Scenario: A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated
the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that
the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other
countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the
survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input
into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told
that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and
that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in
addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you.
You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your
family culture.
Given the fact that there is internet that connects me to essential
things I have initially thought about taking in such a situation, such as the
Quran, which would be the ultimate choice; or my Lebanese Recipe book that
would keep my children in touch with their heritage. I have shifted into selecting
the items that are not available through the web.
The three items I
would choose if I needed to leave my country for good are:
My Children's Baby Books
The reasons for my choice:
The purpose of my family album is to preserve the memories
for my children as they hold on to the images
of the significant people who once played vital roles in their lives. In
addition, it will remind me of the places I went to in Lebanon, and the beautiful
times I spent there with my friends and family.
My children’s baby books, because they include records of every
single milestone they have reached since their birth, their first drawings, locks
from their first haircut, and photos of them in all developmental stages.
If I was told that I could only keep one personal item and give
up the other two items, I would be so disheartened to leave my children’s baby
books, yet as it would not be fair to any of my kids to choose one book over
the other, I would only keep my family album.
I have to admit that this exercise has revived sad memories
to me. Throughout my childhood, I had to leave my home repeatedly with my
family, due to recurring conflict flares. Many times, we had to leave in such a
hurry that we didn’t have except our clothes we had on. However, given that we
were in war times, my mom had an emergency bag that contained our passports, ID’s,
jewelry, and cash. They were more like a survival bag; if we needed to leave the country. Whenever we had to escape, someone would cry: “Get the bag!”
Thinking about this again, through a different lens, I
realized how our cultures occupy a substantial place in our lives. What ran
through my mind, as I was doing this assignment, was how many important things
that I needed to bring with me were related to culture. It was very insightful
to discover this about myself.
Reem, sorry to hear about the recurring conflicts in your life. Enjoyed reading your post, I never thought about my baby boy's album. I just wonder would I be prepared if this happen. This assignment really makes you think about life.
ReplyDeleteReem, I think it is important for us all to think about situation such as this. We hardly ever do though and considering all the things we have it can be difficult selecting three items to bring.
ReplyDeleteHi Reem,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing valuable information in your post. I agree with you that this assignment does indeed help us learn more about our selves and lives. Also, I could especially relate to the part where you discuss that during your childhood your mom had an emergency bag with all of your important belongings just in case you had to leave without notice. This is because my family and I had to evacuate our home during Egypt's revolution in 2011.