The Fire is Out

The Lord blessed us with several inches of very wet snow yesterday - effectively killing any remaining hot spots from the Lower North Fork fire.  I wish it could have come 10 days ago, but I'm not God and that's out of my control.  All three of those who perished in the fire were found in or near their homes.  It's possible they were attempting to save their homes by activating the sprinkler system on the roof, or maybe just stayed too long trying to gather a few more belongings.  In one case it seems the resident never received a reverse 911 call to evacuate.  I've learned something about wildfires from this experience:  if the fire is being fueled by strong winds, the time delay between when you see or smell smoke and when your home is completely consumed may be only minutes.  One of the families that escaped in the nick of time posted a cell phone video showing huge flames on either side of the road and smoke as black as night.  In the background you can hear the children screaming in terror (I've included the video here).  What a close call.

Here's another catch-22 : Even if the firefighters are able to save your home, you now live in a dead-zone with nothing but burned trees and bare ground as scenery... not exactly a mountain paradise should you ever want to sell your home and move elsewhere.  Even if the house burns and your insurance pays to rebuild - you still have no choice but to rebuild on the same charred piece of land.  Never thought of it until now... which helps me understand why forest fires are such a big deal up here.  I know one more thing: I'll be very busy this summer cutting every remaining tree that's within 100 feet of my house.  If the firemen ever come down my driveway, I want them to see a house that can be saved rather than a lost cause.

Rotary Club

I spoke at our local rotary club yesterday - my first time.  I decided to speak on some of the things I learned growing up as a Third Culture Kid.  My three points were:

1. Every culture tends to be Ethnocentric. By this I mean that we all tend to believe that our own culture is superior to other cultures.  We think we can see all the negatives in another culture, all the while remaining blind to our own cultural eccentricities.

2.  Every culture has both positive and negative characteristics.  A few examples:

     French culture:  I love the fact that the French work to live, not the reverse.  Every French citizen takes every single day of their considerable vacation time (5+ weeks) every year.  They don't spend money on second homes, or boats, or luxury cars; they spend it on lavish vacations in exotic locations around the world. On the other hand the French can be almost painfully reserved when it comes to social relationships - to the extent that someone can live in the same neighborhood for 30 years and never meet their next-door neighbor.

Senegalese culture:  Family and community are everything in Senegal (and everywhere else in Africa); you are known by your community and by the relationships you enjoy.  This is so much the case that the average Senegalese person has a hard time imagining themselves outside of their tight-knit community.  People give time to build and maintain relationships.  I remember walking into a government office in Dakar many years ago, only to find the hallway blocked by two men engaged in a heated conversation.  Thinking I would be polite and not disturb them, I squeezed by and continued to the office I was looking for.  On my way out one of the men stopped me and angrily asked who I thought I was, just marching in without greeting them?  I learned a valuable cultural lesson about the importance of social interactions that day.  At the same time, I always found it puzzling that Senegalese culture did not encourage honesty as a value, living rather by the motto: The End Justifies The Means.

3. Third Culture Kids are like Chameleons: we adapt to almost any situation, language, accent or vocabulary.  Daphne thinks it's amusing how I will change my accent and vocabulary to fit whatever cultural situation I find myself in.  When in South Africa, I automatically change how I pronounce certain words in order to be understood ("chance" becomes "chawnse", "half" becomes "hawfe"... you get the idea).  I'll also change my vocabulary - like saying rubbish bin instead of garbage can, and the bonnet of the car instead of the hood.  It's not so much an issue of wanting to be accepted as wanting to "fit in" to every different context.  Because I've lived among so many different cultures, I find it fairly easy to pick out the cultural cues that I can adopt to make myself more of a cultural insider than just a tourist (God forbid).

This was the first time I've shared in as much detail about my background since we moved back to the States, mostly because I rarely meet people who show enough interest for me to open up; it's just easier to fit into their world than ask to them to understand mine.