UCL Lecture Series Event

Dr Robert Carter presents The Lower Sea and the Waters of Death: the Ancient Origins of Seafaring and Maritime Trade in the Gulf.

The history of seafaring in the Gulf is of extraordinary antiquity, going back to the Stone Age. The world’s oldest known maritime trading network was developed here more than 7000 years ago, and the Gulf is home to the earliest known evidence for the use of the sail, as well as the world’s oldest seagoing boat remains. Subsequently, during the Bronze Age, the world’s first great cities and empires traded across the sea, moving great quantities of copper, grain, oil, stone and exotic luxury goods between India, Iraq and Iran. In this talk Dr Carter will describe these early forays into long-distance sea-trade, using the archaeological evidence found in the tombs and settlements of the region, as well as the Mesopotamian legends, and information from cuneiform economic texts.

Dr Robert Carter, Senior Lecturer at UCL Qatar, is an expert in the archaeology of the Gulf, Arabia and the Middle East, with long-standing interests in seafaring and maritime trade. He has researched in the Gulf for nearly 20 years and has published numerous articles on the archaeology of the Neolithic (Stone Age), Bronze Age and Islamic periods in the region. He has recently been exploring the history of the Gulf’s pearl-fishery, from the 6th millennium BC to the 20th century AD. His resulting book, Sea of Pearls, will be out this Summer.

Venue: Auditorium, Georgetown University Building
Date: Tuesday 15 May 2012
Time: 6:00 - 7:00pm
Food and refreshments reception to follow.

Organ Donation Awareness

Spring & Summer Health Campaign 2012

Dear All,

On behalf of QF HSSE Directorate and the Health Campaign Team, I would like to invite all members, staff, students, contractors of Qatar Foundation  to an awareness campaign on Health, ‘Spring & Summer Health Campaign 2012’.  This event will be held on 2nd, 09th, 11th and 16th April 2012 from 09:30 am till 01:30 pm.

This awareness campaign is in line with the objectives of the HSSE Directorate’s Health Section to create an awareness on various health topics among the members of Qatar Foundation.  The activities include demonstrations on First Aid and CPR, Diabetes Awareness, Halitosis & Oral Health Awareness, Cancer awareness, Dietician/ Nutrition expert, Blood Donation, Mental health, Physical Therapy, Information about tobacco, Health Screenings, Visual acuity, Skin analysis, Body composition, Hearing, total cholesterol etc.

I would like to have a special thought for my wonderful health team and thank them for their continuous effort and support.  I also thank our “Partners”, the Supreme Council of Health, Hamad Medical Corporation Heart Hospital, FANAR, Supreme Council of Health, Primary Health Care, RCQ, Ebin Sina, HITC, Al Rumaihi Hospital – Rehabilitation Department, Diet Centre etc. 

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2nd April 2012 at Academic Bridge Program in LAS building

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9th April 2012 at Msheireb Properties in Tornado Tower

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11th April 2012 at Sidra Medical & Research Center in Al Nasser Tower

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TIME:

09:30 AM to 1:30 PM16th April 2012 at Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar (VCU-Q)

We hope to see everyone attending this event. For queries contact emahmud@qf.org.qa.

Housing Lottery

This is to inform you that the Fall 2012 housing application has gone live as of February 28, 2012. This is the chance for all enrolled students  who are currently living in the residence halls and who are intending to continue to live in QF Housing in Fall 2012 to select housing.

In order for you to take part in 2012 housing lottery/ squat in March, you will need to:

1)      Pay the Reservation Fee of QAR 1,000 at Porta-cabin 4 (Cashier's Office in Finance) and attach a scanned copy of the receipt with your housing application. This fee is refundable until May 1^st, 2012 if you wish to cancel your housing. If you are on scholarship you should attach a copy of the award letter, clearly stating that all housing fees are covered. If you are on Financial Aid you should pay the QAR 1,000 yourself as the awards decisions will not be made by March 21^st. You would then be able to have the reservation fee refunded to you once the Financial Aid is applied later in the year if you have a surplus amount in your account.

2)      Complete your online housing application for Fall 2012 here: https://qatarfoundation.erezlife.com/one.php?outputter=loginView&am_login=1 .  

The housing application deadline is March 21, 2012 and students who miss the deadline will not be able to participate in the Squat or housing lottery.

What is the Squat?

