People of the World
Where’s home if you grow up in two countries?
Wendy Lee grew up in Taiwan and the USA, and has recently completed a Peace Corps assignment in Cameroon. In today’s interview we ask Wendy about what it’s like to move countries and adapt to a new culture, and what makes a place feel like home.
Where do you live now and where did you grow up? Where’s home for you?
I just moved to London last week to begin graduate school, so this is where I live now. I was born in Taiwan and spent my childhood there until the age of 12 before moving to St. Louis, Missouri, where I lived through college. It’s hard to define where home is for me. I try to invest energy to make each place I live my home by building lasting relationships and becoming comfortable with my environment. To me, home is where my loved ones are, and that could be anywhere from Taiwan to Cameroon.
You don’t need to live abroad
Here’s the first of our interviews with People of the World, all over the world. As we wrote last week, there are many different kinds of people of the world; it’s not a narrowly defined category. Today’s interview demonstrates how it’s very possible to have a global outlook and be passionate about getting to know other cultures even without living or travelling abroad. We talked to Sylva Nze Ifedigbo, a writer and journalist living in Abuja, Nigeria.
Could you start by telling us something about yourself?
I am a Nigerian. You know Nigeria, with a population of over 150 million people, is said to be the largest black nation in the world and is as multi-cultural as it is multi-religious.
Politically though we categorize the country into six geopolitical zones. I hail from the South East geopolitical zone which has Igbo as the predominant tribe. I was born however in the Abuja the Federal Capital Territory where I live currently too. I was born to teacher parents and grew up reading many books. That perhaps informed my love for reading and writing. I studied Veterinary Medicine though at the University of Nigeria. Today I work in Project Management as well as being a creative writer and freelance journalist. I contribute articles and opinions on socio-political issues to many Nigerian online forums and NEXT newspaper. I also moderate a personal blog ‘Nzesylva’.
The trouble with cooties*
Isn’t it funny how the minute you stop looking for something it pops up in the most unexpected way at a most unexpected time? After years of being bitter and single, I finally had gotten to the point where I thought You know what? I’m a cool gal and I am perfectly happy on my own!
Then I met him.
As he is Dutch and was living in the Netherlands, our main method of contact was Skype. Before our first session, I was so nervous. Even though I’d practically spilled my guts out to this guy via e-mail, the idea of actually talking to him was positively nerve-wracking.
“Like we were born on the same street”
Erin (from the USA) and Lionel (from Kenya) wrote in to share their story. Thank you!
Erin: We met in Juba, Southern Sudan in 2007 where we were both working at the time, at a Halloween Party at the US Government compound. Lionel was dressed as an angry mechanic complete with coveralls, a wrench and a hideous mask, and I was dressed as a flamenco dancer (only because I had a red dress with flowers – resources for costumes were limited in Sudan!). We now live in London where we are both furthering our education.
What advice would you give to cross-cultural couples?
In our recent interview series we asked “Do you have any advice for other cross-cultural couples?”
The answers were so good that they deserve a post of their own. Here they are, with some extra tips from the PocketCultures team and our readers.
How Irish Am I?
Growing up in Australia I had very little understanding of my cultural background.
With the knowledge that I had Irish ancestry, I told people I was Australian and one quarter Irish. It didn’t matter that this was wrong – or that my maths was appalling, and I was actually half Irish – because our cultural background was not something my family discussed. And I never gave much thought to it.
On my Mum’s side, my grandparents were born in Australia and my great grandparents were English, with a bit of French thrown in there somewhere. I never knew my Dad’s parents, only that they were Irish, emigrating from Ireland to England and then onto Australia where my Dad was born.
My Mum was raised Protestant and my Dad was raised Catholic; as a consequence I was raised religion-less, with my parents deciding that it was better to leave me with this choice (read: conflict).
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