One of the neighbours we connected with was a family from the Netherlands. Their lives mirrored our own as they too had recently relocated with a toddler in tow, exactly the same age as ours...
“Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu” is how we usually end Buddhist chants, or ‘gatha’s,’ many of which are recited in set groups of verses…
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We were given one week’s notice to pack our bags and leave the country…
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I recognize Lilly’s distress because when I was nineteen I returned from where I had been living in Venezuela with my diplomat parents to my home nation of the UK to start university…
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It feels like I have spent my lifetime perfecting the art of goodbye...
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During one of the karaoke interludes, I was tapped on the shoulder, firmly but warmly by a tall indigenous man, with light green eyes and a captivating smile. “Mate, how are you doin’?”...
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I think of a mental curse to send telepathically to the man as the dust settles. “May the sharks of this city devour you,” something along those lines, but much less poetic and much more livid. I feel like I am a character in a film, complete with a story unfolding in front of me...
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When I was first hired to teach, there was something that used to rub me the wrong way; students would interrupt my lessons to ask me questions about my hometown or cultural practices...
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I sit there. Sweaty. Hungry. Flushed. Embarrassed, but humoured. This was the first time I had ever used chopsticks, been to a Vietnamese restaurant, or laid eyes on tea ornaments (flasks)...
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Krishni spoke Arabic and French and English with her classmates. They snacked on dates and learned about sushi and exchanged sandwiches for lunch...
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Sid, my Aussie partner, sputtered over his coffee. Then he looked straight into my eyes and said decisively, “No, it doesn’t. Nothing looks like your damn Mumbai”...
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