The Housing Squat will begin March 1 and will run until March 21. The squat is a chance for you to remain in your current housing assignment for the Fall 2012 semester, meaning you don’t have to move this summer! In order to be eligible to squat, you must meet all the following criteria:

·         Not currently live in a CDA apartment.

·         Not currently live in FB1 or FB2 (these spaces will be made available for incoming freshmen).

·         Not currently live in the villas.

·         Not currently live on the 3^rd floor of SB3 or MB3 (these will be the locations for the Sustainable Living Communities).

·         Have completed the online housing application and attached proof of payment of QAR 1000 reservation fee.

·         Go to Faten’s office in FB3 during office hours to request the Squat, alongside the other current occupant of the bedroom.

o   If you wish to bring someone else into your bedroom, you will need your current roommate to fill in a roommate consent form, and bring it with you.

What is the Lottery?

The lottery will take place March 27 & 28 for all students who wish to return to live in QF student housing in Fall 2012 and are not CDAs, roommates of CDAs, and who have not already squatted. The lottery will run from 6-9pm for those 2 nights and will be for male and female residents. You would receive your lottery number closer to the time, indicating  the time you’d need to show up to select your room for Fall 2012. Please note that you would need to attend with one other person in order to select a room. We do not half-fill bedrooms in the lottery.

A couple of final points:

1)      Although we require 2 students to sign up in a bedroom, you are able to sign up as a 3 in MB3, SB1, SB2, or SB3. Depending on actual enrollment in the Fall 2012 semester, we may need to assign a new student to make the room a triple.

2)      If you miss the application deadline and don’t take part in the Housing Lottery, but wish to live on campus Fall 2012, you may apply at any time after April 1^st, 2012. At that time we will assign you as space permits.

3)      If you complete your application and payment by March 21^st but cannot attend the housing lottery, you can complete a proxy form which allows a nominee to select your housing option on your behalf.

4)      Copies of all housing forms are available at FB3 front desk.

If you won’t be returning to Housing this fall, please let us know so we can remove you from the list.

If you have any questions or you face any problems while completing your application please contact fabujazer@qf.org.qa or housing@qf.org.qa.

Regards,

Housing & Residence Life

Summer Housing

Dear Residents,

This is to inform you that the Summer 2012 housing application has gone live today March 5, 2012. This is the chance for all enrolled students  who are currently living in the residence halls and who are intending to continue to live in QF Housing in Summer 2012.

In order for you to complete your summer 2012 housing application form, you will need to:

1)     Pay the housing fees for all days you plan to stay on campus this summer  at Porta-cabin 4 (Cashier's Office in Finance) and attach a scanned copy of the receipt with your housing application along with copy of the attached SBHA completed properly with all details and dates.

2)     Summer Housing Fees is NON-REFUNDABL: So before submitting your summer 2012 housing application make sure that you are going to stay during this course. If you are on scholarship you still need to get a confirmation from the Scholarship Office to be uploaded into your summer housing application as it’s not necessary if you have a scholarship that this scholarship will cover summer housing. If you are on Financial Aid you still need to get a confirmation letter from the Financial Aid Office that the FA will cover your summer housing.

3)     The Summer Housing fees this year is QR. 60/Night.

4)     Complete your online housing application for Summer 2012 here: https://qatarfoundation.erezlife.com/one.php?outputter=loginView&am_login=1 .  

5)     Summer Housing begins on May 13 till August 29, 2012.

6)     The paper Summer Break Housing Application should be completed precisely  and attached to your online housing application with the certain dates. This form is available at FB3 front desk. If you want to change any of the dates or to extend your stay after submission your application you need to come over to FB3 Desk personally and correct or change the dates in your application and sign next to it.

The housing application deadline is April 15, 2012 and students who didn’t apply for summer housing they need to sign up for the check out  at FB3 Desk not later than May 1, 2012.

VERY IMPORTANT - What do you need to do in summer?

·        Please sign up for CHECK OUT with FB3 Desk and return the KEY and PED every time  you leave in summer to avoid any extra charges.

·        If you didn’t apply for summer then you need to check out not later than May 12, 2012 and you should sign up for check out not later than May 1, 2012 to avoid any extra charges.

·        If you didn’t apply for Fall 12 then you need to check out not later than August 1, 2012 and you should sign up for check out at least one week prior to that date.

·        If you are a current resident and leaving for one semester to study abroad, you need to do the proper check out by clearing and cleaning your apartment and moving your boxes into the storage.

·        Students will be invoiced for housing at the end of summer.

