Baila tus sueños Dance Camp

February 18th to 22nd was the final week before the school year started, and also the culmination of a several-month project, Baila tus sueños, a dance camp. My friend Lindsey and I have been planning this camp for months and finally got to share our love of dance with Panamanian kids and Peace Corps volunteer friends. It was a week of ups and downs, a few disappointments and many accomplishments.

I went to Lindsey's site on Wednesday of last week to start doing the bulk of the work: final preparation and getting the materials. We spent Thursday through Sunday buying school supplies, white t-shirts for tie dying, all the food, and dozens of other things. Every one of those days leading up to the camp was exhausting, filled with running around from store to store and usually carrying all those bags around the city. Valentine's Day was especially taxing, since it rained in the early afternoon, all over us and the bags. So that was fun.

However, we had plenty of help from some people in her community, including the principal of her school and a handful of kind women. One day, we went with the principal and a neighbor to PriceSmart, a Costco equivalent, and bought hundreds of dollars worth of rice, beans, oil, and other food in extreme bulk. Of course, these stores are rare and found only near the large cities. Every time I go, I get excited and homesick. Sadly, there were no free samples that day. We couldn't get any food from the food court, either.

14 volunteers from across the country came to help us, which was wonderful. Their help made the camp run smoothly. I felt at ease knowing that I could depend on them to do their work well, plan and execute educational and recreational sessions, help prepare food and maintain order. As I mentioned earlier, we had lots of help from Panamanians. Those nice ladies helped us prepare food on a daily basis and provided us with some local favorites, including duros (small popsicles in baggies) and almojábanos (fried corn in an s shape, a favorite among those living in the Chiriquí province). Aside from the principal and ladies, we got a nice donation from the town mayor, which allowed us to buy more food and some gifts to everyone who helped.


Tie dye with the kids. Some didn't turn out so great, but hey, everyone got a tie dye t-shirt to keep as a souvenir of dance camp!


This was a game teaching kids about deforestation during a session on caring about the environment. Kids were all scarlet macaws (guacamayas) and had to find a "tree" to live in to be able to survive and reproduce. Each volunteer was a tree, and had two spaces/arms to accommodate the kids. However, Industry slowly cut us down. AHH!! Turns out some trees can feel pain.


Most of the participants were kids from Lindsey's community who live nearby or at least go to the school. However, we also had a dozen or so kids from other provinces across the country. It was great to give those kids the opportunity to travel outside their village (which they may have never done) and interact with kids their age from all over. During the camp, we split the kids into teams and had team building games, like this, the Human Knot. Sometimes there was some friction. Once during swing dancing, a boy yelled that he refused to dance with a girl because she was indigenous and "dirty." However, for the most part, the kids got along and became good friends by the end of the camp.


Muchachas Guías, Panama's Girl Scouts, came and gave a presentation. Here you see the kids doing a little dínamica, or game.


Obviously, we did a whole lot of dancing. I mean, the camp was called "Dance your dreams!" Lindsey and I taught short routines to Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" and Lil Jon's "Snap Ya Fingers" and did a bit on the Electric Slide. Sharing American culture to the max!

During the camp, we managed to feed the kids 3 meals and 2 snacks per day, gave several 1-hour sessions per day, switching off between classroom and active sessions. Kids made tie dye t-shirts, learned about self-esteem, environment, swing dancing, diversity, nutrition, sexual health and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, and lots more. And hopefully gained some confidence from all that dancing they did throughout the week.

It wasn't perfect. And if you know me, I beat myself up because of that. However, I learned a lot about doing projects here in Panama and how whatever you can manage to do is a success. These kids would have done nothing of interest if it weren't for the camp. Now they have great memories to take back home. Some ate better than they ever do at home. This camp gave the kids an opportunity to express themselves, which is usually VERY rare back in their communities. They got to be silly with us. They got to stay up late, watch movies and eat popcorn, play fun games and learn about themselves. So instead of focusing on how transitions weren't always smooth, how some promises fell through, or how we forgot simple necessities like band-aids, I need to try and realize that it was an overwhelming success because the kids and volunteers had fun.

I'm certainly glad it's over, but now that I have a moment to breathe, I can and should be happy with how it turned out.


Teaching Panamanian kids the Crip Walk was definitely a highlight of the camp, and of my service.