Ask HOPAC graduates about their favorite memory of HOPAC, and most will inevitably say International Day. It never fails to impress. This year? 40 countries represented.
Cameroon
South Africa, and….the Country of Cuteness
South Korea
Denmark.
The Danish Mission is responsible for publishing, translating, printing, and distributing Bibles and Christian literature throughout Tanzania. And they make amazing pastry. (That’s for you, Cecilie.)
Those North Americans to the North.
And those crazy Americans.
German–Spanish–Finnish–British
Indian stick dance.
Grace’s kindergarten class.
I love this class.
Only one white kid in the whole bunch, and he is from Denmark.
Only 4 MK’s in this class (I don’t know if that has ever happened before at HOPAC).
Only three hold US passports.
One was adopted from Tanzania (I’ll give you a hint; you know her.)
One was adopted from South Korea.
And one has an Indian dad and an American mom and has never actually lived in the States.
Fabulous.
I am the “room mom” and have all sorts of plans to get to know their parents. One of those plans happened today, but more about that later.
I worry sometimes about Grace and her identity. She was born in Tanzania, is being raised by an American family in Tanzania and has only spent six months of her life in the States. Yet she has two passports. She has no idea where she is from. When the class was sharing what country they each were from, Grace told me she said, “Moshi.” Um, yeah. That’s the city where you were born, child.
But thankfully, at HOPAC, she is good company. In her class, there’s the little girl with Indian parents who immigrated to Australia and gave birth to her there but has spent her whole life now in Tanzania. There’s the kid with the British mom and the Kenyan dad. Or the one with the Tanzanian mom and the Swedish dad (or something like that, I can’t keep them all straight). A lot of identity confusion going on with these kids. Grace fits right in.
40 nations of the world; impacted by the ministry of HOPAC.
