Koroipita "Reality" Youth Group

So I figure its about time I write about the project that I'm involved in. Last week, Alex and I headed out to the village of Koroipita to have a weekly class with the young women in that village. We absolutely love the class - these girls are so awesome. They range from ages 11-29 and we discuss topics that they face at this time of life.

Our first day we talked about trust and how we want this class to be one where we trust each other enough to share our thoughts and feelings in confidentiality. We did a few games involving trust (ie: trust fall) and then we just talked about trust while also discussing the different things we will do during this 5 week class.

We first asked the girls what they want to name the class. One girl spoke up and said "What about the Reality group - because we're talking about issues that we face each day". Brilliant. We were thrilled with the name and the fact that one of them came up with it!

We passed out little diaries for the girls to write down their thoughts and feelings that they might have during the week. We then presented the "I Am" statement - we kinda stole this idea from a campaign that BYU did a while back. We passed out a piece of paper that had "I Am _______" on it. We ask the girls each week to write down an adjective that describes how they feel about themselves each week (ie: I am strong, I am confident, etc). As an incentive for the class, if they attend 4 out of the 5 classes, we will make t-shirts that have their favorite "I Am" statement on it with the name of the Koroipita "Reality" Youth Group on the back and the quote "Be proud to wear you" listed on the back of it. They got super excited when they heard they would be getting t-shirts and I'm so excited to design them! The first class went SO well and Alex and I are always so pleased after each class and excited that we have this chance to do this class - even if it is only once a week for 5 weeks...

Last night we had the class again. We talked about peer pressure. Alex talked about 4 steps to use when faced with peer pressure and then we split the girls into groups to role play different scenarios and use the steps to get out of that situation. Some girls were very shy about getting up in front of each other while others were very sassy and just loved being front and center - haha my kind of girls :)

After the role playing, we discussed how it felt to be pressured, as well as positive peer pressure and how much worth you have that other peoples pressure shouldn't define what you do with your life. Minutes before the class started, I was looking over the agenda and a quote by Brother Eggett - my choir director - popped into my head. He would always tell us the quote "In a moment of strength, prepare for your weakness". I talked about how when you're not in those moments of pressure, make you decision to do what's right so your choice will be easy when put in those situations. When I said the quote, the girls' eyes got big and they all wrote the quote down in their diaries! I loved it!

Alex and I feel like this class is so worth it and we feel so lucky to be able to do this class, even if we only have 3 weeks left.

(I'll try and post pictures from class last night later - the internet is being super lame today- of course).