Slumber party

It was late Saturday night. Not after midnight, but when you’ve spent the day at a workshop with 28 secondary-school-aged girls, any time after 8 p.m. seems late. My night, though, was just beginning.

I was at this workshop to help out one of my friends who is in charge of one of our GenEq programs that gives scholarships for female students selected and mentored by volunteers across the country. That night, she and I would be supervising the girls until the next morning, meaning I would be sleeping on a mat on the floor, but also, that I would not be sleeping until these girls were sleeping. And, right now, as I waited for her to finish up some work in another classroom, the girls were not interested in sleeping.

I turned on some music to try to make the time pass faster. When a popular song in Benin came on, I noticed a few of them starting to dance.

I turned the volume up and a few more of them started to dance.

I took the speakers outside and a group followed me.

When my friend showed up 20 minutes late, she found me and a group of five girls outside the classroom where they would be sleeping, dancing away the fatigue.