Today was a national holiday, known as Heroes Day (Mashujaa) in Kenya.

Rift Valley Academy celebrated Multicultural Day. . .which is quite real as the students come from a 20+ cultures and nations around the globe.  It is also a day to speak to the identity of the students as third culture kids – a.k.a. who have a passport “home”, but spent most of their lives living in another place.  Many of the RVA students are technically 4th culture kids.  Imagine that you are ethnically Korean, but lived your entire life in Sudan, and now attend boarding school in Kenya. . .that’s kind of the idea.

We grown-ups attended the flag ceremony part of the day, which is like a miniature of the opening ceremony at the Olympics.  Teenagers and Titchies (Elementary-aged) from each country marched a flag to the cheers of the other students and the sound of their nation’s anthem.  The traditional dress, the multitude of languages, and celebration of the students was wonderful.  One of my favorite Rich Mullins lines is “I’m home anywhere if you are where I am.”  The teachers definitely reinforced this message that we should love our country and homeland, but that our true home is wherever God calls us.

The day closed with the One World Run – a fundraising 5K through school grounds that ended on the soccer fields through a tunnel of flags from all over the world. I ran and  Madeline and Annabelle walked with their RVA big sisters, while Arianna took pictures.