The Geography of Family and Friends

For someone still a few months from being 2½, Kaia has gotten around the globe quite a bit. He has dual citizenship and two passports for whatever the mood might be at immigration, and has already lived in three countries: we’ve been in India longer than he lived in the US and 14 months in Japan was sandwiched in-between. As a matter of perspective, one of my parents’ good friends (who must be around 60 years old) just got his first passport to travel outside of the US for the first time in his life! Generations apart, as they say.

Kaia has been privileged to meet and get close to people from all over the world during his first two years. Particularly from our time living next to the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) in Japan, Kaia became the loved nephew of so many aunties and uncles—Sister Edwin from Darjeeling, Amos from Ghana, Samba from Zambia, Ram from Nepal, Phoebe from the Philippines, David and Almut from Germany, Kimio and Hiroki from Japan, and on and on. These people have enriched both of our lives tremendously and we have very fond memories of our time together. So we thought it would be a nice idea to get a large world map so that he could begin associating places with our friends across the world. Of course, the concept of a world map is likely beyond his level of comprehension, but it seems like he understands the association factor. When asked, “where does Auntie Brynne live?” he points to the western US…or “where does Kaia live?” he slaps the subcontinent. Japan and island nations like the Philippines are proving to be a bit difficult, but it seems like he gets it.

One clear memory that I have of being 5 or 6 is how much I enjoyed going to the bank with my grandfather. They had this huge rotating globe (I think the place was called World Savings) and I would sit was watch it rotate while he tended to his banking. I can remember being so fascinated by the large expanses of ocean, particularly in the southern hemisphere (for that was what a 5 year old can see best from that height) and how Madagascar would come around, this large island floating independent from the African continent. I wonder, as he gets older, what features will intrigue him on the map. Madagascar seemed as far away as Saturn to me at that age, and I’m sure that if I would have been a bit taller, India and Sri Lanka would have piqued my interest as well. For me they would have been equally as remote, but for Kaia they are familiar places, and currently home. I wonder how this experience will influence his development and thinking. Now when he hears a bell in the distance, he knows that it is the ‘peanut man’ selling peanuts on the beach. Or, the drone of a man’s voice from the street is ‘paper man’ collecting recyclables from people’s homes. These are indicators to him that he is in a familiar and comfortable place. He looks out the window and sees men in carved out fishing boats, and this is what a fisherman looks like. I wonder, when we eventually leave India, how he will think when he sees it on the map…

Why I Love this Time: “Oh, what’s that?”