Sunday, July 14, 2013

My Family Culture



In this assignment we were to give our response to the following:
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 – (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).
The three items that I would take with me include:
My Bible – This represent the foundation of my Faith
My Folklore “Medicine Chest”- This is a symbol of some of the traditional medicines the have been used for some sickness in our family
My CD-On this CD is a mixture of folksongs, songs of celebration for our independence, religious music and poetry of THE HON. LOUISE BENNETT-COVERLEY O.M. O.J. M.B.E. DIP R.A.D.A., D. LITT (HON), cultural icon and JAMAICA 'S FIRST LADY OF COMEDY.
The Bible is the first item that I have chosen because it represents the foundation of my family culture. It is our motivation for every situation in life. In our Bible too we have photos of our family members situated at different places in the Bible with a promise for each person. We would also need the Bible to anchor and support our family worship which is the first and foremost family ritual/ custom that has been keeping us together.  Christian (2006, p.19) knows this is true when she cites (Fingerman &Berman 2000) in saying that “rituals and customs often keep a family together during times of change and stress” (p.19).We would need our Bible to sustain us in our tragedy.
In my folklore “medicine chest,” one would find packets of Cerrase tea, Fever grass tea, charcoal powder, Ginger tea packets and a tincture of garlic in coconut oil. All of these items are samples of what we use as basic remedies for illnesses at home. In our culture, we are taught how to use the items I have outlined to relieve gas pains, diarrhea, insect bites/stings and fever among other ailments. Therefore, in a new environment I would want my family to have access to these items in case of an emergency.
The third item is my CD. As I have explained before this CD has some invaluable items that help us to stay connected to our roots as Caribbean people and since I will not be living in my country again, this memorabilia would be important to us to keep forever.
As I continue to explain these items, I would hope that my host country would understand their importance and significance to our “way of life,” our “sense of identity” and to the “nest of things” that we would actually like to keep that would be “familiar” to us to give us a “sense of connectedness” to our home culture as we seek, as a family, to rebuild our lives from this devastation (Laureate Education, 2011).
However, since I am asked to choose only one item to keep, I know that I will choose my Bible. My Bible represents the means through which we as a family communicate to our Creator, and connect to our fellow human beings on earth and even though this may not be acceptable in another culture, I would hope that my host country would understand my need to take my Bible with me.
 As a result of this exercise once again I have learnt that acceptance, respect and an awareness of the value of another person’s culture is very vital to understanding who they are  and these will certainly help to nourish and build stable relationships in a world that is growing more and more diverse. Louise Derma-Sparks & Julie Olsen Edwards (2010 p.55) sustain this idea when they state that “in a society as diverse as ours, maneuvering through its multiple cultures can be complex and confusing, as well as rich and delightful” (p.55).Therefore, the more we value the richness of each other’s culture the better we will be able as professionals to embrace the many cultural experiences in our classrooms.



References
Christian, L. G. (2006). Understanding families: Applying family systems theory to early childhood
practice. Young Children, 61(1), 12–20. Retrieved from:
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves.
Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer).  (2011). Family cultures: dynamic interactions

4 comments:

  1. Like you I take my religion very serious and with out a doubt take my family Bible. I never even considered taking music. I would have to give that a thought as well because while I do like so gospel groups I also listen to other music genres as well. All music ties back to culture.

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  2. Thank you Quandra for visiting my blog. Listening to the music from my culture has certainly helped me to reconnect to my roots in times of nostalgia.
    Thank you for reading.
    Sharon

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  3. Sharon,

    I see we both stated that we will take our bible. Religion is important to me as well and this is a must have.

    Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Thank you Sonia.Our faith in God is still our sustaining force.Thanks for visiting my blog.
    Sharon.

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