Days 2-4

Our delegates came and we organized ourselves into our cabins

Jordan, Me, Tony, Ana, Tennille, Stephanie, Anna

and we were then later placed into our discussion groups

from top Cera, Me, Jon, Tennille, Steve, Eli, Amanda

Im trying to grab little tidbits here and there from the week because there is just no way to retell everything that went on and get the message and emotion behind to everyone reading so one of my favorite parts of camp (probably most of you too) is just the fun and games everyone plays and has in the camp atmosphere...

This spontaneous round of the Macerena came from a whole cabin being late the first day after taking their luggage to their cabin. It was Max's cabin who was then infamous for the rest of the week for being late to everything. The best part of it is that everyone knew all the moves and danced it like they practiced it all day long...

After shaming the tardy delegates we played tons of fun group games to get the energy up and going. This one was called lifeboat where they called out a number and you have to find that many people and get into a group to stay in the game. Being college students and having and obvious lack of fun this game became competitive/violent very quickly and I opted out about after 4 rounds for fear of being torn apart..

see the looks on those faces? fun or fear???

This game is called bear, man, woman and is a fun full body variation of rock, paper, scissors

We kept going until it came down to two..

Juliet and Suniko

Fun camp games are pretty much how we got the day rolling everyday but after that the counselors would do a skit (that we usually got like 5 mins to prepare!!) on what the topic of the day was. This one was the 4th day where our topic was "know your family/community".

During the evening programs we sometimes did another skit or intro to that activity. The last night we were there was easily the most emotionally charged one with looking at the 6 different levels of prejudice. We did six skits for each level and ended with a skit on genocide. Me, Suniko, and Max (all hispanics) huddled in the middle of the dark room depicting a family of undocumented citizens hiding out. The rest of the counselors stood outside banging on windows and walls until the lights went completely out and they came to kill us under flashlight and with pieces of wood for sound-effects of gunshots. It was easily the most raw, emotionally charged and tragic thing I have ever acted in but when I hit the floor upon my acted murder I could hear almost everyone in the first couple rows crying and I was instantly filled with hope for the future.

In Collegetown we do insanely emotional activities combined with an action group workshop that changes how you see and feel about the world and as well as give you the tools to go out back into your community and make a difference...

I had hope that through the delegate's tears, there would that seed of change planted and when we came back they would see the injustices happening in our society and be able to do something about it...

I just though of my mom that night, and how her and my father came over illegally and how they could have easily been put into the situation I was acting out that night...I was thinking that and about how I was going to come back and work to make a change.

all photos taken from the collegetown facebook page