Military Kids

I have one more night left in the UK...at least for now. If I keep up this rate, I’ll be back in the UK in a few years, that’s been the trend. On Sunday, we head to the Azores, roughly 1000 miles from the rest of Europe and about 2000 from North America. I think that qualifies as the middle of nowhere. As we return to foreign-language land next week in Portugal and the week after in Spain, I doubt we’ll encounter one particular phenomenon.

In the past five weeks here in England, we’ve been working with American children. However, you might not believe it talking to them because some of them sound exactly like the locals. One week, we had two siblings in our show, Boris and, I’m not making this up, Natasha. Boris pretty much spoke with an American accent, just a touch of local flavor. Natasha, only 8, had a 100% authentic English accent. Their mother was Russian and had a distinctly Russian accent. Having met three people from the same family with completely different accents, we couldn’t wait to meet the father. He was American, which was a bit disappointing. I was hoping for German or something.

At Menwith Hill, most American stationed there stay for a good chunk of time. Most of the kids there had some degree of local accent and a few had lived there their entire lives. Two of our kids had spent time in the US, Australia, and the UK and you could hear each locale in their speech. No matter the location or the accent, all of the kids have had at least one American parent. That includes Jenna, age 9, an American citizen who has never been to the United States, not even for a visit.

I’m glad my nomadic ways have been constrained to my young adult life. These kids don’t know any different, but I no there are experiences I had growing up that they can never have. On the flip side, they’ve been to Germany, England, Iceland, Portugal, Italy, Japan, Belgium, France, Turkey, Korea, Guam, and a host of other countries. Not to mention dozens of states. Just ask them where they were born and you’ll get the United Nations roster.

The pictures are from our visit to the Avebury stones, the other large “henge” in these parts. As you can see, we finally got some terrific summer weather.