Surrounded by Aliens

We invited "A" from our Katrina family to go camping with all of us from church this weekend after I found out she'd never been before. She seemed hesitant to go and I chaulked it up to not being sure if she'd like camping. We all told her how much fun it would be and how much we'd love her to come with us but I still wasn't sure she'd be at the meeting point come Saturday.

Well, I come home Friday night to discover Big Daddy has injured his knee at work and will not be able to go with us. Then I realize he can't get around and will need me to stay home and feed him and the animals. I'm a little disappointed but truth be told I was glad for the out. It was a huge group of kids and adults and I'm not fond of the problems groups of people like this usually end up with. And they had enough adults so I wasn't needed and with little princess still going, I'd have some much needed quiet time.

I pack up the tent, all little princess' gear, the food for breakfast I was supposed to make and we head for the meeting point. I'm touched when one teen tells me how disappointed she is that I won't be there. Then A shows up with her mom and the woman they are staying with and I'm please to see she's going to give it a go. I say to her mom, "I didn't know you were going?" She tells me she's not, they just didn't have time to drop her off at the house. I offer her a ride home since she's on my way home.

I tell her that I'm glad A decided to go and that she'll have fun. Then A's mom throws me for a loop and I'm left speachless. "Yeah, well, she wasn't sure she wanted to spend the weekend surrounded by white folks."

I could honestly think of nothing to say, not even something funny to respond with. I might have said, "oh".

Now the family looks black (or African American, if you prefer) in skin color and hair type but they have a hispanic last name and since I helped them enroll the son in high school I know they marked hispanic on the forms. Being from New Orleans, they speak some french and pronounce the kids' names in french.

Who does she want to hang with if not the white people that have taken her in, given her shelter, food, clothing, transportation, entertainment and inclusion into our lives and hearts? Does she just think of us as white people? Are we so culturally divided as to appear alien to the other?

I tried to put myself in her shoes. I tried really hard. I thought and thought about how I would feel. You know what? Its so foreign a concept that I honestly can't say how I might feel. But I do know that the comment hurt me just a little.