Third Culture Kid

Last week Joel had a simple assignment: Make up a city and paint a picture of it. We had just learned about differences between the ‘country’ and the ‘city’ and what kind of buildings he might have in a city. So Joel paints this:

I really like it, don’t get me wrong. It’s a Picasso-ish seaside metropolis with twin towers apparently (I guess those explanations of Sept. 11 really stuck from last month!) I think Anna even got in on the gray shading of the East Tower. Anyway, I hung it up and his last assignment was to name his city.

So, what do you want to name your city Joel?

Africa.

Africa is a continent. Are you sure that’s what you want to name your city?

Yup. Africa.

So, here’s the city ‘Africa’ by Joel, a true TCK (third culture kid). For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it is often used for children raised overseas where they are not entirely IN their passport culture, nor entirely IN their local culture, but somehow in a THIRD. One that is made up of other TCKs with a dash of different cultures and traditions thrown together. It has its inherent difficulties, but can be an incredible heritage. So why not a city named Africa?

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