CHRONICLES OF THE VIRTUAL CAMP

“When will camp be ending? Today? Why today? Why does camp have to end now? I do not want it to end yet…” _Camper, PVVC 2020

The PVVC Experience
On August 1, 2020, Pearl Virtual Vacation Camp, the first-ever virtual summer camp organized by the Pearl Club, kicked off with over 40 campers, girls between ages 8 and 16, from across Nigeria, from Canada, England, and the USA. Planning the camp at a time like this, the time of an ongoing pandemic, was, one of the coordinators says, exciting and required a good measure of improvisation: "planning PVVC 2020 was exciting, I was part of a team of wonderful and diligent ladies. I'm grateful for all the pushes I got from my team members, really, and I thoroughly enjoyed all the seminars and get-togethers organized for us coordinators. I had a swell time with my tutees: some of them; I got moved by their innocence, simplicity, utter bluntness, and inquisitiveness. Oh! We got a lot of unexpected questions, *laughing*, questions you have to wonder from where they were. So yeah, you have to ready yourself for improvisation. That was what we tried and, of course, asking the Holy Spirit for the right words.

Journaling as a tool for preserving the history of the writer:
On the first day of camp, the girls: junior (Ruby) and senior (Jade-vine and Sea-pink) groups in separate virtual spaces, were introduced to the art of journaling or journal-keeping. They were told that Journaling entailed reflecting on one's day: thoughts, feelings, ideas, processing them and self-assessing, or interrogating the courses of their actions for that day. Both groups were assigned to write down their experiences for every day of camp and were encouraged to be self-expressive and honest. It was exciting, they were excited. You could already see the spontaneity and creativity in their journals starting then with titles such as Lazy day, Nightmare, Coco, etc. Some, of course, were more excited than others: "My journal is my most prized possession after my cat, Cece_ Chinenye Ekechukwu, Ruby group.
There were follow up sessions on Journaling, on August 8, and August 21, 2020, to monitor and assess the progress of campers in keeping their camp journals. We found some of their self-evaluations laudable; there was this one, among others, that I loved: "If I were to judge, I'd give myself an A for participation in questions and an F for keeping a focused mind. It was hard to keep focus because I kept browsing the internet for answers and getting distracted by searching for other things. I promise to be focused when in class and to participate a lot more in the quizzes. The next club day, I look forward to being better than I was today by making sure that I don't browse in class and attempting a lot more questions than I did today."_ Chizitelu Anakwue, Jade-vine group.
Some others were impeccable in their story-telling game, taking time to give a detailed narration of their camp experiences. The journaling experience was awing, the products of which are pretty, colorful, well written, or creatively artistic journals.

Cookery 101
The day, Wednesday, 5th August 2020, started like any other day of summer in a pandemic- dull. The girls of the senior club had their first cookery session on this day. The ruby girls had theirs two days after. They watched as the facilitator, Chisom Onwusowulu, prepared chicken and potato stir-fry sauce using chicken, carrots, green peas, green pepper, Irish potatoes, soy sauce, onions, corn-flour, salt, and vegetable oil. The girls were later assigned the task of making videos of themselves preparing the same dish. It was rather enthralling, even for their parents; in her journal, one camper wrote: "My mum took a lot of pictures of the chicken and potato stir fry and sent it to some people. A lot of people wanted to know the ingredients and the recipe, so much so that on visiting one of my mum's friends, Miss Jennifer, I had to write the recipe down for her."
The next cookery session took place the following Wednesday. This time both groups had it simultaneously in their zoom meeting rooms. Vivienne Onwusowulu facilitated that of the Ruby girls while Ore Damilola attended to the Jade-vine and sea-pink girls. In the session, they learned to bake a red velvet cake, and just like the last time, were tasked to produce videos of themselves baking.
Subsequently, the girls learned to make sausage rolls from Stephanie Ocheocha and then Salad with dressing: "The classes I enjoyed the most were the cookery classes. We learned how to make chicken potato stir-fry sauce, red velvet cake, and sausage rolls. I had fun making them for my family, especially the sausage rolls, because I made them with my cousin, Chiamaka"_ Dinachi Obi, Seapink group.

Digital literacy in PVVC
The digital literacy classes were received with mixed feelings from campers. While some girls enjoyed them: "Today, August 17, 2020, was a good day. It was the first day of the third week of camp. We had a lot of interesting classes, but I am just going to pick out the two I liked most. The first was on video animation. We learned the meaning of animation and the many types…" Others did not feel the same way. Although, they all admitted to having fun on doing the projects. "We had a lot of graphic design classes with a male teacher whose name I do not remember because I did not enjoy the classes very much; I did not find them too interesting. I, however, liked doing digital literacy projects a whole lot."_ Camper, Sea-pink group.

Spiritual Formation:
An important day in PVVC was August 15, 2020. It was the feast day of our Lady's Assumption, and for this cause, a religious retreat took place. The girls tuned in for two meditation sessions with the priest of the center, Father Basil, and the examination of conscience that followed, after the Rosary prayer that they all did individually. They had a talk on Generosity, watched videos on Friendship, and listened to the spiritual reading taken from a chapter of The Way on Charity. Experience from a camper: "on August 15, we had a retreat because it was the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We had meditation with the priest, and it was interesting. We also had various talks that inspired me to become a better person."
Asides the retreat, the girls had also had a meditation session with the priest at the beginning of camp. "On the first day of the first week of camp, we had meditation, just after the introductory talk given by Ms. Uchechi. The priest asked us to write down our strengths and weaknesses and work towards making improvements to our weaknesses."_ Camper, Jade-vine group. There were also mentoring sessions, where the mentors assigned each girl called to ask about their progress in camp and the challenges they were facing in camp and life.

Other fun days:
Other fun aspects of PVVC were the Kahoot games, chess tournaments, the talks: talks on cyber-bullying, decency, the widely loved temperament talk, and the movies, especially the movies.
"Camp was such fun for me, but I think the best part of it was the temperament talk by Ms. Mesoma. I liked how she related every single temperament to people in the bible. I also liked the fact that she mentioned that the temperaments all have a positive and negative side, reminding me that there is no way a person can be flawless."_ Chizitelu Anakwue.

The Read-a-thon:
In line with the international literacy day instituted by UNESCO, a week-long read-a-thon that ran from August 22, 2020, through to August 29, 2020, was organized. The purpose of the read-a-thon was to raise funds to support the literacy of some less-privileged girls living in Obiagu, an urban slum in Enugu state, Nigeria. The girls and their families donated a token for this cause, which served to unlock books from the club's drive that the girls read and reviewed. It was a fun experience for all of them. "I am also really liking this read-a-thon, I plan on reading at least five books, and I would like to win the award for the best reader."_ Camper, Sea-pink group.

Showtime!!!
The final closing ceremony/awards show took place on the last day of PVVC, Friday, August 28, 2020. it was a pizza and coke virtual party where the girls watched the show from home while eating their favorite snacks. Each group: Ruby, Jade-vine, and Sea-pink, had prepared a presentation of compiled projects done by individual members along with other presentations: dance, drama, animation, shared for everybody to watch and enjoy. It was beautiful, even within the virtual space. Out-standing campers were acknowledged and awarded. Votes of thanks and appreciation followed, and it's a wrap! "this summer vacation camp was fun, and I feel like the facilitators tried to make it lovely for us. I am very grateful that I could be part of this camp"_Dinachi Obi, Sea-pink group.

To access presentations and other materials from the virtual camp, please click here.