·        Summer housing fees should be paid in advance every time you need to extend your stay.

·        If you are a graduate you need to check out not later than May 12, 2012 unless you have a reasonable reason then you need get a confirmation letter from your university that you need to extend your stay under their responsibility and you will need to abide by the rules and regulations.

·        Copies of all housing forms are available at FB3 front desk.

·        If you need to leave before summer starts (before May 12, 2012) and to come back after May 13, 2012 you need to check out and return the key and PED. As we are going to consider you residing in the halls and will charge you for these days.

If you have any questions or you face any problems while completing your application please contact fabujazer@qf.org.qa or housing@qf.org.qa.

Regards,

Housing & Residence Life

WMD Prohibition Workshop

You are cordially invited to attend

WORKSHOP ON THE PROHIBITION OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

The National Committee for the Prohibition of Weapons (NCPW) will hold will hold an awareness workshop for all Education City students on Thursday, March 15^th from 1:00pm to 5:00pm at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar.  Participation in the workshop will lead to a certificate.  Our very own Professor Christina Paschyn will be a discussion leader and panelist for this workshop.  Sponsors of the workshop are NCPW, Qatar Foundation, Qatar University, College of the North Atlantic, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Northwestern University in Qatar, and Virginia Commonwealth University.  If you are interested in attending this workshop please contact LaKisha Tillman at lakisha-tillman@northwestern.edu or register at http://www.NCPW.qa.org

Here is more information regarding the workshop:

This workshop aims to achieve the following goals:

1.      Raise awareness about international conventions related to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), that is, in nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

2.      Clarify the NCPW’s role and its achievements as a representative of the State of Qatar in the field of WMD disarmament. 

3.      Build a communication link between the NCPW and university students and introduce students to the work of the NCPW.

4.      Provide opportunities for students to work with the NCPW in achieving its goals and ambitions on both national and international levels. 

Workshop schedule

1:00-1:30 - arrival, coffee provided
1:30-2:00 - Intro by NCPW officials
2:00-3:00 - 3 NCPW presentations (on Biological, Chemical and Nuclear WMD)
3:00-4:00 - split between QU/CNAQ and HBKU partner universities
4:00-5:00 - panel debate
5:00 onwards - handing out of certificates and reception

Sustainable Living Communities for Next Year

Housing and Residence Life

Sustainable Living Community

“Creating a global future through social justice, economic responsibility, and environmental practices”

Are you interested in a different kind of residential community for Fall 2012?? Are you interested in sustainability issues such as waste management, recycling, financial development, social justice and more? Would you like to go on field trips around Qatar to learn more about sustainability from a local perspective?

If you are, then consider living in the Sustainable Living Community (SLC) next fall! Applications can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/SustainableLLC

Read on for more information!

What exactly is "sustainability”??

One of the most common definitions of sustainability is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (Brundtland Commission, 1987).Often this is known as the “triple bottom line,” or taking care of our world through environmental practices, a social responsibility to others, and economic growth and development.

What are the goals of the Sustainable Learning Community (the SLC)?

The SLC aims to educate students on sustainable issues that are currently affecting our world. Through actively participating in this learning community, each student will be able to:

• Define sustainability and demonstrate an understanding of the triple bottom line: environmental, social and economic concepts.
• Explain how sustainability relates to their lives, coursework,  values and how their actions impact issues of sustainability.
• Utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and global perspective.

Topics discussed in the community will seek to engage students in the previously mentioned learning outcomes, while trying to connect classroom learning to real life activities. Learn how the topic of sustainability relates to your life through health care systems, environmental journalism, public transportation, fast food, human rights, healthy eating and living habits. Both male and female communities will participate in joint fieldtrips to local places in Qatar such as the vegetable souq, Mushreib Enrichment Center, Qatar Financial Center, mangrove planting, and the construction site of the new LEED Certified residence halls.

What do I have to do to apply?

·         Fill out a housing application on Erez life.

·         Submit proof of QAR 1000 down payment.

·         Answer 3 short essay questions you can find here: http://tinyurl.com/SustainableLLC

·         Click submit!

Can you tell me more about the SLC and where it will be located?

·         Announcement! The Sustainable Living Community is moving for Fall 2012!

·         The SLC will be located on the third floor of SB3 for women and the third floor of MB3 for men.

·         Both communities will have maximum 2 people per apartment.

·         Each floor will have its own designated CDA who will be responsible for planning sustainable programming for the floor and joint community fieldtrips with members of both male and female communities.  

