Apparently I am a little bit famous after the whole Created Beautiful thing since people now know my name. A girl out at camp was telling me how funny we were. Which is great that they enjoyed the drama stuff but I feel bad since I did not think much of it up. Only one sketch really. I didn't actually have much to do with it. But I think it's still ok to smile and laugh and say "yeah, that was fun." because I did have fun. It's just a little strange for me to be recognized for something I did instead of for being my brother's sister.
This morning at camp the plan was to wake the campers up early and then kind of recreate refugee scenario. The kids are given profiles of refugees and then they must hike through the bushes through checkstops and avoiding border patrols. It is supposed to raise awarness about refugees. Which i'm sure it will. And i'm sure there is not anything wrong with it. Afterall someone has made this whole thing up with a debriefing book and everything. But it doesn't quite sit right with me. I feel that recreating the terror and hate experienced be refugees could be a little disrespectful. I met a man who escaped out of Afghanistan like 20 years ago. He told me how it was like the Berlin wall and the guards would kill any man, woman, or child caught trying to escape. I didn't really get the impression it was an experience he wanted anyone else to go through.
But perhaps I am being overly sensitive. After all I do have a history of being overly sensitive to tragedy. I guess I'll head out to camp and see how it went.
Oh. And I guess there's a third thing. The campers are allowed to have their cell phones this year. Weird.
3 comments:
We did the recreated refugee scenario at camp a couple years ago and it actually went over pretty well. There were a few glitches and some campers that didn't like it, but most of the students said that it really made them aware and helped them understand what it must be like. It was quite the experience for some. It's cool to hear that they are doing it out there. Keep me posted on how it actually went.
actually, i think it spawned almost entirely positive reactions. even so much that a group of girls from a Christian High School are planning to do one in their school as their senior project. Also, Doctors Without Borders is doing a refugee camp experience in downtown edmonton all weekend in September. It's a fine line to walk, knowing what is and is not inappropriate, I think we were clear and respectful, but perhaps if I had seen it with different eyes, I would have had a different heart. I dont know. I too have good friends who have lived in refugee camps, Christens exboyfriend John was a Sudanese refugee, I guess for me I saw it as a chance to grab the students attention in a far more unsettling manner than simply reading a facts sheet. We didnt take it so far that anyone cried or experienced more than mild discomfort, and we took precautions to ensure that the more 'fragile' kids were identified to everyone involved. I think it was, overall, a really positive experience, but is definitely the kind of thing that has to be handled with dignity and grace, otherwise, we would be being disingenous to the situation, and not extending dignity to it and its real life victims. I think the best case scenario would be to have a former refugee come and speak to the group after the refugee experience, but we did our best, and there are many things on you-tube trying to educate our generation on the atrocities happening far away from us. This is really long. I suppose suffice it to say, that I think our entire staff struggled with this same issue, as well as a multitude of other issues, as we walked thru this experience, but in the end, hearing the hearts of some of our students aching with compassion made it worth the while.
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