English Camp 2025

My final project in Benin, West Africa before leaving the Peace Corps was my last English immersion camp over three days, June 29, 30th and 31st 2025.

We are required as Peace Corps volunteers to host at least one camp per year on any topic of our choosing as long as you use English as a medium. I chose a bit more of a creative route this time around!

This year, unlike last year, I invited my chosen students that participate well and do well in english and 51 of them! Sadly only about 40 showed up, but it was a good manageable number. Fifty is hard to control sometimes, but I did order food for a lot of kids. I learned from last year about what I thought I wanted to do and what the kids would like the most and it was a huge success.

Goodbye Emma from English Camp

June 29th was a sad and rainy day. It had been raining since 5 am and the ground was soggy. Charlie and I were the heads of the camp with my two counterparts also attending KOUANAN, and Christophe. Charlie and I walked to school through the mud sharing my single small umbrella and arrived to find a deserted school with none of the doors unlocked. Turns out the director completely forgot my English Camp after he was the one that changed the dates without my consent.

There was a big tent at school for an event later that evening. We huddled under there to escape the rain and I called the school vice principal to help me get the doors unlocked. Slowly some students arrived and we all hid under the tent and played four corners trying to catch the students who were in the corners we pointed too. Many of the kids would still run away after my eyes were open but it was a cute effort.

By this time it was 8:40 and the doors were unlocked and everyone who was coming had arrived by then.  The ages were uneven because of how I picked students. I teach one 6th grade, one 7th grade, and one 8th and 9th grade. Ninth grade has 71 students so choosing 6 was a hard decision! The kids who participate most and really try in English class were handpicked by me. My favorite students from 7th grade that I also had in 6th grade were my testers. I gave them the ideas of all my activities first to see if they sounded interested.

Finally in the door, kids settled in and we talked about what we would be doing. At this point the rain at this time was getting harder. The First activity was teaching some body parts and animal parts. Words like fur, fangs, claws, tail, wings, along with normal body parts such as, arm, leg, head, and so on for review. Since the rain was pounding hard we had to draw all the examples on the board and yell the vocabulary words. We then made the kids create their own monsters with these new words for a prize. I had 4 sets of crayola colored pencils to give to the focused creative kids as a reward!

The drawings were so cute and very well done, some hydras, bird monsters, and hybrids of pigs and other animals. The activity was a success!

By this time the rain was pounding so hard on the roof that we couldn't hear much. We decided to skip an activity and go on to the translation of fables activity. I knew many American fables but the kids showed me many different new stories like "The Ant and the Bird", "Curiosity of the Elephant", and "The Congo". Kids in groups of 4-6 wrote their fables in french and translated word for word in English and then presented the stories. I was afraid the task would be hard but the kids were having a lot of fun and did so well! We all ate some lunch (spicy rice and fish) together and then it was onto the second day already!

The second day we started off slow. I brought my beloved dog Mochi to school and she played with the students well. I was suffering from food poisoning during one of my final good moments at school. ):

We made maps of Benin or a country (some chose Nigeria or Mali for more diversity) of their choosing and asked the students to draw points of interest like rivers, forests, animals, natural resources. Many groups displayed their knowledge of the area and many were asking for translations of resources like oil and cobalt which I had to think about for a minute. We had two prizes for the best drawn maps as well. The kids worked in teams in 3-4 as this day was a bit more thinned out than the day before. Today was a big soccer match that most kids were participating in instead.

After this activity we went on to teach about good characteristics for students or leaders. We introduced students to the concept of role models and heroes. What is a good leader? Why are they good? What characteristics do you have?

We then asked the students to write in English or French about who their role model is. We heard the names of presidents, historical kings, leaders in the communities, and mostly professional soccer players. The hype for Messi is real in Benin.

We finished the camp by sharing what we liked about the days, how much fun we had, and sang some songs! I was able to attend a small thank you conference for me after the camp. One of my star students Regis presented me with a poem thanking me for my time. He loves writing and wants to be an author someday! He also recently passed his exams to enter high school!

Poem

Venturing from so far and wide lands,

Arriving with open heart and arms widely stretched.

Carrying peace, she sowed each day,

Earning love in a quiet, steady way.

Kouandé now echoes her name with pride.

Expatriate, yes—but one of our own insides.

Many hands she held at Atchonsa's gate,

Magnificent star guiding paths and fates.

And now, her memory shall not abate.

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