#5 Post Service

    I had many great experiences and could not be more happy that I was given the opportunity to work with a refugee family and interact with them in so many ways. I observed many things about our refugee families apartment, and what decorations and things they had around the house. First of all, they have a Chinese calendar that they use but they are Burmese which is Middle Eastern, and not Chinese at all which was somewhat humorous to me. They also had this decorative rug in the family room/main room that looks like it was from their hometown or symbolized a part of their culture. Every Wednesday that we went there, I noticed that they had rice out either cooking it or it was on a drying rack probably for their meal that night. They also would have some type of vegetable or leafs that they would have out cooking and the last time that we went I noticed some type of broth in a crock pot. Our family has 4 kids and the kids wore typical clothes that you would see any kids wearing, but the mother often wore baggy shirts and a long skirt which seemed like traditional clothing for her and their culture. Lastly, another theme that I noticed with our family was they didn't have very many pictures up, actually none, from what I saw and they didn't have furniture in the family room they sat on the rug which was actually pretty neat to me. Sitting on the floor made it more homey to me in a sense, just because that usually doesn't happen in a typical home because we have couches or chairs and I just really liked the change.
  My experiences with our family will definitely help to shape my interpersonal interactions. I am now more accustomed to seeing different types of foods that people eat and also how they live in general. I think that just experiencing these themes and interactions helped me to realize that everyone has different styles of living. I think that now I will be more open and less stereotypical about other cultures. My future interpersonal interactions will be stronger now I think because I will actually know what to say to people even if we don't necessarily understand each other or speak the same language. I am definitely going to be more prepared to have different types of interactions with people as well. 

Now What: #3

I have learned so much about being more open to other cultures and having a better "attitude" with our service learning project and I can thank my refugee family for that. I can definitely use what I have learned to help me not to judge others off of what race they are, what background they come from or what language they speak because we are all humans and there isn't one race that is better than another one: we are all equal.  

   I plan on being a nurse and I know that I will encounter many interactions with people of different backgrounds and cultures. This service project has taught me to try and understand other cultures and be more accepting instead of shrugging people off if I can't understand them. The rest of my life I will encounter situations with all kinds of people with other cultures because more and more people are immigrating into the United States as we are a very diverse country. Especially in the health field I will have to treat patients and try and make them feel comfortable if they aren't familiar with our ways of doing things. I learned with this project that especially when the mom was breast-feeding in front of us not to judge her but just to be accepting and know that that is how some cultures may be. When the little boy was in the house and was somewhat in our way I adapted and tried to get comfortable because he was welcomed into their home the same as we were and we had no more rights than he did being there. I am really glad that I got the chance to try and help the little kids also learn to speak English and how to count money and other things like that. My favorite activity was when we baked cookies with them and watched the movie Frozen. The kids had a great time and it was fun to see them doing regular things that kids would do. I also don't think they had ever had chocolate chip cookies because when they tasted the cookies their faces lit up. I learned so much with my refugee family that I really think it will help me in life to have a more ethnorelative outlook on things, and be more accepting of other cultures. I am better prepared for the confusion that may come up if someone of a different background or speaks a different language needs treated or helped for when I am a nurse!

So-What #3

    I have a better understanding of the actions that I have seen or that I have encountered over the course of my service-learning project with my refugee family. On the first blog about the situations I encountered I talked about how the families still don't speak English very well and how the little boy who came over kept interrupting us trying to teach them English, and we couldn't tell him to leave. I think that this action just was how they do things in their culture, they are very welcoming with quests and the mother, Aye-Mya didn't want to tell him to leave or to be quiet because that is seen as rude he was just having fun. Also, another thing that we encountered was when the mother was breast-feeding out in the open and we looked at that as being "wrong" or "not right" in our culture because typically when mothers breast feed in the U.S they do it in private or when no one is around. I would see this concept of what I was feeling in my mind as "ethnocentrism" because I thought what she was doing wasn't necessarily right just because that is not what we do in the U.S. which is judgemental on my part because they are from a different culture and I should have known that they do things differently in their culture.
    Our family still doesn't speak very good English but I do think that we helped them a lot because they have showed progress in things like counting money, shapes, colors, emotions and labeling household items. I also think that now after doing this service project and encountering these situations with the families my attitude is more ethnorelative rather than ethnocentric. Overall, I think that I may have gone into this service hours not very open-minded and my "attitude" wasn't very culturally sensitive. I analyzed that during the visit that the little boy was there interrupting or what we thought to be as interrupting he was just a little boy saying what any little boy would do in that situation. He also was helping us out with translating the words and things we were trying to say, so in the end I think I should have been more thankful rather than annoyed or bothered by him. 

