Learning Letter/Plan of Action

I absolutely loved this class because it opened me up to issues going on in the world and I realized how much of a bubble I've been living in. There's a lot of news I hear offhand but I never really stop to think about it or stop to think about the people being affected by it. The books we read in class all put faces to really serious issues and suddenly I felt incredibly burdened with asking myself what I was going to do with this information. The first time I felt this was after reading Sold. I read the whole thing at a coffee shop in downtown Spokane and after I finished it, I took a walk and I felt this heavy weight on my shoulders, realizing how privileged my life is. I think I finally started to absorb how many children are affected by war and trafficking and the sheer amount of all that made me feel sick to my stomach. Long Way Gone also punched me in the gut. I felt a desire to do something. I felt angry and sick and sad.

I don't think I've ever taken a class that has impacted me as much as this one has. Maybe it has something to do with timing -- I'm one class away from graduating so I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to move forward after college. This class took my ideas and made me think about expanding them. The projects and discussions had a huge impact on me because I tend to have a very narrow focus in my day to day life, going from school to work, spending time with my friends -- I never stop to think about bigger issues going on in the world. It's hard. It's not pleasant. I remember leaving after Sean gave his talk and getting in my car and his words were echoing in my head. Travel. I realized that though I have traveled, it has been to extremely well-off countries. Even my trips to Serbia are centered around the capitol, Belgrade, which is a big European city like any other. I've seen a lot in my travels, but I've never really been exposed to anything that made me uncomfortable. He also asked us about how we were going to impact others. I want to create something. How can my photography or my writing impact people? What message do I have to give to the world? I've been thinking about how to incorporate some real-world issues in my art. What am I trying to say? I'm still finding my voice, so this will be an on-going project for me as I keep exploring.

I'm not a teacher. I admit I felt a little out of place when I realized most of this class was comprised of people going into education. That's not me. But I ended up really loving the class and by taking it with people who are interested in teaching, it made me start thinking about my own influence on others as I move forward. I've been thinking about what I can do in my community once I graduate. My plan of action is this: I'm going to start reading the news more and I'm going to start reading  more books like the ones we read in class. I think the stories people are telling give me more compassion and understanding than just reading the facts in headlining news stories. Since I won't be in school, I'll finally have time to read the books I want, so this is a very achievable goal for me.

What can I do in my community? I'm going to be honest and say I don't really like working with kids. It's not a comfortable thing for me. I think what I'm going to start doing in the community is to start getting involved with nature and trail conservation. I know this doesn't really apply to the topics we've discussed in class, which were more people-oriented, so I hesitated to write this down. But the class really got me thinking about what I want to go out and do in my own community and the environment is something I'm passionate about. I want to stop being so passive and instead, when I hear about a trail cleanup meeting, I want to go help out. I want to do something.

Thank you for this eye-opening class.

Graffiti Wall Project

For my graffiti wall, I wanted to explore how war affects an individual in civilian society, specifically from an American cultural standpoint. On a daily basis, we are inundated with many conflicting ideas from the media, from churches, from schools -- and those ideas all trickle down into society and affect us on a personal level. One conflicting message that I focused on is this: we must love one another, but not love those on the other side of war, because those are our “enemies.” Long Way Gone was definitely on my mind while exploring this message: Ishmael’s “enemies,” the Rebels, were just young boys like himself, all victims of war.

I wanted to display this conflict in human nature, to display the various voices an individual will hear, and to ask how we ourselves can find a voice among all that noise. To depict these conflicting messages, I chose to use raindrops, colored red to symbolize blood, because the messages we hear as a culture are constantly falling on us. I remember we were sitting in class one day and discussing why we often don’t hear about some of these atrocities going on in the world, and we discussed how we don’t want to hear the bad stuff, or we hear it and ignore it, moving on with our day. Our lives of privilege allow us to feel a moment of sympathy and then move on. Maybe I speak for myself, but I know that the bad news is out there, but I get so bogged down with daily life and so overwhelmed with massive amounts of information via the internet, that I start filtering it out. In my graffiti wall, I’m showing that the messages are there all around me, falling on me like rain.

The information that “rains” upon my head is, essentially, about the nature of humanity: that we, as humans, are capable of both love and hate in their purest forms. I want to love my neighbor, but can I love my neighbor if that neighbor has done something to hurt me? What if that neighbor is a terrorist? As humans, we preach love but then turn around and go to war and kill each other. On a smaller scale, we preach love but then talk behind other people’s backs or treat others with disdain. My graffiti wall shows all these messages of love and hate falling on my head.

