Korean Culture Camp

August 1

Every year for the last five years, Frances has gone to Korean Culture Camp. She spends five days with other Korean American children and a handful of white children doing art projects, eating Korean food, learning history and getting ready to perform in a dance or song in front of family. So, all this week I have been dropping her off and picking her up. Frances' report on each day comes in the creative one word format: "great", "fun", "awesome." I can and do beg for other details, but truthfully, the details are in the walks in and out through the crowds of other participants. It is in Frances' obvious comfort level, in the hellos she says to kids she has known for the last few years from this camp alone; it is in the positive energy that is so contagious in the space.

The first year Frances attended this camp, Solana and my niece, Lucy, attended as well. One day as we were walking out, I asked the girls how camp was going and Lucy replied that it was a little strange because there were so few white kids in the camp. My response was, "Imagine, that is Frances' experience every day in our family." Obviously, she has grown up in it, so it is different. And, I really do not know how she sees herself. When she was four, and we'd lounge in her bed, she would comment on how we have the same color arms. We'd hold them up in the air and she'd say, "yep, see Mom." And she was right. And the whole thing seemed sad and like it had the potential to get so much more complicated.

But during this week, when I walk through camp, and I see hundreds of Korean Americans, children running, teenagers who have clearly known and been at camp together for years, parents, both white and Korean-American who look overjoyed to be there and then the few older Korean-American grandparents holding their grandchildren's hands, I get a little choked up.