Page 80 - moondani kyema
P. 80
ndani kyema, My Story - Ray Moore 80
"The growth of the mulberry tree corresponds with its early bent"
Chinese Proverb
Extract from “The Farmers’ Register” September 1 1838:
It is time to consider some important factors in my development. Here I was in a new
country, trying to get used to another culture to that which I had been used to since
my birth. I had gone through most of my schooling without having learnt how to
learn. This was largely due to my personality which disinclined me from asking for
help, or from building close relationships with anyone. I know that I was sensitive
and naïve, which meant that I was slow to pick up on nuances and understanding of
the bigger picture. Fifty years later I also discovered that I had been stressed and
anxious most of my life, ‘clinical depression’ they called it. I mention these aspects of
my personality because they go part way to explaining why I reacted differently to
other children who had been through similar circumstances or worse.
I was an ‘MK’, a Missionaries Kid. This meant that my experience was similar to
thousands of other children around the world. Why was my response to this course
of events so much more negative than that of many others? Certainly my personality
was part of the reason, but it is interesting to Google ‘missionaries kids’ and read
some of the research that has gone into this. Here is a quotation from one such
research which sums up what a lot of them are saying:
The Influence of Separation Anxiety and Attachment Deprivation
Missionaries place themselves apart from rules the rest of the population
function under by declaring their careers God-given. One consequence of this
is that they are willing to institutionalize very young children for the sake of
their career. In our western culture the church on the whole gives a clear
"The growth of the mulberry tree corresponds with its early bent"
Chinese Proverb
Extract from “The Farmers’ Register” September 1 1838:
It is time to consider some important factors in my development. Here I was in a new
country, trying to get used to another culture to that which I had been used to since
my birth. I had gone through most of my schooling without having learnt how to
learn. This was largely due to my personality which disinclined me from asking for
help, or from building close relationships with anyone. I know that I was sensitive
and naïve, which meant that I was slow to pick up on nuances and understanding of
the bigger picture. Fifty years later I also discovered that I had been stressed and
anxious most of my life, ‘clinical depression’ they called it. I mention these aspects of
my personality because they go part way to explaining why I reacted differently to
other children who had been through similar circumstances or worse.
I was an ‘MK’, a Missionaries Kid. This meant that my experience was similar to
thousands of other children around the world. Why was my response to this course
of events so much more negative than that of many others? Certainly my personality
was part of the reason, but it is interesting to Google ‘missionaries kids’ and read
some of the research that has gone into this. Here is a quotation from one such
research which sums up what a lot of them are saying:
The Influence of Separation Anxiety and Attachment Deprivation
Missionaries place themselves apart from rules the rest of the population
function under by declaring their careers God-given. One consequence of this
is that they are willing to institutionalize very young children for the sake of
their career. In our western culture the church on the whole gives a clear
