My Family Culture

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.

A description of the three items you would choose.

The 3 items I would take are my Bible, a picture of my family and a piece of fabric.

How you would explain to others what each of these items means to you.

Coming from a Christian home and also being a Christian, the Bible is important to me because it contains the Word of God which would keep me grounded, inspire me and give me hope for the future despite my present predicament. My family picture, although not recent or complete with spouses and their children is still important because my parents and siblings shaped who I have become and it would remind me that family is everything. Lastly, the piece of fabric is cultural as it is given to the bride by her mother when she gets married, with the intent that when she has her babies, she would use it to carry them on her back. Not only does it make it convenient for the mother to do other things, it also promotes bonding between mother and child.

Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you.

I would keep my family picture because I know that with starting a new life, I still want to remember where I came from. Memory might serve me well but I want my future generation to be able to at least trace their heritage to my family. I would feel disappointed about the other 2 items because they are familiar to me, but I know that their importance is not in them physically but rather their purpose in my life and therefore can be replaced.

Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise.

This exercise made me think very deeply on what my ties are to my culture. I realise now that, although physical items that represents ones culture is important, not all of them can be passed on from one generation to another. The ones I can easily share are the stories, words of wisdom passed on from my parents.