I often feel voiceless and hopeless when I learn about the atrocities that have happened in history, and that are still happening today. What can I possibly do to make a difference? What can I say that hasn’t been said before? I used a self-portrait for this project for a reason: this is a personal struggle for me, especially after what I’ve learned in this class. What I’ve learned is that I have been standing still, absorbing all this information from my culture, and my mouth is covered. I never do anything with what I’ve heard. I have no reaction other than brief sympathy. Instead, I absorb all this news about the wars and genocides, but I then step outside and go about my day as though nothing has happened. Am I listening? Yes, I am listening. But who am I listening to? Which message do I choose to follow? What if I listened to the humans behind the headlines, like I did in this class? And what if I did that more often? Would I do something then?

I included Elie Wiesel’s quote, “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” Wiesel is a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp in WWII, and this quote comes from his speech in 1993 at the dedication ceremonies for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. We have to listen to the stories of people behind the wars. We have to remember those who have died and those who have suffered.

I am just one girl in a small corner of the world. But I am listening.

A Long Way Gone

I had heard of this book before and was excited when I saw it on our book list, because it's been on my own personal list of books to read for quite some time.

As I read the book, and especially as I got near the end, I was struck with how different the tone was from the beginning of the story to the end. Before the boys are taken by the army, they are still young boys. They cry for their friend Saidu, they play soccer on the beaches....they are very much young boys going through a hell they can't even begin to rationally cope with or understand. There was an awareness as I read the first half of the book at how young these boys are. This awareness didn't necessarily go away when I got to the later chapters, but I found myself thinking that it was as if they had lost their childhood overnight. Suddenly, Ishamael went from being a young 13 year old boy on the run to a 13 year old boy killing and doing drugs. The loss of his childhood was very apparent. It also seemed necessary as a survival tactic: they had to be numb and lose their emotions to do the things they were doing. This was why they were given drugs and movies, why they wouldn't sleep. As long as there was no time to think, they could keep following orders. This was not an environment that childish boys could live in. I felt very sad that Ishamael's childhood had been torn from him like that.

The brainwashing of these children was apparent, for they began to truly identify and take pride in what they were doing. These are kids who have lost everything and finally have someone for whom to blame and take out their anger. They are too drugged up and sleep deprived and afraid to question anything. They belong to this army now. I understood their anger when they were taken away in the truck by UNICEF, for they were leaving behind a place where they felt valued and strong. I was shocked and very saddened when Ishmael announced that Mambu had gone back to the front lines after leaving the rehabilitation center because his family wouldn't take him back. It reminded me of what we learned about girls who had been forced into sex trafficking whose communities would reject them. It creates a cycle where the only way to survive is to go back to the horror they came from.

I couldn't believe that boys as young as seven and eleven would be forced to go to the front lines, when they weren't even strong enough to hold guns. That was really hard for me to read.

I can't imagine going through the amount of loss that Ishmael experienced at such a young age. He not only experienced the death of his family, but also the loss of his community, his childhood, and his friends along the way. Each time he said goodbye to someone and then mentioned that he never saw that person again, my heart broke a little more. How does someone go through that much pain and still allow themselves to love and build friendships and form attachments even when everything they've been attached to or everyone they've loved has been taken from them? It shows a real resilience and strength of character that he could keep going and not only survive, but go on to help others who have been in similar situations. I was very glad he still had an aunt and uncle to go to, a place where he could have some familial attachment.

In his Acknowledgements at the end of the book, Ishmael mentions that he is now living a "second lifetime" and after reading what he went through, that statement definitely rings true. I'm so glad that he got out and became a storyteller, that he is able to share his experience with people like myself who are so ignorant about things like this. Again, I am forced to look at my own life and realize how lucky and fortunate I am that I live in a peaceful place. So much of what Ishmael went through was completely out of his control, and it made me see how much control I have over my own life, and how I live in luxury compared to the day-to-day survival he had to go through.

