An Intricate Tapestry

An Intricate Tapestry

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The author, the child of missionaries to Korea, explores the acculturation of the missionaries in their adopted land and the issues facing them and their children on return to the USA.

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An Intricate Tapestry

The Acculturation of Missionaries and Their Children

Donna Sidwell DeGracia

 

 

The author, the child of missionaries to Korea, explores the acculturation of the missionaries in their adopted land and the issues facing them and their children on return to the USA.

 

While her stories are specific to Korea, the difficulties and rewards of living in another culture and of switching between cultures are familiar to many who have lived for an extended period in another country. Anyone who has experienced the challenges of orientation in a strange place to what were the most routine activities or encounters has tasted acculturation. An Intricate Tapestry recountss the experiences of the author and others who lived in Korea during a very historic time, highlighting the challenges and formative potential of acculturation.

 

Those who are expatriates because of business, educational experiences, or mission work and their families will find this book illuminating. Those who prepare for a move to another country and those begin to adapt again to your home country will discover valuable insights.

 

The Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries who went to Korea to do the work of God among the Korean people became an integral part of the Korean landscape. As much as they influenced events and people in Korea, they also were changed by their Korea experience. The adults who had their home culture as a baseline often found themselves becoming more Korean in their actions and attitudes. They also built their own missionary culture to support one another and keep their children in touch with the Western culture to which they would one day return. Their children grew up surrounded by both the missionary culture and that of Korea. Many were too young when they arrived, or were born in Korea and did not have any memory of life “back home.” For those children the return to the “homeland” presented unique cultural challenges.

 

Donna Sidwell DeGracia was born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio,  to George and Edna Rae Sidwell. The family went to Korea in 1955 when Donna’s father was called as missionary in the Methodist Church.

Donna attended the Seoul Foreign School until her junior year in high school when her family returned to the U.S. After graduating from North High School in Columbus, Ohio, Donna attended Ohio Wesleyan University and graduated from Ohio State University in 1972 with a degree in International Studies.

 

She returned to Korea, serving in the Peace Corps there from 1972 to 1975. Returning to the U.S. she enrolled in the physician assistant program at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine. She received a masters degree in physician assistant studies from the University of Nebraska in 2002. She now serves as a physician assistant in family practice and urgent care at Westside Community Services, St. Paul, Minnesota.

 

 

978-1-933794-46-4

Perfectbound

6 x 9

180

$22 

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