Mauritians: a "pomme d'amour" for all sauces?

We Mauritians learn Creole, English and French from our first classes. Our palates and tongues get used to the rolling Rs and the dry Rs. With the French, we share the songs we know since we were kids: 'Les Cités d'or', 'Juliette Je t'aime', 'Boumbo, petite automobile'. We often speak French more easily than English. Like the French, we are open, bon-vivants. We give enormous importance to food and warm welcomes at home, like them.

But our administration is British. So we understand constituencies better than we do 'les régions'. That our President is not elected seems relatively normal to us. And that we form part of the 'New Commonwealth' sits quite well too. Our (somewhat archaic) notions of excellence often relate to English universities. And British families are also VERY warm in their welcome.

And when we meet Indians, we know what a caraille is ('karahi' is a Hindi word). Curry is regular fare for us and bryani as much so! Sarees, churidars, prayers to statues, Divali and rasgullas dripping in syrup, we all know those, more or less closely.

But put us in Chinatown, and we know the taste of ha kaos and 'mine frite' like no one else! And nothing surprises our taste buds. Salangis? Know that. Crystallised olives? Been there. Gateau gingeli? Done that! As with the Lion Dance and the fireworks...

With Quebecers, we share the history of having been both French and English colonies. The result is that many of the words we speak in Creole, they speak in their daily French: 'asterla', 'tanto', and many more. Like us, they sometimes use English words which have been Frenchised: 'checker mon email'. And the endless to-and-froing between English and French worlds is something we're familiar with, much to everybody else's puzzlement.

With Anglo-Canadians though...I'm not sure. We probably share the dry British humour, which Francophones rarely find funny.

We would probably find quite a few things in common with other countries like Fidji, South Africa and Australia too. And if, by some quirk of history and hormones, you end up being born somewhere else, like Russia or Kenya, well, you get additional flavour thrown into your life! When you meet people from those countries abroad, there's a odd sense of unfamiliar familiarity...

Does that make us tomatoes that fit into all sauces? I'm not quite sure. Sega music, rougaille poisson salé-bouillon brèdes-chatini pomme de terres, 'débrouillardise' and Creole are ours, and ours only. We know how Indian, Chinese, Creole or French we are. And we know how Mauritian we are. I think that we blend more easily than some if we want to, but that's often at the expense of losing part of that multifarious identity. We let go of some parts of that and evolve into a different new us. That's part choice, and part circumstances.

I'd suggest that what makes us really fit in or not comes down to values, to what things are more important for one person or the other. The things above are based on a series of generalisations which, as all generalisations, have their limitations and their truths. Basically, underneath all those various colours, we're human, and it is our humanness that allows us to be happy somewhere or elsewhere. The choice always crops up, especially if you've been home-hopping.

I believe it is the meeting of hearts with other people which determines in the end where home is.