What's really sad is that these were just young boys fighting young boys. The idea that "rebels are evil and must be killed" was being forced upon them so much these boys internalized those beliefs and made them their own. Those beliefs were so deep that even without the presence of their commanders in the rehabilitation center, the boys fought to the death upon finding out they were sharing the same space as rebels. And they were happy with their kills. That is a forced idea on kids who are too young to question what they are being told. But sadly, doesn't all war come down to that? The young fighting each other in wars they might not even understand?

Sierra Leone Research

I knew A Long Way Gone was a book about a child soldier, but before reading I didn't know that this had happened in Sierra Leone. I remember hearing about child soldiers in Uganda in high school, and what I learned was heartbreaking. I knew this would be the same. In my research I found out that the movie "Blood Diamond" was set in Sierra Leone during this time period. I have seen the movie but it's been so long that I forgot where it took place. So obviously I was pretty uninformed going into this reading.

I briefly brushed up on some of the history. The civil war talked about in the book lasted eleven years, from 1991 to 2002. Over 50,000 people died during that time period. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) tried overthrowing the government. The Sierra Leone Army (SLA) fought back, and after a peace contract failed to be implemented in 1996, they kept fighting. May 1997 saw the SLA stage a coup and form a new government by taking over Freetown, but the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group came in and overtook the city on behalf of the government. In the end, after the UN's mission to help out was failing, the United Kingdom stepped in to help out and was able to help defeat the RUF and take control of Freetown.

This is obviously a very condensed version of a very complicated and long issue. I found out that the country is rich in alluvial diamonds, and this economic factor definitely played a role in the fighting. Economic factors were not the only reason why the war started, for the country had experienced many years of unjust government and oppression and were looking for a way out.

The RUF would recruit child soldiers from the displaced population fleeing the war. Over 80,000 refugees from nearby Liberia, who had their own civil war, were fleeing into Sierra Leone and many of them were children. As Sierra Leone's civil war went on, many children from that country became displaced as well. As kids were starving and homeless, it was easy for the RUF to take advantage of their situations by offering them food and shelter in return for their support, and if that failed, the RUF would force them to join anyway.

What I really took away from the research was that this war has many different sides and organizations all trying to gain power, as well as a lot of history and culture that plays into it as well. There's not really a "good side" or "bad side" in this civil war, for both had committed horrible atrocities.

Revolution is Not a Dinner Party

I really enjoyed this book and I liked that it was told from Ling's point of view. She's still a young girl, so in situations like where Comrade Li was giving her origami in exchange for food, I knew that despite her joy at the origami that they were basically being stolen from. This was one of the many situations where I could tell something sinister was going on despite the fact that the main character was completely unaware of it. One example of this was the tied up cloths under the mattress. I had a hunch they were for a potential suicide even when Ling didn't know.  There was a lot of unspoken things going on with her mother, where Ling assumed  her mother didn't care for her, but really she was just worried and concerned for Ling's well-being and safety. Ling's parents were obviously trying to protect her from the harsh reality of their world.

Another reason I liked that the book was from her point of view was because the questions she was asking were the same ones I was asking. Like, how could Comrade Li be so cruel after being so nice? Sometimes her innocence was really jarring, like when she asked her father what freedom was. He described it as being able to say and do what you want, and it made me feel very thankful that I live in a place where I feel free to voice my opinions and choose the kind of life I want to lead.

I was shocked at how the Red Guards believed in the Maoist ideology so much that they were actually taking pleasure in ripping apart peoples' homes. They truly must have believed that these "upper class" people (like Ling's family who were all in the medical profession) deserved to be humiliated and torn down. It's obvious that the regime had truly succeeded in getting deep into the minds of its young followers. Even at school, Ling was taunted for being "bourgeois."

I loved how strong Ling was and how she stood up to the bullies at school. Even at the end when they're making her apologize to Gao, she turns it into something empowering by chanting it and thinking about all the things she'd really like to say. She becomes so strong by the end of the book and you really get a sense that she's coming into her own. She's also much more understanding and caring for her family by the end, especially towards her mother. I was really moved by her relationship to both parents. Really, all they have is each other. The familial relationships in this book really stood out because the one way the Red Guards were able to gain control was by threatening a person's family. I was thinking about the woman who committed suicide whose sons were punished for her crimes, and how painful that scene was. When the grandmother steps in and disowns her own daughter to save her grandsons, it's heartbreaking. These are situations nobody wants to find themselves in. The fear for one's loved ones is often much greater than the fear we have for ourselves. I can't imagine not knowing where my family members are or wondering if they're dead or alive. I feel like I'd be doing what Ling did when they came to get her father, trying to go with him just to be able to know what happens to him.

