Enculturated

These days, my kids are getting more and more enculturated.  This means that they see the place we live now more and more as ‘home’ and the place we come from originally more and more as a place we ‘visit.’  One way we can see this is in the things they know about and the things they don’t know about.  Sometimes we make mention of something from ‘back home’ and the kids don’t know what in the world that is.  Here’s a little example list of things our kids don’t remember:

• Recliners: Chris was talking about how great it would be to sit in a recliner.  Jed responded, “What’s that?”  Yep, here, we sit on the floor a lot.  We also use beanbags.  We have one room in our house with sofas.  It’s our fancy room and we try to keep it nice for company.  We eat our dinner on the floor around a plastic table cloth and, if we want a chair, we use one of those plastic lawn chairs.  After we reminded him, Jed remembered.  “You know, those chairs with the lever and your feet go up!”  “Oh yeah, like at Grandma and Grandpa’s.” Don’t think Lucy does, though.

• Cheerios: After someone mentioned them, we again heard Jed trying to bring the memory back, “Oh yeah, are those the things like Honey Loops only smaller?”

• Sports popular in America: We were in the city a few days ago and got to watch some of the Olympics.  It took me aback when I realized I had to explain the rules of basketball to Jed.  All he knew is that they were supposed to put the ball in the hoop.  Try explaining double-dribbling and traveling and free throws to a kid who’s never seen a real basketball game.  And forget about American Football.  We’ll have to wait until our next visit to teach him that one.

• Parks with slides and swings and climbing gyms and stuff: We’ve got a swing-set at our office, so at least they are learning the basics of pumping their feet, but it’s like the county fair if we find a place where they can go down a slide or use a teeter-totter.

Now, lest you get to feeling like our kids are so deprived and sheltered and unexperienced, I will share a little example list of things that our kids know about that most kids born to American parents haven’t experienced.

• Different transportation: Our kids have ridden in rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, shikaras, mountain-side gondolas, packed-to-the gills buses and trains and cars and taxis, and even an elephant.

• Animals: Monkeys, water buffalo, camels, the afore-mentioned elephants, street dogs, a wide variety of birds, snakes, lizards, water buffalo, sheep, goats, horses, and that doesn’t count a single trip to the zoo.

• Food: Aloo paratha, palak paneer, pakora, dal and rice, momos, butter chicken, gustaba, kebab, tandoori roti, samosas, and many other favorites.

• Making friends with someone when you don’t speak their language.  It can be a bumpy road, but it’s an amazing and wonderful lesson to learn that you can care about someone even if you can’t understand what they’re saying.

• Speaking of what they’re saying, the kids have started language classes.  They’re now at a new phase where they want to learn how to speak here so they can understand and be understood more easily.

• Travel: If all things go as planned, by the next time we go to America, they will have spent time exploring 5 different countries.  For Lucy, that will be more countries than years of life.

So, for now, most of the time when I remember that my kids have a different life experience than I had, I don’t mind.  I’m actually encouraged.  I hope and pray they will come away with an open, compassionate, educated, and broad view of the world they live in.  These days, however, I’m reminded that there are some especially hard things about living where we do.  These days, things haven’t been so peaceful in our ‘home’.  Right now, there are some things I wish my kids didn’t now about.  Here’s a little example list:

• Curfew: Not like, be home by 7.  Like, closing down the neighborhood and no one leaves the house.

• Strikes: Not like, let’s hold placards and march in front of our factory, but, let’s shut down all stores and public transportation in the whole city.

• Tear Gas:  Nowadays, we don’t presume that those booms are fireworks for a wedding.  Wedding celebrations have been canceled these last two months because of the struggle here.

• Razor Wire: This is a common sight on a normal day here, but even more these days.

It’s also hard to explain to our kids that none of the people they see on the streets are their enemies.  Not the teenagers, not the holy men, not the military or police, not the protestors.  To explain to them that they can love all these people.  That God created all these people.  That God wants the same freedom and peace and love and hope for all these people.  It’s not what they normally would hear, but it’s the truth.  Maybe, even though it’s not what I want my kids to have to learn right now, it’s what they need to learn.  When they arrive in my ‘home’, they will smile at that Auntie in a burka.  They will say ‘Salaam’ to that man with a prayer cap.  They will welcome the oppressed and the stranger.  They will shake hands with the police officer.  They will play tag at the park with a girl in a headscarf and a boy with a Korean accent and a kid whose Daddy is in jail.  I sure hope so.  It’s the only way I see out of this mess we’re creating of this world that God created and these people He created to bear His image. 

Here's what we spend a lot of time doing these days since we can't get out and around much: HOMESCHOOL!!!