1. As of now, the community that has influenced me the most is the community I am a part of in Sudan. It has helped me in more ways that I can think of. It offers a very warm sense of identity along with overwhelming support for your life goals. I identify with it simply because my father a part of it. Through him I am a part of the community. Or at least that was the case up until this past summer, where I actually ingrained myself within the community and became a better person. Through this community I have strengthen my American values and my Muslim beliefs. I was surrounded by those who cared and those who didn't. And through watching them, I chose the better lifestyle. Through seeing their views towards certain aspects of life, I began to feel more strongly about the American values instilled in me as a child. So not only did I feel closer to the community in Sudan, but I also felt closer to the U.S. way of thinking as a whole. I hope to expand on this in my speech.
2.My visit to the country. I stayed in Sudan for more than 2 months, and I intend to use my various experiences to communicate my connection to the community. I will use the entire month of Ramadan and the long nights and hot days I spent fasting or awaiting a fast. We, the males my age, would become nocturnal and enjoy Ramadan not only as a spiritual holiday but as a way to see the city during the cool, dry nights. I will talk about traveling to the village and seeing how peaceful and calm it was. And I will use the week of Eid, which was incredibly eventful and helped me to see the usefulness of such a community. Eid, and the week following it, seemed to be almost intentionally planned out, so that we could experience every major type of event that occurs in a given year in a Sudanese community. Obviously this is not true, as you will come to find out, but it did help me see what the Sudanese people saw within each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment