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My Week at Culture Camp
By Quilla Otto-Jacobs
I had waited for what seemed like years for culture camp to start. Finally the first day of camp arrived. On the drive to the church where the camp is held, I was really excited!!! But when we got there I became shy.
I played on the playground with other kids while the grownups set up the classrooms and prepared for the rest of the campers to arrive. On the playground I greeted old friends and met new friends.
When I went to my classroom our counselor, Sandy, told us about this year's camp theme, which was pre-Colombian culture. That was the time before the Spanish came to the Americas, and when there were hundreds of cultures in North and South America. Each day we had classes in art, dance, music and Spanish. My favorite class was art.
After all our classes on the first day, we had a special activity. Two women, called
CANTARÉ, sang songs from all over the Latin America.
The next day we had a field trip to Dumbarton Oaks to see pre-Columbian culture objects. My favorite object was a piece of cloth covered with different colored feathers. Some of the other objects were old bowls and pieces of gold melted together to make gold men and women with children. There were also lots of masks of jaguars. Our guide told us jaguars were used a lot in art because they were believed to be the most powerful animal in the jungle. If you killed a jaguar and made a necklace out of its teeth people knew you were very powerful.
When we left Dumbarton Oaks my class and the C.I.T.S went to a restaurant, La
BAMBA. The counselors ordered the same thing for everyone. The food wasn't the best but I still ate it.
After camp on the third day, I had several friends for a sleepover.
After the last day of camp, we celebrated with a fiesta. It was our chance to show our parents what we learned at camp. Each group had their own costumes for their dance. We also sang a song we learned that week. My group did the Meréngue and the Macarena. We also ate Latin American food and talked and played with friends. I like culture camp because I get to be with friends I don't see very often and do fun activities.
I can't wait 'til next year!
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