My Family Culture..

My Family Diversity and Culture.

Imagine the following:

"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."

      This is a very serious matter. It took me days to think about and imagined what those important things would be. I even tried to ask my husband and I can tell you, we discovered that there are many things we cherished about our culture and unfortunately, many of those things cannot be transported with us.

 In all, I think there are some things that I cherish, and will like to keep the memories forever or for as long as I can.

1.          1.   I will keep the family pictures, both immediate and extended families with some notes. The family pictures explain my lineage and my family tree. These are my loved ones that I cannot forget no matter the pressures of life.

2.           2. I will take along some C.D tapes, both audio and video that contains songs and folktales of our origins. My culture has so many songs in traditional languages that tell the story of our fore fathers which will serve as good reminder of my origin and native land.

3.            3. Some spices and food seasonings that is native to my traditional cooking and taste.

If I have to give out two items and keep one, then I have to keep my family pictures. They are my life and a connection to my origin. They represent my identity. Other items are replaceable. By this, I mean, I can acquire taste of food in my new location, so I can release the seasonings.

I can give away the songs and other materials also because it will benefit and educate my host in the new country and give them the benefit of enjoying other peoples’ culture in its original form.

I found this exercise to be very helpful, even though not easy. It afforded me the opportunity to think, understand and value my culture well in terms of what I know and have kept in my heart. Culture is important, it distinguishes one person from another. Actually, it is the entire life, beliefs and ways of doing things that has been established  over time.It is growing and needs to be kept it in good perspective.