Carmen Knight is a young adult adoptee, camp counselor, and a Ties Connect & Chat facilitator
Why Camp?
One of the biggest benefits of camp is that it allows the adoptee
and family to connect to others just like them.
At culture/adoption camps, adoptees & families share, relate and connect with one another in
ways that they might not be able to do with other non-adoptive families.
In conversations with campers, and even my fellow counselors, on why
they come back year after year the main response I have gotten has been,
"The
people at camp just get it."
At camp, fellow
adoptees feel they don't have to explain their family and who they are because we share the same family structure & there is a "knowing." One
camper told me,
"Here I don't feel different. For one week I can just be me......
without explanation."
With all the benefits, memories and friendships culture/adoptee camps create, the effects
don't end when camp ends. Campers learn about themselves and their birth country's culture and heritage.
This knowledge about themselves
and their country of birth helps them appreciate and take pride in their
country of birth.
This appreciation and pride can help adoptees on a homeland
journey by giving them a base to better understand their country when
visiting. If they have previous knowledge about their country they won't
feel so overwhelmed when visiting. There are already ties created between the
adoptees and their country of birth through camp, which can than be
strengthened during their homeland journey when the adoptee can see, touch,
smell, and taste all their birth country has to offer.
|
|
|
|
We have often noted that kids who have participated in culture camp experience their birth country through "a wider lens." As we travel, the food is more familiar, as are the traditions, language, look and feel of the country. Further, kids with camp experience have more likely been around lots of other families who share a similar background. And because more and more camps are drawing on local ethnic communities to help with camp, the kids are more likely to have interacted with people from their birth country. All in all, as they take the huge step in visiting their homeland, camp kids are usually able to experience their birth country with more confidence.
With camp season just around the corner, and our strong feelings about how culture camp helps kids prepare to visit their birth country, we posed the following question to several people and received wonderful responses!
Q. What do you see as the most important factors in camp, and how do you think your camp experiences positively or negatively affected your visit to your country of birth (or your child's if you are a parent)?
|
Here are some of the answers.....
| |
Emily Freeman, 19, was 15 years old when she traveled to her birth country and writes...
Culture camp was my first introduction as to how
different America
and my birth country are, and my first glimpse of issues like poverty, hunger,
and disease. The leaders introduced it in a way that made us aware that these
two places were different but did not scare us. Being exposed to  issues of
poverty and hunger early helped me to form a background for what I thought it would
be like. When I went to my birth country, I did not have too much to go on, and
so my ideas of what it would be like were formulated from culture camp. Being
exposed to poverty at a young age made it less shocking to me when I saw it up
close. This also helped when I was trying to figure out why my parents gave me
up. It gave an understanding of the difficulties that my family was facing and
that I was not unloved. Also just having the opportunity to learn about the
culture helped me to feel more at home. I had already eaten the food and heard
the music at camp so although it was a huge change in culture, I felt more
comfortable.
|
At camp, JoanEllen Gereg saw her kids thru a new lens
|
It was the camp environment that convinced me that
a cultural experience like a homeland journey could be one of the most
important events in the lives of my children. Maybe it was because my kids just
seemed so comfortable at camp that I got the sense that more culture
would be better. Prior to attending the camp I had never even dreamed of such a
journey. Maybe camp made me realize that while my kids seemed all American- they
really aren't, and should have at least one opportunity to really be
immersed in that other half of their heritage.
|
|
Jesse, 10, is a four year veteran of camp
 Using her camp experience as a foundation, Jesse traveled to Cambodia with many of
her fellow campers as well as a few new faces. Her mother writes, "These kids stuck together
like glue! They hung out together in the back of the bus, sat together
during meals and played together during downtime. They shared their
thoughts with one another during their sharing sessions. These kids
shared something that no parent could ever share with them because they all
understood what each other was going through." Reflecting
on the combination of experiences, Mom continues, "The pride of being a Cambodian American shows up
everywhere in her day to day life. She wears all of her Cambodian T-shirts now on
a regular basis- those from camp and those she bought in Cambodia. She
did an amazing school report and slide show on her homeland and traveling
experience. She listens to Khmer music. And when someone asks her
if she is from China,
she looks them directly in the eye and with pride says, 'NO, I AM FROM
CAMBODIA!' The way that best describes her transition is that it seems as if she
has retrieved a piece of herself that was missing. There is a sense of calm or
peacefulness in her being."
|
Julie Silberstein sees the importance of her daughter being with other kids who share a similar background.
|
The most
important part of culture camp for us was to become connected to other families
just like ours, reinforcing how important it is for the kids to feel like there
are other kids out there just like themselves, and how important it is to acknowledge
and honor birth culture.
I also feel
that the yearly culture camp ritual validates the importance of birth
culture to all family members, even to those that don't attend. It's like a
yearly 'checking in', especially for those of us who don't live in multi-ethnic
towns or around many other adoptive families, and is a very important way for
Mia to reconnect with children just like her in a fun environment.
|
Ben and Mara attended
culture camp and were 16 and 19
respectively when they visited their birth country.
Ben...
All the cultural things we
did really prepared me. I didn't feel very awkward because I knew how I was
supposed to act already. Also the camp does this ethnic dinner where we pick 3
things from our birth country to eat and then serve them, so we were pretty
much used to eating the local foods. I would say that the camp in some ways
over prepared me for the poverty level. It's really not as bad as it used to be.
Sure, there is still poverty, but its not any where close to how it used to be.
And so, for many years I thought my birth country was basically a third world
country.
Mara...
When I visited my birth
country, I was a little more prepared but I was still shocked. You can never be
fully prepared for the trip of your life. I knew what to expect regarding some
customs like kissing both cheeks when you greet someone and the friendliness of
the local people. When I arrived, I didn't feel left out. I felt like I knew about my culture and what is
like to feel Romanian. Because of camp,
I had experienced the folk dancing and I thought the food was great. What I
didn't know from camp was how beautiful Romania was. It was good to feel at
home and to really experience Romania
in all the ways I have dreamed of. I think anyone who is adopted should visit
their home country and experience it.
|
| Kari, 17, has attended culture camp for many years. She
traveled to her birth country when she was 12 and again when she was 16. She writes:
|
Culture camp helped
me with a lot with my trip to my birth country. It helped me see that I am
not the only one going through adoption and I get to meet a lot of fun
Hispanics like myself. I also think that when I was in the younger groups and
learning about the various countries each summer, it helped me see the
differences in cultures. The camp helped me sort out stereotypes from
reality. In many ways, the camp help
prepares you when visiting your birth country. I actually could not imagine
going back to Paraguay
with out going to camp first.
|
We hope you've found this information useful and insightful.
Make 2009 a "camp year" for your family. See you there!
|
|
|
Sincerely,
The Ties Program Team
The Ties Program--Adoptive Family Homeland Journeys
www.AdoptiveFamilyTravel.com
|
|
|
