The Fluegge Family in Africa

I have read articles on third culture kids but I’ve never actually been apart of it (except for other American missionary families) until now.  Third culture kids does not just refer to missionary kids or military children who have lived in different countries other than the United States.  There is a third culture out there and Americans are not the only ones who are a part of it.  Living in South Africa and having our children attend Crawford school has really brought this alive for me.   Last week Sat. (July 18) I went to a birthday party for a classmate of Jesse’s.  Jesse is in pre-school and his friend just turned five.  The father of this friend is from Guatemala and his mother is from Spain.  They both speak fluent English, Spanish and French.  They work for the United Nations and move every 2 to 4 years.  Abigail has a friend whose father is Danish and her mother Portuguese.  They are also fluent in several languages and work for the United Nations.  I have met similar people with similar stories only they work for World Bank.  I have families where the parents are from different countries and the children are adopted from yet another country.  I just can’t imagine having that type of life.  As a child I would wonder which country I am “from”.  Especially if I was not born in either of the “home” countries of my parents but in some other country.  I guess “home” would be what it says on your passport.  I know many of these children have dual citizenship.  However, having never really lived in either of those countries it would be hard to call either one of them “home.” When I listen in on conversations they talk about being in camp in Denmark to learn Danish or having been to Paris.  They know more about the “wars” in some African countries than we do and have opinions on politics around the world.  This third culture atmosphere is one of the reasons we chose to send our children to Crawford.  I am thankful we made that decision.  Our children feel very much at home there and the staff is incredible.  The teachers are used to working with third culture children and so know how to relate to them.  I do not know what God has in store for our children but their world view and their experience with other children from around the world has been and will be good for them.  Hopefully they will learn to use those experiences later in life.