Becoming a World Citizen

So how do you get started in the global life? In my case, it all started with Guyana... No one in my family had ever heard of Guyana, or had any idea where in the world it might lie, but one day Dad came home from work and told us all he had applied for a job there. What exactly motivated him to quit a Federal Government job in San Francisco and accept a post with the World Health Organization in tropical South America, I am not quite sure. Adventure? Compassion for the poor? Boredom with the routine? A little of all three, I guess.

But for me, moving to Guyana at age 13 was the opening of a door on to the wide world.

My parents were determined that we would not live in an "expatriate ghetto" in Georgetown, the capital city. I and my two younger brothers were enrolled in local, English-medium schools, to sink or swim, each on our own. The change from a California suburban public school to St. Rose's Ursuline Convent School for Girls could hardly have been more total. The girls in my class were the daughters of business and professional families in the capital, and they had never imagined that their close-knit group might be augmented by so exotic a creature as an American. Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, with ancestors from Europe, Africa and India, they knew all about diversity, but they didn't know much about Americans, except what they saw in the few movies they were allowed to watch.

They welcomed me. They reached out and gave me the help I needed to find my way around and adjust to my new environment. It never occurred to them to exclude a newcomer or foreigner, in fact, I think they were proud that their class had got me. They taught me to eat "puri" Indian fried bread with hot chili sauce for snack time. They guided me around the school's neat paths, lined with bougainvillea, to the chapel, the library, the science lab and the playground. They invited me to join the Girl Guides.

They taught me the single most important lesson about crossing cultures: It is possible. People do it all the time. And you can expect to receive a welcome on the other side. Moreover, it is possible to learn to see the world through the lens of another culture. It may be a difficult, painful, even scary journey, but it is a part of being human to be able to move outside of one's own walls, and knock at other gates.