My Village Life

In life there is a constant feeling to want to fit in with everyone else in society, so much that it can cause one to feel like what they have to offer is not good enough. Outside forces often try to mold us to become what they believe is socially and morally correct, and it can make us feel like strangers to these outside forces and even ourselves. This can be said as a result of colonialism in Nigeria where England pushed their culture onto the less powerful nation. It caused a conflict as to who the people believed they should be, educated like the English or like their tribal ancestors. This can prove true for the Nigerian writer, Jude Dibia who demonstrates how he faced the battle between cultures in his story 'Among Strangers'; he felt torn between his fathers Igbo culture, his mothers Igala culture and his own unidentifiable personal culture. It was difficult for him to find a place where he felt comfortable in his own skin, and even into adulthood Dibia was torn, but he eventually found his place and no longer felt like a stranger to the world around him. Jude Dibia is an example of how post colonialism can have an effect on the culture of a land that once existed and he helped to prove it is important to follow one's

In “Black Body: Rereading James Baldwin’s “Stranger in the Village” by Teju Cole he makes the “Stranger in the Village” by James Baldwin a lot more comprehensive which helps to see the persuasion that Cole is trying to perform. He is persuading us to believe that our world is both similar and different to the world described by Baldwin. Though he proves his assertion with facts and that’s is what I am going represent.

Chinua Achebe’s, Things Fall Apart, is a story of a traditional village in Nigeria from inside Umuofia around the late 1800s. This novel depicts late African history and shows how the British administrative structure, in the form of the European Anglican Church, imposed its religion and trappings on the cultures of Africa, which they believed was uncivilized. This missionary zeal subjugated large native populations. Consequently, the native traditions gradually disappeared and in time the whole local social structure within which the indigenous people had lived successfully for centuries was destroyed. Achebe spends the first half of the novel depicting the Ibo culture, by

Preconceived ideas about one’s culture often arises from stereotypes passed down from generation to generation. It is those stereotypes which shape one’s way of thinking, without being educated properly. In the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, misunderstood culture is what drives the story of a small African clan called the Umuofia and the life story of Okonkwo, a fearless warrior and farmer. An in-depth look into pre-colonial African culture helps the reader discover and understand an unbiased point of view of a world one may not understand. In doing so, Achebe uses imagery as well as strong narration to describe the cultural norms and activities that the Nigerian tribe undergoes in everyday life. Through this he offers a nonbiased point of view, and communicates and accurate picture of pre-colonial African culture to a western reader.

“Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa” by Charles Piot is a book based on the lives of the people of the remote village called Kabre located in Northern Togo. The author discusses the “vernacular modernity” of the people of Kabre village that has been influenced by a long tradition of encounters with outsiders that included the colonialists. The author provides an in-depth analysis with ethnographic details about the Kabre people as the author discusses a wide range of their culture and history that included houses and the structure of homestead, gender ideology, ritual like initiations, exchange system, and social relations (Piot 178).

It was the day we were leaving for Florida for a U16 soccer tournament in West Palm Beach, July 2nd to be precise. A drive to Florida from where we live takes around 18 hours. We finished supper at 5:30, completed packing, and were on the road at 6:30. We were traveling south on Interstate 83. Nothing much to see as we were driving down the highway. A few trees here and there, and a wide variety of fields that were thriving with crops.

America, in the early colonial years, was mostly country. Multitudes of people lived on farms, and few towns existed. As time has passed, America has innovated, and now millions of prodigious cities overpower the dwindling areas of the country. Because of the numerous towns, rarely any Americans have experienced the modest country life. Some individuals believe that the city is superior to the nation only by considering the conveniences that the city possesses. However, nearly all Americans have yet to realize the specialness of this country. It is an improved place to live in the city because it is peaceful, self sufficient, and beautiful.

Little to our knowledge those tarps were full of water and dead bugs due to the fact that it had been drizzling all day. As we went down the first hill my mom got drenched with water and dead bugs and their bodies. They were all over her. As we got off of the ride the rest of us couldn’t help but laugh at the way she looked with dead bugs in her hair, mouth, eyes, and anywhere else they might have gotten. After my mom got cleaned up as best as she could we continued our adventure.

