TCK Journey Vol 2: Cameroon: 2015-2016

TCK JOURNEY Vol 2 covers School Year 2015-2016, at the American (International) School in Douala, Cameroon. Our lives were still being impacted by an occasional Boka Horam event or two as well as a few bombings in Paris. Those problems were serious enough, yet we also had to deal with the inner disasters that occurred behind closed doors with three revolving-door superintendents, this year as well as financial shenanigans in the accounting office, resulting in several teachers stranded, without money, unable to pay bills - it was a nightmare. Towards the end of the year, just in time for spring break, the Douala Airport was closed for resurfacing, adding a new dimension of uncertainty to our long-range travel plans as we scrambled to make travel arrangements to the nearest airport, 245 miles away in the capital of Yaounde. As I once heard, this ex-pat life is NOT for the faint of heart...

Growing up in the developing suburbs of the Nifty Fifties, I gave no thought to the fact other kids lived differently. As Navy dependents, part of my dad's job included moving every six months or year, two or three years if we were lucky, as he was transferred to another base, or ship or enrolled in another training school. We moved at least a dozen times between 1952 and 1970; I attended five regular public schools and two DOD schools before graduating in 1970. To say there were gaps in my learning is an understatement of survival.

Only now, 60 years later, are the effects of those moves being studied in the field of Education, under the umbrella name Third Culture Kids TCK]. Did learning Spanish in kindergarten, or Arabic in high school impact my life? You bet it did. There was no Henry Higgins to prepare any of us for the vast differences of our ex-pat world and the civilian world that had evolved during the post-WWII years. This in turn created an inner awareness for all who struggle living within a different culture, even to this day.