"Scoots": take 2

After the chaos of that first meeting, we had two more sessions with Ary, formed 3 scout groups (two of older kids and one for the younger kids), and the older groups began having weekly meetings. Unlike American scouts, these groups are made up of both boys and girls. I helped them to plan a “community clean up day”, where they picked a part of the town and went to pick up litter for about an hour. They did this at least twice, and were so enthusiastic. Every time I walk through the village, I see some of the kids and they would raise their two fingers, the international “Scout” sign, and say, “Farida! SCOOTS!” They are so into it.

Just one problem: Ary isn’t, never was, a scout. He doesn’t really know what goes on at the meetings, and didn’t teach them how to plan or run them. And I am certainly not qualified to teach them this. They have so much enthusiasm, but they don’t really know what to do. They need direction.

When I was in Niamey, I met with the head of Scouts in Niger, and we planned to have him and two other scouts come out for 2 days to give the kids more training and direction. The trouble is just getting the funding to pay for them to come out to our village, food, etc., which isn’t difficult but can take a while. So for the moment, my scouts are kind of in abeyance. They are still enthusiastic, but I don’t think they’ve been keeping up with the weekly meetings, as they really don’t know what to do at the meetings. I’ve explained to them that some scouts from Niamey are going to come, but that I don’t know when they’ll be able to come. My only concern is that they will lose their momentum. Hopefully we’ll be able to get this moving again soon.