Som much of this reminded me of what I know about Nazi Germany, so it was very frightening to read about their experiences. The amount of control a government can have over its people is absolutely terrifying.

Chinese Cultural Revolution

I knew nothing about this revolution before, so all of this information was very new to me. In 1966, the Communist Party leader in China, Mao Zedong, started the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution with the help of his wife, Jiang Qing, and other radicals. He called on the youth of China to rise up against bourgeois society and to help build a better, stronger nation. The students who followed out these orders were called Red Guards, and they were the ones attacking and harassing intellectuals in the country. Anybody who was "privileged," like an educator, doctor, or business owner, was now considered an enemy. The goal here was to create a classless society, to put everyone on equal ground. However, the revolution had a drastically negative impact on the country, not a positive one.

The revolution was marked by chaos. The Red Guards would break into homes and use violence and threats. Anyone could be considered an enemy if they were not careful. Everyone was required to carry around a small red book of Mao's quotes, and it became a crime to criticize him or speak against the government. The Revolution took a huge toll on the economy as stores shut down because of empty shelves, and industrial production fell by 12% in two years. The Red Guards would also fight amongst themselves, adding further trouble. The population's postal service was disrupted, making it harder for people to communicate.

After Mao died in 1976, the Cultural Revolution was officially over, although the effects lasted for years. It's estimated that over a million people were killed (the numbers varied depending on what site I was looking at), and an entire generation was left without formal education because schools were shut down for all ten years of the revolution. Families were separated as anyone with an education had been sent to be "re-educated" among the agricultural class. Many people were sent to work camps and died there. Also, many of China's cultural artifacts were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in the attempt to get rid of anything that symbolized "old" China.

I had no idea this had happened in China, mostly because I have never had an opportunity where I really needed to learn about Chinese history, apart from learning about their art and pottery (the Terracotta Army, for example). It's scary to hear about one person having such a strong influence on an entire country, especially for so many years.

US Immigration Policy Research

Listening to the guest speaker last Wednesday made me understand why people might try to get into the US illegally. The system is set up so that if an immigrant is in the States, it can take years for the rest of their family to join them. I can't imagine being separated from family for so long.

When I set about looking up information on my own, the first thing I wanted to look into was the lottery program, because I've met people trying to get into the US that way. This is a program to obtain a Green Card through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which makes 50,000 visas available each year to immigrants. People are selected randomly from countries with low immigration rates to the US. There's no cost to enter the program, and applicants who are accepted go through a multi-step process which includes a Visa application and interview. There's only a limited period of time each year that applications are accepted. This program is a good option for people who are not able to get a Green Card through family, job, or through refugee or asylum status.

This made me curious about how an unmarried college student like myself would go about trying to move to the US. I've done similar searches in trying to find out how to move to the UK and work legally (which is apparently almost impossible unless I find a job there that will sponsor me, and that employer would have to hire me before I move there. Getting married to a UK citizen or becoming a grad student would be my only other options. Is it just as hard to get into the States, I wonder?) So this was the next thing I looked up. A person moving here would have to have a sponsor through either family or employment to obtain a visa. The number of visas available each year is limited for some countries, and if your application is one of those over the limit, you're put on a waiting list. Also, someone wanting just a temporary working visa would still need their prospective employer to file a petition for their visa. Basically, if someone was wanting to move here and they didn't have immediate family in the US (grandparents, aunts, uncles, in-laws, and cousins can't sponsor relatives) or they aren't seeking asylum, they would need to be sponsored by an employer. Knowing how tough it is to find a job here even as a citizen, I can see why the lottery would be appealing.

What about someone who comes to the US on a student visa? Can they stay and work afterward? These students are permitted to work during the school year, as long as it's on campus. Off-campus jobs are allowed after the first year, but only in certain fields. After graduation, a person with a student visa has 60 days to either enroll in another college program or enroll in the Optical Practical Training (OPT) program, which would allow them to extend the student visa for a year to gain practical training in their field. Employment must be related to their field of study. After the year is up, the person can try to extend their stay by up to three years, and it seems the easiest way to do this is if you're in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, and math. I found that this was similar in the UK. These fields are always in demand).

