a culture a year

So one day in January I had this idea.  I was sitting out by the pool on a Saturday reading the book: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. It’s a beautiful story of sisters who start their own dressmaking business in the middle of Afghanistan right when the Taliban take over.  I was enchanted.  I started researching the Pashtun culture and trying to understand it more.

Meanwhile as I was reading this book, I had also just decided to try Audible by Amazon.  I downloaded it because I bike everywhere and I wanted to multitask on my homework during the 45 minute bike ride commute to work every day. Before I knew it, I had finished my assigned book for class in 2 weeks and I still had another 2 weeks to download a second free book before I started paying for it.  After much research, I decided on the book I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban. I chose this because it was a story of womanhood and education, two subjects I am very passionate about. So, while simultaneously listening to I am Malala and reading the Dressmaker of Khair Khana, I had an idea.

I’m going to study a culture a year. I am about to be an official anthropologist, after all. I will learn as much as I can by fully immersing myself and studying as much about it as I can.  If possible, I’m going to visit the place where that culture originated. This year I’m focusing on the culture parts of the middle East – primarily the Pashtun culture found in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  I am eating it up and loving every minute of it.

I am going to try and learn as much about Pashtun and Islamic culture that I can – by reading as many books as possible, eating the foods, making new friends from those areas of the world, listening to the music, watching documentaries, and anything else that I can get my hands on.

I’m going to blog about my experiences as I go.  I love to learn about other perspectives of the world in order to broaden my own perspective and deepen my own understanding of what is good and what is beautiful and what is true.

If any of you have any recommendations of more ways that I can do this or any resources to help me do this, please let me know!!

Love,

Emma

P.S.  I would strongly recommend those two books mentioned above.  They are beautiful, enlightening, and empowering.