Blog #2 Situations Encountered

My refugee family is a very sweet family with 4 kids, from Burma. They do not speak English very well but they are picking up on it quickly. When we first came to their apartment complex I was a little nervous because the part of town it was in but I soon got over that. The house kind of has a different smell, but I was expecting that as they are from a different culture and eat different foods than we do. On the first visit alone without Kelly we didn't come as prepared as we thought we were going to be. The first situation that made it a little hard to do our activity was one of the young neighbor boys came over and knew English a lot better than our family and was being very loud and saying things like: "that's so easy I know that word!" "Oh my gosh, how don't you know this word it's so easy" and "ooh ooh this is easy let me do it" which made it a little hard to try and teach our family new words while he was sitting there saying these things. We couldn't just tell him to leave or be quiet because it wasn't our home and the mom had let him in as he was the son's friend. The next situation we encountered was we were coloring with the kids and helping the mom fill out a job application when the 1.5 year old little girl started crying so the mom started breast-feeding right there in front of us, it was a little uncomfortable just because we aren't used to that happening in America in the open like that, but I understood that she is from a different culture and they do things differently plus it was her house. I think our family is learning a lot faster and they are very interested in new topics and things. It is also very exciting to know that us helping them with their English is going to make a big difference in their new life here in America.

I am beginning to get excited for my service learning project because just a few days ago my group was assigned with our family! I'm very excited to be working with a family that has lots of kids and I hope that they are excited to meet us as well. I hope to help the family as much as I can and to help them get accustomed to all of the new things they are seeing in America. I think we will have lots of activities for them to do and try to teach not only the kids the basic way of life in our country and the different things we do in America, but also help the parents to get used to all of the changes as it is a huge change for them and will take some getting used to. I hope that this service learning project will help me to learn the customs of other cultures and try to be more understanding of those who have different backgrounds than I do. I am hoping to maybe learn a little bit of their language and the things that they do in their country and also that will help me to learn about how life would be in another country with maybe not as much freedom or opportunities.

I know that our family lives in an apartment in Rock Island, IL. I assume that it will have lots of children items and tight space for such a large family, they may not have all of the things they need but have basic things. I imagine them to have quite a bit of stuff because they are a larger family and also they may not have some things that I would assume they would so I need to be aware of that. I know that our family is A "GYI" family and from what i have researched that is used in Burma and India. I can assume that the population they serve is mostly Indian or Middle Eastern. I know a little bit about India but not so much Burma so I am excited to learn more about where the family is from. I am really excited for all of the learning experiences this project holds and also to see how far we get in teaching our family!

Service: in relation to learning

Service isn't always necessarily grouped into the same category as learning, but in many instances an act of service can help you learn something new. If you are doing a service for someone or something you will be learning not only about the service itself but the people you are helping and their lives in general. Service is defined as "the action of helping or doing work for someone." Learning is defined as "the acquisition of knowledge or skills through the experience, study, or by being taught." By doing a service you will be acquiring knowledge and skills throughout the experience and even in some instances be taught new things that you didn't know before.

The service that we are going to be doing will consist of spending time with refugees from all over the world who aren't familiar with the customs or languages of America. I plan on being with a family who has kids of all ages and parents who are adjusting to a whole new country, I believe that I will learn: some of their customs, their language, how they lived and just how life in another country is. I think that with me doing this service it will open my mind up to other cultures and see how other people live their lives, therefore I will be learning all about the family's home country. Also, it will allow me to see the struggles that other countries go through and how much easier I have it here. I think that I will learn a lot about myself and how to be mindful of other peoples situations but also that I truly can make a difference in someones life. In the end, I hope to learn new skills and experiences by fulfilling the service I will be doing.