All in all, trying to move to another country and work there legally is a long and difficult process. This is especially true for people coming to the US. You would have to be very patient and motivated.

Reaction to Patricia McCormick's "Sold"

Last Monday I went to a coffee shop downtown and started reading Sold. I sat there and read it until the end, and a few parts had me in tears. I left the shop and walked around downtown for awhile, and the story was heavy on my heart. After reading about Lakshmi's struggles, I felt ridiculous for my current worries about what I'm doing after college, my worries about grad school, my worries about finding a job I love. I suddenly realized how privileged I was to even have these thoughts at all. Unlike Lakshmi, I have a voice. I have opportunities and options. The world is open to me. This book put that in perspective for me. It also made me feel helpless, just as I felt when I first started researching human trafficking. What could I do to help girls like this? So I went home and went to Google and found a link by the US Department of State called "20 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking", which includes a link to a site that gives you a quiz to see how many slaves "work" for you (your "Slavery Footprint.") The quiz asks questions about what I'm spending money on, what electronics I use, what kind of food I eat. The results told me that with my lifestyle, I essentially have 46 slaves working for me. It really made me think about where I'm putting my money. I went to the store yesterday and it dawned on me that I never think about who's behind these products I'm buying. I vaguely knew about sweatshops, but reading Lakshmi's story put a face to one of the many children being exploited in the world and made me stop and think twice before buying.

What really touched me when I read Sold was seeing little moments of kindness interspersed between the horrors of Lakshmi's time at the Happiness House. Harish, the boy who gave her a pencil and taught her how to read and speak the language, was a beautiful example of the small kindness that can exist in a place like this. When he left, I was in tears. The man who comes in and holds her also moved me to tears. Yes, he's a paying customer and supporting the system, but just treating her like a person and holding her was so different from what she was used to that I was very touched when I read it. Lakshmi doesn't know intimacy of any sort -- the act of hugging and comforting is absent in her world. So to see someone hold her for just a moment was incredibly moving.

The boy who brought Lakshmi tea was another person who showed kindness in the story. I appreciated that the book didn't paint all men as being bad. I think it could've gone that way; Lakshmi could easily start to hate and distrust all men, but she accepted the kindness of these few boys. I think the book did an excellent job at showing how even in the midst of humanity's worst actions, humanity's best and kindest actions can still show through. Lakshmi mentions,

"And so I consider a world so ugly that a child would be maimed for life to fetch an extra rupee or two. And another world full of brides and marigolds, rain machines and white horses" (168)

The world is full of awful, atrocious things, but also full of goodness. However, I do want to point out that what this quote also brings up is fantasy. The world of brides and marigolds she's talking about is from a TV program. So she experiences a hellish world where she is raped daily, but she's also being exposed to this fantasy about weddings and love. These girls watch soap operas by day and are raped at night. I think of Monica and her fashion magazines and realize how much pop culture truly is escapism. It gives us a plastic, sunshiny look at the world to distract us from reality.

I loved this book because it opened my eyes to something that I gave little thought to before. In my mind, human trafficking was something far away and foreign. But this book put a face on the issue that I can't shake out of my head. I think about myself at Lakshmi's age. I was a young thirteen, very innocent and naive. I saw myself in her naiveté and realized how lucky I was at that age to have been surrounded by people who always wanted the best for me. The horrifying reality of what these girls go through is hard for me to stomach. I don't understand how people can treat children like this and it breaks my heart.

Nepal, India, and Human Trafficking

I knew very little about Nepal and India before this assignment. I've studied India's art history and have always wanted to see the Taj Mahal in person. However, I never really looked into the current issues going on there. As far as Nepal goes, I knew Mt. Everest was there, and that was about it. Because Mt. Everest is located in Nepal, I knew the area receives a good number of visitors each year, and local Sherpas are the guides on expeditions. My exposure to these countries has been limited, and it's something I don't realize until I'm given an assignment like this. My goal is to become more informed once this class is over.

The main religion practiced in Nepal is Hinduism, followed by Buddhism. These two often intersect. Hinduism is the primary religion practiced in India as well, and it too has been shaped by Buddhism as well as other religions. Nepal is a much poorer country than India. India has a thriving film industry, a rich literary history, and is an emerging force in different industries within the global economy. India has a caste system in its society, which is a means of social stratification. In the past, people of low castes had a hard time moving up in the system, but now there seems to be an effort in the work environment to hire people of low castes along with people from higher castes.

