Spiders spin silk, reflections of missionary kids at midlife

Abstract

Mid-life offers an opportunity for those of us raised as missionary children to come to terms with our unique childhood experience. The adult missionary kids (AMKs) of this inquiry spent their formative years living away from their families in mission run boarding schools. Little research has been done with AMKs to see how their missionary childhood resonates in their lives at mid-life. For this inquiry, I wanted to understand how those 'missionary years' continued to influence my life and that of other AMKs. Using reflexive inquiry processes, I became one of the participants of my investigation. I also interviewed three other AMKs, conducting in-depth interviews over several months. As isolation is one of the most familiar themes for MKS raised in boarding schools, both in childhood and as a dynamic of adulthood, I did not want the inquiry to induce another form of isolation--the isolation inherent in a larger participant size, of questionnaires and generalizing themes. I wanted the reader to see their faces and to experience their person-hood. Artifacts in the form of letters and photographs are used to enhance this connection with the life experience of MKs. With this inquiry, not only have I added to the MK literature as a whole, but I have added to what is, unfortunately, only a small body of MK literature that could be described as testimonial. Telling stories and having their stories witnessed so that the teller can receive her/himself in a new way is a form of arts-informed reflexive inquiry. I portrayed elements of trauma associated with the MK childhood experience. In addition to contributing to the MK literature, the work contributes to the literature on midlife. Being able to break the silence of our missionary history and speak the truth of our MK experience is the most significant epiphany of an MK in early midlife. West Africa, where I was raised, is the home of Ananse the Spider. The hermeneutical framework for this inquiry is an Ananse story and the spider provides the metaphor around which the stories and experiences derived through the inquiry process are spun.