Camp Glow (and "Cheenas")

Camp Glow is a Peace Corps concept for young girls to learn life skills. Peace Corps Suriname volunteers just finished the second Camp Glow on our river. For four days, about 14 Peace Corps volunteers, seven Saramaccan cabin moms, a handful of Saramaccan guest speakers and 50 Saramaccan girls between the ages of 12 and 16 co-inhabited a tourist camp located on a small island in the middle of the Suriname River. The girls attended lessons on Nutrition & Exercise, Careers, HIV/AIDS Prevention, Gender Roles & Leadership, Sexual & Reproductive Health, and Environmentalism. Other activities included slag ball (it is similar to soft ball), soccer, volleyball, Frisbee, jump rope, hair braiding, washing in the river, movie time, Pictionary and soap-making.

All of these girls came from the Upper Suriname River, where tradition reigns and the Western worldviews are scarce. Many of the girls already have men or will very soon. Ryan and I gave the lesson on Leadership and Gender Roles as we did for the first camp, along with a Saramaccan guest speaker who is from Paramaribo. Since gender roles in careers were covered in another session, we focused on gender roles in marriage and in the home. Saramaccan culture is extremely gendered, with women carrying the majority of everyday work. “Marriage” relationships (in quotations because most Saramaccans do not get married legally but just “take a man/woman”) are so different from the Western concept that they are difficult for me to understand. Multiple wives are accepted, although influence from the Western world is changing opinions. A common problem with a man having multiple wives is that he is often unable to provide for them and their many children. In our lesson, we stressed finishing school before taking a man and having children. We emphasized the importance of finding a good man, who will work hard and help provide for the family. Ryan and I told our story- what important things we talked about before getting married, how we share housework, that we both earned the same amount of money in America, our promise to only be with each other, etc. The kids (and cabin moms!) are always fascinated by our story. The reality is that many of these girls will have co-wives. The point of Ryan and I telling our story is not to change their way of thinking to ours, but rather to expose them to other cultures and to encourage them to seek their own paths. We stressed that whether the girls had co-wives or not, finding men who would live well with them was important (after they finish school).

Another fascinating part of this culture that challenged camp logistics are “cheenas”. A cheena is a taboo/allergy/superstition. They are more prevalent upriver. One of our campers is not allowed to pass by a particular rapid in front of a particular village on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Well, our camp ended on a Tuesday and the girl would have to pass through this rapid to get back to her village, so she had to have her own boat come take her home a day early. Cheenas are taken very seriously.

The family of two other girls (sisters) had prayed to the gods right before the camp, begging them for something (I am not sure what, but possibly for the health of a family member). In exchange for the gods’ help, the family pledged to not use river water for one day. This is a huge sacrifice, since women wash themselves, their children, their clothes, their plates, etc in the river at least twice a day, every day (as if the Saramaccan lifestyle wasn’t already challenging enough). Of course, this day landed on the last day of our camp. The girls had to wash with rain water that day, while all the other campers went to the river. Later, the counselors filled up water balloons to soak all the girls. Well, the sink water is pumped from the river, so the girls were careful to step to the side to avoid contact. Later, when all the girls were getting into the boat to go home, a long discussion ensued about where was the best place for them to sit in the boat so they would not get splashed at all. The family planned to offer things like rum, clothing material, etc. to the gods when they arrived for even chancing getting wet in a boat. If the gods are angered then something bad could happen to the whole family.

I have heard of other cheenas such as if a women has twins, she can no longer eat any animals that live above the ground. For example, she can eat iguana, tapir, and peccary. However, she can no longer eat sloth, monkey or birds. They believe that if she does, something terrible will happen to the twins.

There is a village upriver from mine that does not allow white people in it. Apparently, the god who lives in the land cannot be around white people. If a white person was to go there, something would happen to the whole village and the white person or the person who bought the white person there. The same god lives in the head of a woman in one of my friend’s villages, so she has to avoid that part of the village.

This is the world that I live in. Fascinating, right?

Going back to Camp Glow, Ryan was the official camp photographer. Click here, here, here, and here to check out his vibrant pictures.