I had no idea that human trafficking was such a huge problem between these countries. I was shocked at the numbers: 10,000 girls being trafficked to India each year. Oftentimes the traffickers are cooperating with local police or authorities, so the system is very corrupt. There seems to be a stigma around girls who have been sex workers, because if they make it back to their families, they will most likely be rejected. These girls have a very difficult time going back to normal society and often go back into the sex industry because they have no other options. The idea of purity seems to be valued; sleeping with a virgin girl is believed to cure HIV.

When I learned about the magnitude of this problem I felt overwhelmed and helpless. It is happening on such a large scale. What can I possibly do with this information, besides trying to calm the sick feeling in my stomach? How does this become a part of human society? Why are little girls put into the sex industry, and how is that possibly accepted? These girls' lives are being taken away from them. Some will know nothing else but this cruel reality. I am so glad that there are survivors speaking out and making this issue more publicly known. People need to know about this.

Museum Display

Artifact #1: Airplane tickets and postcard

            I’ve had a passion for travel since I was a little girl. I remember being a kid and going overseas to Serbia to visit my grandparents. Traveling was just a part of our family life. My father had a sense of adventure and love of nature that he shared with my brother and I. He would take us to parks every weekend, and since we lived in California, he would take us to the beach, where we could walk along the rugged coastline. After moving to Spokane we still went hiking as a family and took quite a few road trips. This all fed my own sense of adventure and I dreamed nonstop of traveling on my own. Last summer I took a two-month solo trip to Europe, which was incredible. And just a few weeks ago, over spring break, I went to Ireland with a few friends. Travel is something I plan and budget for constantly. It’s essential for my well-being and happiness. It’s my number one passion.

Artifact #2: Photo of me and my family in Serbia, 2007

            My parents moved to the US from former Yugoslavia in 1986, a year before I was born. I grew up speaking Serbian at home, eating Serbian food, and going to a Serbian church. My childhood was permeated in Serbian culture even though we were living in the US. Once my brother and I started school, we began to lose our language a bit. As of now we are much more comfortable speaking English than Serbian. I basically have the vocabulary of a Serbian child right now, although I still understand it fluently. All my grandparents and one of my two uncles still live in Serbia. I saw them for the first time in six years last summer. They mean a lot to me and I hate that airplane tickets are so expensive because it makes it difficult to visit often. It was really tough on my parents in the beginning to be so far from everyone, especially in the 1990’s when NATO was bombing Belgrade, the city where my family lives. I’ve grown accustomed to having a distant family because it’s all I’ve ever known, but the Serbian culture will always be a part of me, and my family is always close to my heart.

Artifact #3: Orthodox Christian Icon

            I’m not religious but I grew up going to an Orthodox Christian church. My parents were never particularly religious either, but I think going to a Serbian church in Los Angeles helped connect them to a community. It was always more of a cultural thing for us, to go to church and connect with our roots. In Spokane we went to a Greek Orthodox church, and that community became our extended family. They were a support system in a place where we had nobody else. I grew up dancing at their Greek Festivals and celebrating holidays with that community. The Orthodox church will always be a part of my life because of this.

Artifact #4: Anne of Green Gables book

            I remember the exact day I got this book. I was 9 years old and had a passion for reading. One of my favorite things in the world was to go to the bookstore with my mother. I remember the excitement I felt when she told me to pick out a book. I saw the redheaded girl on the cover and knew this book had to be mine. Anne of Green Gables was the first series that truly made me feel a passion for the written word in a way I had never felt before. I read all eight books in this series by the age of 11 and I knew I wanted to be like Anne. It was the first time I had connected with a fictional character so deeply. I honestly owe my passion for writing and reading to this book, because it was this book that made that passion come alive.

Artifact #5: My first digital camera

            My dad bought this camera for me the year I left for college. My dad is an amazing artist who has a natural eye for photography. He always had a camera in his hand when we were growing up, and I would constantly sift through his photographs in admiration. I always had a vague interest in doing my own photography and I enjoyed playing around with my film camera, but it wasn’t until I got this digital camera that I started to really experiment with it and fall in love with the art. I used this camera up until 2013, when I finally invested in something a little more advanced. My obsession with photography goes hand in hand with my love of travel. I am mostly drawn toward landscape photography, and have recently started working on more portraiture and cityscape as well. As an avid reader and writer, I find that photography is a great tool for me to step outside my head a bit. It helps me appreciate the beauty around me.

