* thoughts on being a TCK (Third Culture Kid) or GN (Global Nomad) as in an MK (Missionary Kid)

One of my realities is I was blessed to grow up in a land far, far away from that of my parents, a very, very long ways from

where I now live in St. Paul, MN (back in the land of my parents), a land which oh so slowly has again become my own. It just happened naturally as my parents became Lutheran missionary school teachers to Madagascar when I was going into 3rd grade. From then till I graduated from high school, with the exception of 8th grade back here in Minnesota (Minneapolis), I grew up as an MK in the little, but oh so complicated town (I’ve found out later in life) of what was then called Fort Dauphin (now called Tolagnaro, Tolanaro or even Faradofay) on the coast of southeastern Madagascar. An absolutely gorgeous place on the Indian Ocean, with, in our case, ocean on 3.5 sides of us, white sand beaches for hundreds of miles whether you went west or north, hills to the northwest, rain forests 10 miles north of us, a semi-desert about 50 miles to the west and the list goes on. I have described it as Oahu about 200 years ago (without very many people and very little pavement, no skyscrapers, hotels, etc.) or Fantasy Island without all that fantasy (though we did have “the plane! the plane!” which was a DC-3 when I got there back in the mid 1960’s and was a 737 by the time I graduated from the American School in the mid 1970’s).

So being true to my word and my eclecticity (pretty sure that’s not a word), this MK/AMK theme is another of the “streams” flowing through this “land” of my blog. This, too, shall be continued.

[the picture is of my family at the airport “terminal” in Fort Dauphin in 1971 on our way back to the US after our first 5-year term. i would be the one in the red shirt]