No Longer Strangers

DESMOND E. MAC-KWASHIE

Are you a stranger and foreigner in another country with different climate, culture, social norms, and values? Or have you just moved into a new community, or just enrolled in a big college or university? What is your feeling about the new environment? Wherever we are, it is important to know that we hold our physical environment in our thought; and the concepts we hold of it in large part determine our experience in it. How important it is, therefore, to accept as real and true of our new country or community only those thoughts that make for a peaceful and harmonious integration.

Many of us at one time or another, for various reasons, find ourselves far away from our familiar homes and in foreign countries. Quite often when we set out on our journey, we are buoyant with expectations of great and enriching experiences, widening our horizons, making new friends, seeing historic places, or finding a new home.

But what about when things do not quite turn out as we expected —when we find we have to comply with stringent immigration laws or adjust to unhappy social or political conditions and circumstances; or when we have to settle in extreme climates? What do we do? Do we become disillusioned and regretful? Or sometimes even bitter and resentful?

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