Kampung Boy Impressions

I really enjoyed Lat's Kampung Boy. The illustrations were endearing and I found the storyline relatable even though it takes place in quite a different environment than I'm used to.

This story describes the childhood of a boy growing up in rural Malaysia in the 1950s. Before reading the text, I had vague ideas of what rural life in the area might be like (for example, the river bathing didn't surprise me) but I knew nothing of the area's economy or forms of education. It was interesting to read about the tin dredge and rubber, as well as the Muslim teachings at school. I was cringing at the circumcision scene because they waited until he was ten years old to do it. But he described it like such a normal thing to do that I realized this is just a part of how his culture does things. I also found the rituals around birth fascinating because they're so different from ours. I'd be curious to find out how these things differ around the country. In an urban area, for instance, I wonder if there would be less of a religious influence in daily life.

Overall, I found that I was finding commonalities with the main character instead of finding differences, because more than anything, this is a story about childhood. I related to how he would run off and spend all day outside with his friends (I used to do this a lot), I related to his tendency to sit alone, I related to his curiosity and wonder about the world around him. These were all aspects of childhood that I had directly felt and was able to see anew through his eyes. At the end, when he leaves his village, he is leaving behind that childhood. It brought me back to the day I left for college. I too am the oldest child in my family, so I was the first to move out. I moved to a new city on my own and felt this yearning in my heart for home once I realized things would never be the same again. I would never be living under one roof with my family the way I used to. It's a realization that we must experience to move and to grow into adulthood. That last picture of him waving goodbye to his family was quite moving for me, because I was the first child in my family to do the same thing.

This book brought back many fond memories of my own childhood, even though I come from a very different background. I love the illustrations and the insights into a culture I knew so little about.

Malaysia

When starting my research on Malaysia, I realized my only reference point has been the recent disappearance of Malaysia flight 370. Because of the recent news surrounding the plane, and it’s supposed whereabouts, I had an idea of where Malaysia is located on a map (Southeast Asia), but that was the extent of my knowledge.

Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy. The king is the head of state, an elected monarch chosen every five years from a hereditary line of rulers. The king’s role is largely ceremonial. The head of government is the prime minister. Malaysia protects freedom of religion, although Islam is its official state religion. I was interested to find out that race plays a significant role in politics, as many political parties are ethnically based. 

Malaysia’s ancient Malay culture has a strong influence on the country’s culture today. The Malay are the largest ethnic group in Malaysia, and are predominantly Muslim. Chinese and Indian cultures have also had lasting effects on the society. For example, a Malay wedding ceremony will incorporate elements of Hindu ceremonies from India. These three cultures (Malay, Chinese, and Indian) are the largest ethnic groups in the country, but are accompanied by numerous indigenous cultures as well. There is an open-door policy during religious festivals: although Malaysia has many different religions and cultural traditions, during religious festivals they are all quite open to members of other cultures attending. Each race is encouraged to keep ethnic names and languages and to practice their own religions, as well as to respect the beliefs and practices of others. Diversity seems to be a something that’s encouraged and celebrated here. 

I looked at a few tourism sites to get a feel for cultural customs a Westerner might have to get accustomed to when visiting Malaysia. Since the majority of the population is Muslim, a visitor will see women wearing head scarves. When visiting religious places of worship, it’s important to dress conservatively and be prepared to take off your shoes. Dressing conservatively is recommended for areas outside the big cities, and taking off shoes is customary before entering people’s homes as well. The food in this country is quite varied, and offers up a mix of different cuisines to satisfy a variety of palates, from traditional cuisine to pizza and burgers. I also found out that the possession of legal drugs has a mandatory death penalty.

I was pleased to find that Malay women are among the most emancipated in the Islamic world, and they often hold prominent roles in academia and business. As a woman, I was interested to find out how other women felt while traveling solo in this country, and in most cases I found that solo female travelers felt quite comfortable in this society, while stressing that it’s important to follow custom and dress conservatively. Through my research, I’ve started thinking Malaysia might be a place I’d like to visit in my travels one day. Not only do females feel comfortable traveling here, but the country is rich in cultural/religious sites and beautiful jungle scenery.