the elefante in the room

Today at camp we talked about the huge elefante in the room: race.

We started the conversation by talking about differences in general. Likes, dislikes, short, tall, age, gender, personality, etc. Then it led to "soy dominicano and eres americana". Then we talked about how some of us are darker skinned than others and some of us are lighter skinned than others. Some of us are American, some of us are Dominican, and some of us are Haitian. Nuestras diferencias son magnificas. We need to treat everyone with respeto (respect), regardless of race or skin color. It's basic. It's true. But it is something that mankind has consistently struggled with throughout history.

There is another social work intern here named Etsuko, who lives in Hawaii, but is originally from Japan. The kids call her "americana" along with the rest of us, or they call her "china". Needless to say, there have been many teachable moments. We have also coached the kids to call us by our names, instead of "americanas" or "teacher".

Random side note: The cutest thing in the whole wide world is little Dominican children learning English. Yes that's a strong statement. But oh so true. Especially when they say the word "coconut". If only I was that cute fumbling around with Spanish.