At the start of the school year, students began to note all the new students who came to PHS as foreign exchange students. Two students, rumored to be from Kenya, caused some confusion, as they were not exchange students but new students who would remain in Paoli after the school year was complete.
The McCurry family moved to Paoli in March 2024 after moving to various places in the United States. PHS welcomed sophomore Lyon, seventh grader Layla, and fifth graders Evelyn and Oscar as new students.
The McCurrys’ parents are Michael, an engineer, and Ashley, a doctor at Southern Indiana Community Health Care in Paoli. From 2014 to 2023, the family lived on the African continent in a rural town called Kapsowar and then in the city of Mombasa, in Kenya. While in Africa, they completed mission work and worked in the healthcare sector.
“My parents decided to go to Kenya because they felt God was calling them to serve in the mission field. We wanted to use our skills to benefit those who weren’t able to have access to good healthcare facilities,” said Lyon.
Life in Kenya differed greatly from life in America for the McCurry family.
The McCurry children were homeschooled, so their perception of school differs greatly from those who grew up in American public schools.
“Our homeschool program was called Abeka, a Christian-based school recorded on video in Florida. One of the big differences between the two is that American Public School has so much more social interaction than our homeschool program. A normal day with Abeka was waking up at 7 a.m., eating breakfast, starting the video, doing the work, doing homework, and finishing around 2 p.m. Now in public school, I get to get up in between periods and walk around and meet people and chat with friends; I have access to extra-curricular activities like tennis, track, and drama,” said Lyon.
Another difference between their homeschool program and American public schools was the workload.
“My homeschool program was very intense, and the workload was heavy. I have found public school to be less challenging,” said Lyon.
Their homeschool program was more flexible than American public schools.
“The requirement was that you had to finish a certain number of school days, but the timing was up to you. Public school has a fixed and strict schedule, and that has taken some time to get used to,” said Lyon.
Growing up in Kenya was very different from growing up in America, but in some unexpected ways.
“When playing in Kenya, there was a lot of freedom. You kind of just went anywhere when you wanted to. You rarely had shoes. You would play outside until dark. In America, I feel like there are a lot more restrictions, like how everyone has their own yard. In Kenya, you had yards, but no one really noticed that there was a fence. They came and went as they pleased,” said Layla.
Making friends in Kenya was also very different.
“Making friends is different for TCKs (third culture kids), because we’re not quite American but not quite Kenyan, so it’s more difficult for us to click with non-TCKs. So we click with people who were raised in another country or were raised in a different culture, and other TCKs a lot easier. I guess that we click with other TCKs better because we were raised in the same culture and we are our own culture,” said Lyon.
The McCurry family returned to the United States because they decided it was time to come home.
“We had spent ten years living in a culture outside of our own, missing out on all kinds of memories with our extended families and opportunities for our children, and it just became apparent that it was time to come home,” said Ashley.
The choice to come to Paoli was led by Ashley’s work.
“The first was that I wanted to work and serve in a place that needed more physicians, and Paoli is in an obstetric or maternity care desert, meaning that without Southern Indiana Comprehensive Health Care and IU Health Paoli Hospital, women would have to travel excessive distances to receive maternity care. It was clear that my skills could be useful here, and it felt like a good fit for me, professionally. Another big reason why we chose Paoli is because we have family in Louisville. After living across the Atlantic for 10 years, we were longing to live close to family to be able to spend time with them,” said Ashley.
Being in Paoli has been a great experience for the family.
“Everyone is really welcoming. I think that while being in Paoli, I’ve been introduced to lots of new cultures. I think that the best part about moving to Paoli is that I can have an idea of what college and jobs are going to be like later in life. When I was in Kenya, I had the constant thought of, ‘I won’t know anything. I’ll be down in the count and other things like that.’ But Paoli has allowed me to gain new knowledge in that spectrum,” said Layla.
