Her New School Uniform

Here's a picture for Oma up in Vancouver B.C. Ahava is in her new school uniform which she received yesterday. Her school mascot/emblem is a hummingbird which is appropriate for a kindergarten school with children from 3 to 6 years of age. We really do have a lot of hummingbirds in our area! This morning we encountered a little problem with Ahava before she went to school. As Ingrid was packing Ahava's little lunchbox, Ahava asked, "Mommy, can I have a taco in my lunchbox?" Ingrid asked, "Why? Do all the other kids eat tacos for lunch?" Ahava put out her little lip as if ready to cry and, looking really sad, said, "Yes." (sniffle...sniffle) It just amazes us how quickly children become culturally acclimatized. She wants to be like all the other little kids at her school. We have been encouraged by other missionaries to read books about missionary kids. MK's, as they are known, are often called "third culture kids" because they are a citizen of one culture and growing up in a family from that culture, yet they are living in a different culture and adapt to certain aspects of that new culture (language, food, surroundings, etc.). The child is never fully from one's own culture nor fully from the culture in which they are raised. It's like they are from a third culture. In Ahava's case, not fully Canadian nor fully Mexican. Add to it that she lived in Texas she has experience from that culture, too. She can still recite the Pledge of Allegiance from memory, and on our recent trip to Texas she said, "We're home again!" Maybe she is a fourth culture kid!?