Remembering Dr. Maya Angelou
by Cha Jones, June 9, 2014
Dr. Angelou, a great teacher, will remain a voice as much in spirit as she was as a living legacy. As a poet and a women myself who has lived abroad I know that the spirit of God is the only protection that covered me in my absence of fear. Just as she put her traveling shoes on, I chose to wear mine skipping through countries in the fullness of my own reality. I danced knowing that I have spirits that supersede me and walk steps ahead of me on this journey as a beacon of light cascading splendor no matter where I travel.
I will never forget the moment I saw her at Vanderbilt University in 2007. I recall tears streaming down my face because I was sitting before an angle. Her voice commanded the strength of an unbroken iron poised with resilience.  She spoke as elegant as royalty would and goose bumps burst on the surface of my skin.  Then, I had only dreamt of owning traveling shoes, but scripted in time God was preparing me for a fitting of my own.
In less than two year after her spirit touched me with elegant words and a voice of reason God gave me shoes suitable solely for me. I grabbed those shoes and ran. I placed them on my feet and knew that there were travelers that had buried themselves deep in my soul. I was ready for an adventure that would take me to Asia. I departed the plane with angles and God’s grace and mercy bestowed upon me as I moved into the unknown.  It was with my grandmother’s prayers I was protected from my own ignorance and the world’s idea of who I truly was.
I proudly own a pair of traveling shoes that God hand designed just for me. I know cultures beyond my own because there were footsteps leading the way. I shed fear for calmness and certainty like a snake growing a new outer layer. The world and I were being introduced to one another, and as Maya wrote in All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, “There is a kinship among wanderers, as operative as the bond between bishops or the tie between thieves,”   and indeed there were. As travelers, there was a tie that made us global citizens and people withdrawn from standard identifiers. Once I put my traveling shoes on, I was no longer an American I was human. My eyes were open and I saw people like God saw me, bodiless and in spirit.

As mother Maya, ascends with grace I’d like to thank her for living a life that was laced with humility. She was no saint but can be revered as an angle who visited earth. She wore traveling shoes fit for a queen and it is only my hope to be able to wear my own traveling shoes and create imprints that span the global by giving back what I have been given. Indeed all God’s children deserve traveling shoes even if they never leave home, because footprints have an impact and give followers a road-map to unknown places that they might one day change perspective. 

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you, yourself have altered.”
 – Nelson Mandela

Repatriation
By Cha Jones, Expat Women of Color

                                                                
Repatriation is the process of returning home after living abroad. You may be excited that you are going back, but your return may not be so simple.

It can be tricky repatriating into your country of origin. On one hand, you are overwhelmed with joy that you are being reunited with your friends and family, but on the other hand, you are making a transition from a foreign life that you grew accustomed to. As one may experience culture shock leaving home and moving to a foreign country, one may also experience what is referred to as “reverse culture shock” when returning home. Reverse culture shock occurs much like culture shock. As the nostalgia of being home finally wears off, it is easy to begin feeling frustrated, anxious, depressed, or even angry.

You would think that being home, because it is your place of origin, would be comfortable and a much easier adjustment. However, returning home can be just as difficult as it was leaving and in some cases much more difficult. Like any transition, you have a period where you must get acclimated to your new environment. You must remember that you have changed while you were out in the world globe trotting, and many of your friends and family have probably changed as well. While you were changing in one area of life, your friends and family were changing in other areas and sometimes this can cause separation perspective. That is when the separation has given you two different perspectives on the same or similar things. It does not mean either party is incorrect, it just means there are differences in perspective. This often happens when you have expanded your views of the world and you come home and find that everyone else is in a vacuum of sorts.

Repatriation begins the minute you leave your host country, but the process of actually reintegrating back into your life at home takes time. So, as you adjust to your new environment here are some things to take into consideration.

Q  Do not come back with a chip on your shoulder. You might have experienced the world, but don’t be arrogant about it.
Q  Listen! Yes, you have great experiences to talk about, but the people at home have grown in their own way and they often want to talk about their life changes as well.
Q  Do not come home and compare everything to where you just came from. Once you stepped off the plane, train, boat, or bus, you entered an entirely different place and you cannot live your life from your past. “It’s not Kansas anymore.” 
Q  Begin incorporating things from your life abroad into your life at home. Just like you had to get settled when you first arrived in your new life abroad, you must do the same again, so practice fusion.