Over the years, I have always been drawn to the expat or foreign community. My first experience of this was in high school. I always hung out with the foreign students. That was such a rich time. It was 1994 and I met this girl from South Africa, Ingrid. She is Afrikaans and worked for a newspaper. She gave me pictures from when they opened up the vote to black South Africans and when they first integrated beaches. I wept, and I have never forgotten those images of the floods of black people not holding back. My heart is always drawn to people of resistance and those who fight for freedom. I never take voting for granted because I am a woman, and I know the price others have paid for me to get the vote. (Don't take voting for granted!)
The year before, I had met Eva who was from Germany, and I will never forget the awe I had of how mature and traveled she was. Trains and robust independence at a young age is something I did not experience because we lived in a suburb of Houston and shared one truck with 3 of us in my family (I do want to say my parents were very generous with letting me have the truck a lot). However, due to circumstances, I had limited freedom. I got a kick out of Eva and her stories and I kept them with me. So, while in college, I continued to be drawn to the expat community in Austin and was all the richer for it.
I have also had the experience of being an expat. One of my favorite things about living in other countries are the expats or the merry band of other foreigners. Whether we stayed in Guatemala, Kenya, England or Uganda, my husband and I dearly loved and valued the opportunity to meet people from other countries. We raised our children in this ecosphere. Often the Thanksgiving celebration and meal was a wonderful way to share the American contribution. Turns out Canadians have Thanksgiving too, although earlier. I will never forget how grateful the Canadians were to celebrate Thanksgiving, albeit “later”. Holidays in any country ares good ways to share community.
While living in Uganda, I wanted to have our American friends and German neighbor over for a tea party. (See above pictures.) I had the idea to ask our Irish neighbor if she would mind reading this Scottish book about the adventures of Katie Morag. This is a series by Mairi Hedderwick of which she also illustrates. FYI, she has amazing calendars too. It went even better than I had imagined, and I always think about her when I see these books. She could explain some of the unfamiliar terms and added her own experiences and insight to the already rich and thoughtful stories.
The expat community has always given me and my family much more than we gave, but we have enjoyed being a part of it over the years. I look at my kids now and see the great debt I owe to these collective experiences, and I hope to continue paying it forward in gathering people of different origins in my own country and to seek out these communities no matter where I travel. I also owe the Ingrids and Evas in my life for helping me to gain empathy, perspective and appreciation for other systems and ways of thinking and for peaking my interest to what else could be “out there."
