So, the next day, the camp was inaugurated with a parade of all participating countries of birth. The first and largest group was Guatemala with 92 children!
I cannot explain what came upon me but I could not control the tears of emotion. I think it was seeing the love of the parents, I was watching the children´s life story not being adopted but also the struggles, some more some less, they will have because of being adopted. All an all it was a feeling of love should conquer all.
The count of participants was 130 families more than 300 participants! Children had t-shirts according to their grade age. At the end of the ceremony each group of kids went with their group lead by two or three counselors. The counselors were young adults most of them adopted and others college kids from a Latin America background.
Children did sports, crafts, spanish lesson, dance, mayan astronomy, etc. At lunch we were to pick them up at 12:00 to have picnic lunch as a family. We got a little turned around as to the place to pick the up so we got scolded for being some minutes late to what my husband humorously commented that it could not be much of a Latin Heritage Camp if people are not late!!! (we where not late again though)
After lunch children took off again with their groups to many more activities like, piñatas making, cooking, artifact digging, etc while adults had workshops to choose from, one of them being mine (offered at two different time slots). I was nervous because I thought after lunch there was not going to be that much interest but to my surprise I had two full classes with over 25 participants each!!! (I will have one post just for the presentation)
(pictures are from LAHC memory pack)
In the evening we were invited to a VIP dinner for presenters, counselors and coordinators. A fabulous ceviche was served, you can find the recipe here. I had fun wearing my traditional outfits. The one I wore for the dinner was the ceremonial guipil for San Juan Sacatepequez.
It was a day full of excitement and tons of activities, here is Megan checked out for the day! We didn´t make it to the evening camp circle.
2 comments:
Wow! I can't wait until Ruby is just a little bit older to bring the girls to this camp. It sounds fantastic. We went to the Guatemalan Weekend at a local adoption agency. There was one adult involved that was from Guatemala. She was great but she was the only one. All of the counselors were just local high school kids with no connection to Guatemala. They served Mexican food for lunch. It was awful. I would love a camp where they try to get adults and older adoptees from the countries involved so the kids can really learn about their first countries.
Your post brings back wonderful memories! And, I am enjoying reading about your perceptions of camp. Thanks, Cynthia!
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