"Cook-up" Night with Girl's Circle

Chicken Curry and the Circle!

On Friday night we held the first ever "Cook-up" night for Girl's Circle.  Girl's Circle is a group that works on empowering young females to be responsible, make good decisions, and respect others.  Growing up as a young woman in a community that emphasizes males as the power holders is not an easy experience.  Girl's Circle offers girls ranging from 8 years to 18 years old a place to go to discuss issues that arise from being a young female.  This particular project packet we talk about different things every week that address what it is like to be a girl.  It is intended to be an eight-week "course", but it ends up being more around 16 because of the St. Lucian style of life.  The girls are all unique and energetic, but still are in need of some direction in life.  They are young and just need a few more female role models to guide them in the right direction.  There are around 11 girls in the group so far, but only 8 of them made it to the cook-up night.

A "cook-up" is a time when people get together and cook things up.  Hmmmm, go figure!  Rosemary, one of the Girl's Circle facilitators in addition to myself, makes amazing

 Chicken Curry.  I had expressed desire to learn how to cook a delicious chicken curry a couple of weeks beforehand, and thus, a cook-up resulted.  We cooked chicken curry, plantains, and chocolate cake.  We also made golden apple juice.  The golden apples came

 straight from my backyard, and the juice was absolutely delicious!!!  Every girl was given a task to complete in the cooking process.  Many of the girls were in charge of peeling and cutting the golden apples for preparation stages of making the juice.  Other girls were in charge of cutting onions, blending the juice, helping Rosemary with the chicken, and washing the dishes.  

While the food was busy cooking, a few of the girls went to play monopoly and dance around.  The others stayed up stairs and learned how to cook plantains, watched Camp Rock, and talked with the "adults".  Not much chaos ensued until after dinner and before desert.  It does, however, take a little while to cook food with 8 teen girls at your house!  It took us a total of 4 and a half hours to cook and eat!  

The girls are all amazing girls that I know have so much potential to turn into fine women.  I very much enjoy being around the girls and I am glad that I got to be a part of the group!  I look forward to having them over the next two years.  It is extremely important to empower girls in this age range.  It can make all of the difference in their lives.  If a girl can mold herself into a motivated and strong individual, the world can certainly be changed.  A powerful woman, especially in a community like this one, can do a lot for the community.  She has the potential to have a good job and support her family, be inspiration for

 other young women, and help to mold other girls' lives along the way.