Making Friends in Foreign Places

Kids are kids everywhere, and that means they are generally open to making friends across race and cultural barriers that adults might be more conscious about.

I say this because here in Oz, Beth has been able to make friends with the local kids at parks and playgrounds. The one exception was when she was rebuffed by a little boy at a cafe, with a loud "You're not my friend!" which caused her to burst into tears.

We tried to explain that some people are not so friendly, but others are. Thankfully, her subsequent encounters were all successful, so she's gotten over it now and doesn't talk about the incident anymore.

This evening, she made friends with a little girl at the Bundoora Park playground and they were holding hands running around exploring the rides. When they needed help "fighting" the 2 older boys who had challenged them to some sort of competitive game, she came running to Daddy and asked him to "give her power" with a high 5. When her new friend saw that, she came to me and asked to "recharge" too! It was such a lovely thing to experience when adults elsewhere are killing each other for all sorts of irrational reasons.