Throughout Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, resistance to change is a popular, repeated theme; this theme is easily seen when George and Emily walk home from school together and stop at the drugstore for ice cream sodas. Emily’s caution as to not upset George when confronting him about changing and Mr. Morgan’s negative comments about the changes going on in town and about the passage of time making matters worse, show the seriousness that townspeople of Grover’s Corners take any amount of change.

Woodland avenue reminds me of the motherland. I have never been to africa because a round trip to Guinea and Sierra Leone is about five thousand dollars, which is costly. Therefore, I get somewhat of a feel of Africa from Woodland avenue. In “The way of a Cherokee”, Foxxy’s memorable place was the wild mountain country, because it reminded her of her Cherokee culture and her grandfather’s tales. Foxxy mentions the memories she would have of her and her sister running around looking for white tail deers. This reminded me of how my sister and I used to run around Woodland avenue during our thirty minute break looking for new goods to buy or different foods to try out. Sometimes I would stop at my aunt’s restaurant known an “La madinque” to order some homemade soup and rice known as peanut stew. My sister and I would invite the girls from the masjid and we would go out to eat as a group. One Saturday in April 2016, my friends and I were talking about the this major party coming up at this nightclub called “Sakira”. My friends and I skipped the first part of class to go to a nearby Rite Aid to buy Makeup and Falsies. On our way back to the masjid, we stopped at dunkin donuts and grabbed some food. We figured that if we came back during breaktime, Uncle Ali wouldn’t notice. Surprised, when we arrived back at the masjid, he was waiting for us at the door. My classmates were forced to clean the masjid at the end of class, which wasn’t too bad because that deed is a form of

Many people think that living in a small town can limit the perspective of one’s mind, leaving one to believe that hardly anything exists beyond the boards of one’s town. Enumclaw is a small town I love; everyone knows everyone, local grocery store you got to know the person that works there, small mountains, old parks, greens fields filled with cows. Growing up in Enumclaw was different there was not weekends spent at the mall, not too much going on in town, and not a lot of movement, everything in Enumclaw is slow and calm. The weekends would be consisted of getting up early to ride the tractor with your father and sit on his lap as if you were driving, quading, or hiking Mt.Peak. This town is where I call home and I love my home because its where I feel safe, happy and where grew a great connection to.

On the Fourth of July of last year, I woke up that morning ready to take my siblings to a creek where we could enjoy the beautiful day before the night, thinking that nothing could go wrong. We all prepared our things, making sure that we had everything we needed, as far as swimsuits, floating devices, and most importantly food and drinks. On our trip, things took a worst when I shattered my heel because of wasps.

The agency I chose to interview was MyHouse at 300 North Willow in Wasilla, Alaska. Their mission is to provide safe shelter for homeless youth with a goal of connecting kids to a network of caring individuals and agencies able to assist them in becoming self-sufficient. They have a board of directors that meet regularly to discuss issues and where to go next with the agency.

Unlike the suburbs yet a suburban mentality was instilled; the idea that how we appear to others and education is the key to social mobility, well, the legal key. Although I was born a child of the ghetto I learned that the ghetto is where I’m teenage mother in Kingston, Jamaica. I currently reside in Seaview Gardens a community that is said to be a ghetto, and don’t get me wrong, it is but it’s my suburb and it’s where I learnt everything I know. “What people think of a ghetto is dependent on how people in the ghetto think” – Shadiomar McPharlene; where I live although there’s distractions all around,

Eighteen years ago Julie Carol Parton (my loving mother) and Ric Parton (my inspirational father) brought Logan Parton (that's me) into this unique and vastly changing world. Little did I know that one day I was going to set immensely challenging goals to achieve. I grew up in a small town, near the corner of Indiana, known as Vevay. For the early portions of my life I lived on a middle sized farm with my family. There always was two different perspectives within our household. On one side of the house there was my father and my oldest sister Christina, and on the other side was my mother and my middle sister Melisa. The perspective that my father and oldest sister shared was that they both felt the want to make money and move away from Vevay, on the other side my mother and middle sister had the mindset of wanting to be farmers and