It's a Cultural Thing!

Im a 17 year old asian girl who first moved into foster care when I was 7. 10 years in care - that's a long time!

I have only moved twice in the time that I have been in care. This doesn't seem like much because I know some people that have been moved up to 5 times in a year! Some people find it difficult to settle into a new home - with a new family, whereas others find it easy to fit in.

I guess in some ways I'm lucky to have found 2 good homes. However, this doesn't
mean to say that there weren't any problems!

The main issue I had was culture. the carer in my first foster placement was black and for 7 years I grew up in a black culture. Because I had never learnt my own, it all felt normal/natural to me. I was used to going to church, eating
Jamaican food...!  I saw my family fairly reguarly, but they never really taught me my own culture. Therefore, up until the age of 14, I only really knew one culture. Then, when I was 14, my social worker changed (yet again) and she was concerned that I wasn't learning any of my own culture. I was forced to move after 7 years and moved into an asian family.

In the beginning it was a real culture shock for me. I now went to the Temple, started getting into the Indian clothes, food.... It was a completely different lifestyle to the one I had been used to. I enjoyed learning more about my culture and started getting involved in more asian things (dance...).

I have been living with this family for 3 years now and it has certainly been an experience for me. I am about to move soon (not to another placement though!) and even though I am more into my own culture now, I still have some of the old culture in me.
A. aged 17yrs.