Same but different

I recently read this post on a blog that i follow about raising worldly children.

Essentially they travelled as a family to Haiti on a work trip and were amazed by how well their children coped with the conditions- the heat, the sweat, the dirt, the spicy food and the lack of toys. She was writing the post to talk about how proud she was of them.

One part of the post that really resonated with me though was trying to walk the balance between teaching your children that we are all children of the same world, while also explaining to them that they are a bit of an oddity by the fact that they look different. I have definitely had similar thoughts.

Bea may not cause much of a stir in Vientiane but she definitely stands out when we travel out of Vientiane. All of a sudden she is the only fair skinned, blondie in town and she is constantly surrounded, pinched, touched, stroked. How do you explain to a 2 year old that she is different and that makes her exciting to the locals. That she was lucky to be born where she was born in the world, and that she is lucky to have so much when others have so little? I guess you can try. And hope that the experience of living over here will become a part of who she is.

When we were in Champasack we visited a local village that was literally full of children. It was dusty, hot, and there was a bit of a mexican standoff. Bea and her pal were looking at the locals wondering why they were so dust covered and not really wearing clothes. And the locals were wondering who these blonde haired fair skinned children were. And probably why they had shoes on their feet.