like to try and get a sponsorship for from RefugArt to continue his work.
Photograph Credit to Riley Wittman
WhatsApp Video 2024-03-29 at 09.41.53.mp4Teaching the Teachers: Olivia and Graeme continued with what they had been doing yesterday, but they time worked with a different class. They worked with teachers at the school and taught them about how we teach in Barcelona and the United States—promoting the student teacher connection. Today went really well, with many of the teachers being more engaged and lively than yesterday.
Girls Soccer Team: Ella, David, and Mr. Javi worked today to establish a girls soccer team at the camp. They worked with about 20 girls, most of them in their twenties. While there were some problems with paying attention during the lesson in the beginning overall the program went really well. The group organized some drills for the girls to do and then they played a game. The camp plans to form a team of primary and secondary school kids too, and we expect great things!
Overall, the first part of today’s activities went really well! Everyone had a lot of fun and we’re all very pleased with the results.
After lunch, we left the camp for a couple of hours to go visit a salt mine nearby. One of the people in charge came with us on the bus and explained how the mine actually gets the salt, and then guided us as we drove through the mine. The salt is mined by taking water from deep underground and then letting it sit out in the sun until enough water evaporates and leaves only water with a very high concentration of salt. When this salt crystallizes then it is mined and washed to be prepared for usage. When driving through these salt pools, we found there ones with the highest concentration of salt had actually turned the water pinkish red. Overall, an interesting experience.
When we finished at the mine, we returned to Dukwi and visited an art exhibition where some of us bought really cool pieces and bracelets. Afterwards, we went to our final activity: a Disco Dance with DJ Platon!
The dance was so much fun and we got to learn some dances from the people in the Dukwi Camp, and they learned some dances from us too. We spent a lot of time dancing and hanging out with the kids, but we also talked to many of the adult refugees as well. Many of us exchanged phone numbers or emails so that we can stay in touch.
When it was time to say farewell, the goodbyes were teary and heartfelt. We’re all going to miss the friends that we met here, and these memories are going to last forever. Afternoons like these, where we have so much fun and talk to so many wonderful people, are times that we remember why we came. This adventure has taught us all so much, and we’ve really grown as people over the course of it. Tonight has been an emotional evening, full of smiles and tears alike. Our only goal is for these last two days to have really made an impact on the people in Dukwi Refugee Camp. We would like to think it has.
Dancing.mp4
Photograph Credit to Riley Wittman
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