Seventy people. 15 different nations represented. Thousands of miles traveled to a central location. And a ton of preconceived notions. Walking into a month-long international camp, this is what I was thrust into.
In the first few days of a Children’s International Summer Villages (CISV) camp, one starts to form friendships with participants from other countries, albeit hesitantly. Then comes the poster activity.
All staff, leaders, junior counselors and participants from the same country gather. Every five minutes, a poster comes to the group with a new name on top. Indonesia. Sweden. Colombia. Now, those preconceived notions surface. Whatever comes to mind about a country – one writes down on its poster.
Finally, after a delegation has done this for every country in the camp, the group sees what the other participants wrote about its own country.
At my camp, this led to laughs for some. Italy – pizza and pasta. Sweden – blonde hair and blue eyes. No doubt stereotypes, but relatively “harmless”.
For other groups, though, there were no smiles. Germany – World War II. Colombia – cartel. And the USA, the country I had grown up being taught was the greatest in the world, had the following on its poster:
“Hates immigrants”
“School shootings”
Each country’s delegation had the opportunity to speak on how they felt about their poster, and tears flowed for many. It was clear whatever friendships were formed in the first few days would change.
From that point forward, each person made a conscious effort to see an individual’s character instead of one’s background. And by the end of the camp, my judgments about other nation’s citizens were wiped out, and I believe everyone else saw the U.S. a little differently, too.
