Some things have changed!
By Fleur
@Fleura (30928)
United Kingdom
March 21, 2016 6:07pm CST
Earlier this evening we were talking about countries to visit and Little One asked where the country we were talking about was. So I got the globe and showed her and explained that one of our friends comes from there. Then she started pointing to other countries and asking ‘who comes from there?’ and we worked our way around a lot of the people we know locally pointing out their home countries.
Staff at nursery come from Pakistan, South Africa and Brazil. Friends in the village are from Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, India, Ireland and China; our next-door neighbour is from Korea; Big One has classmates from Greece and Spain; the village librarian is from France; friends we went on holiday with live in Germany.
Suddenly it struck me how terribly cosmopolitan this all sounds compared to my childhood – when I was Little One’s age, everyone in the village where we lived came from there, as did their parents and probably their grandparents too (and mine, on one side at least). Little One’s experience is a little bit different!
Who's to say which is best? It's nice to have friends from around the world bringing their ideas and experiences with them, but that rootedness and sense of belonging has advantages too.
Do you live where your ancestors lived, or are you a global wanderer?
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2016.
8 people like this
11 responses
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
22 Mar 16
My ancestors were English and I still live in England, but the population in general has certainly moved a great deal during my lifetime. In fact, many countries have either changed their name, their boundaries or even ceased to exist altogether.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
28 Mar 16
My ancestors were from England and Greece. I was born in the US and now live in Canada. I remember my own children when they were first shown a globe, it opened their eyes to the wonder of history and our little planet.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
22 Mar 16
It's natural for me to walk down the street and hear other languages being spoken, whether here in my tiny rural town, or in the city where I work. It's part of my normality now, but when I was a child, growing up in a big village, foreign folk were a delicate novelty!
1 person likes this
@MGjhaud (23240)
• Philippines
22 Mar 16
my parents never left where their parents lived for years. my mom inherited a piece of land from my grandparents and thats where our house was built. some of our relatives are now living abroad (Canada, HongKong, Japan, and several states in the US) but they always come visit us on Holidays.
1 person likes this
@allknowing (140088)
• India
22 Mar 16
I am back in the State where I came from and about an hour's drive from the place where I was born.
1 person likes this
@rina110383 (24492)
•
22 Mar 16
Yes, I live in the same country where my ancestors lived.
1 person likes this
@VasuJain97 (147)
• Ahmedabad, India
22 Mar 16
Yeah! At least still we are in the same country in which my ancestors lived but now looking forward to wander the world.
1 person likes this
