Homecoming

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She said our meeting was 命運, fate. And I believed her. Words from the young woman I met at the airport, in transit from one country to another. I had been on the road now for more than six months. I had started to yearn for home. Where was home, any way? She reminded me it was with good people.

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Kyungso Park and Andy Sheppard at the Royal Albert Hall, London

I’ve been away from home for quite some time. This statement then begs the question, where, exactly, is home? For now, I content myself with the idea that my home is wherever I happen to be at a given moment, in this case, London. It’s rather difficult to conduct oral histories based in the Mountain West here or the other nine countries I’ve since visited, so I’ve been occupying my time in myriad other ways, including other sorts of research and writing.

Encouraging words

Busaba Yip Douglas poses for a portrait on Friday Jan. 15, 2016 after making an offering of orchids at the Wo Hing Museum, where she serves as the Cultural Director in Maui, Hawaii. While the upstairs temple is part of the museum and not generally in use, it remains a place to honor ancestors and Taoist deities. Photo | Sara Hayden

Last week I met a woman who traveled from Thailand to Canada and the U.S. where she pursued her education 25 years ago. She had no intention to stay, but did. It was overseas that she ended up connecting with her Chinese roots.

Now a cultural director at the Wo Hing Museum in Maui’s historic town of Lahaina, Busaba Yip Douglas offered this: “I don’t need Ancestry.com. If we have a good relationship with your ancestors, we don’t have to search for them. They will come to us at the right time, and with the right people.”

– Sara Hayden