The Poison Crusade and Youth Camp

I ran a youth leadership camp this week with the help of 5 other Peace Corps Volunteers. 29 girls and 18 boys from two nearby villages attended the youth camp for 3 days. There were lessons and activities covering topics such as leadership development, decision making, gender equality, planning and goal-setting, healthy relationships, diabetes, STI's and family planning.

Throughout the camp there were sport, game and worship sessions- so that workshop participants did not sit glassy-eyed inside of a classroom all day. We volunteers ate and slept at the local Primary School with the youth as well, allowing us get to know all of the boys and girls.

Anyhow, holding a camp of this sort requires a lot of planning. Throughout the past few weeks I had been rallying community support at local church meetings and on village work days, raising money for food and workshop supplies, and recruiting volunteers to assist with transport, collecting firewood, providing sleeping / toilet / shower arrangements, donating food and cooking, etc. After weeks of planning, I felt comfortably prepared for the start of the workshop.

And as these things often go, my careful planning was tossed to the wayside with the unscheduled arrival of a pastor and 200 of his loyal followers who I refer to as the Poison Crusade. This "pastor" is from a northern island and his specialty is finding poison, or black magic. It is believed by many that through prayer and a strong connection to the Holy Spirit, this pastor can find black magic artifacts deposited by ill-intentioned locals. His arrival to my village 2 days before the start of my youth workshop meant that the community had the burden of another 200 mouths to feed daily in the addition to 70 I had been planning to host for weeks.

We had to find new accommodation, food supplies and a workshop venue all at the last possible moment. Things were very hectic but a large portion of my community really bent over backwards to make our camp successful. The Minister of Youth and Sport came and presented soccer uniforms and balls to the boys at the closing ceremony and a very popular politician who is currently the Minister of Justice came to present certificates as well. I was happy with the turnout even though it felt like we were competing with the Poison Crusade throughout much of the youth camp.

The Poison Crusade blares loud religious music through an amped up sound system until midnight each night and then a loud bell begins morning prayer at 3:30 AM when the sound system is turned on again until 6 AM each morning. Apparently it is believed that praying in the dark hours of the early morning and at loud decibels is more efficient than praying in the daytime. My house is located in the middle of all of the madness where the caravan of trucks park and additional hundreds from outside villages commute in for evening praise services, where the pastor perform miraculous acts of healing on the sick.

The youth workshop was located nearby the Poison Crusade so obviously we did not sleep very well over the 3 days. Many boys who should have attended the workshop were lured in to attending the Poison Crusade, possibly because it provided them a chance to hit on the many teenage girls visiting the praise service each evening.

The Poison Crusade is still underway and is scheduled for at least another 5 nights. I escaped this early morning and plan to work here in town on some unfinished projects until its completion. But ending on a good-note... the pastor sniffed around my house yesterday and confirmed that my abode is poison-free, so at least I can sleep soundly upon my return!