*Questions can be directed to RHD Jessica Young (me) at jyoung@qf.org.qa. Applications are due March 16^th by midnight and applicants will hear the following week with a decision. Accepted participants will not participate in the Fall 2012 housing lottery.

Pest Control

Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is a relatively new and unexplored field of interest that is immersed in the belief that components of a working system will behave and function differently when isolated from the system environment. Systems thinking implies looking at the elements of a problem as part of a whole system, where the properties of the whole arise from the relationships between the component parts. Moreover, it also involves a deeper look at and understanding of a system by examining and scrutinizing the linkages and interaction between comprising elements of the system. In short, systems thinking provides a magnified and systemic look at the connectivity between and interaction amongst elements in the situation, and allows for identification of ‘leverage points’, which can further help us point our efforts in the right direction so as to support constructive change and addressing problems by making a small change in one element of the system in order to produce big changes in the whole system.

                From an environmental standpoint, systems thinking is a novel way of thinking and managing the ‘natural’ as well as ‘people’ systems associated with complex problems in sustaining and enhancing the natural resources.[i] Addressing a sustainability problem is only the tip of the iceberg; systems thinking provides a contextual and holistic approach while dealing with sustainability problems. For instance, sustainable agricultural development, in rural areas of nations steeped in economic, political and social backwardness, was always was thought to be a single, linear process. Agricultural practice, the mainstay of most rural communities, were also perceived as linear approaches wherein human effort would produce agricultural products, such as food, feed, fibres, agro fuels and medicinal products. However, after a thorough analysis it was found that several non-commodity outputs such as environmental science, landscape amenities and cultural heritages were the product of agricultural activities. Hence, rural livelihoods were perceived as more complex than they were earlier thought to be. Not only did rural livelihoods exist to generate income, but also included the broader human objectives of assuring food security and health, providing a home, reducing vulnerability or susceptibility to economic, political and climatic shocks, and empowering rural folk to control their own destinies. In order to improve rural livelihoods, countries and organizations would need to consider agriculture as a systemic part within the broader context of developing and improving rural livelihoods through sustainable agricultural development.

A more holistic, realistic, participative, and integrative paradigm of dealing with sustainable development through the proactive introduction of interventions and leverage points at particular points in the system so as to effect change in the entire system is what the systems thinking method offers. It has been claimed: ecology and economy are becoming ever more interwoven – logically, rationally, nationally and globally – into a seamless net of causes and effects. Compartmentalized distribution of problems, within nations, sectors (energy, agriculture and trade) and other broad areas of concern (economic, political and social), is now dissolving. Silos of problems and crises, such as the environmental crisis, development crisis and energy crisis, are now merging into the bigger picture. In such a situation, it is imprudent to follow a one-track, limited and restrictive approach to solving and mitigating problems in systems that are dimensionally complex and challenging. Instead, by embracing all considerations and relationships in a complex system it becomes possible to produce better long-term solutions to current problems.

Abinav Vemuri

End of Semester Instructions

Winning Maktub Essays

Thank you to everyone who submitted an essay for our Multicultural Month essay contest. Our HRL staff had the pleasure of reading over each of the submissions.
Congratulations go to the following top three essays, which can be read below!

1^st place - Salma Mousa

2^nd place - Zahra Naqvi

3^rd place - Indee Thottawatage

1st Place

 “This is My Home”

“Where are you from?” A seemingly simple question, yet one which I repeatedly find myself unable to answer. My home is Abu Dhabi, but I am not Emirati. My home is Cairo, but I’ve never lived there. My home is Toronto, but I left in the fifth grade. My home is in Jeddah, but I don’t own an abaya. My home is in Doha, but I have no family here.  My home is complex and nuanced, and cannot be reduced to one identity, one house, one passport. I have several of each. My home is the tantalizing aroma of my mother’s Egyptian soul food, emanating from the kitchen along with Quranic verses drifting from the radio. My home is the fondness I have when I remember teaching my sister to ice skate on a frozen Ontario morning. My home is cruising along the Abu Dhabi Corniche, cheeks smudged with face paint and heart full of lightness, on UAE national day.

They say home is where the heart is. Another deceptively simple phrase, because my heart is not in one place, nor with one person. It is divided between four continents, and between the cosmopolitan clusters of close friends who have become my pseudo-siblings over the past two decades. I feel at home eating poutine in Montreal with my closest childhood friends over a frosty French-Canadian thanksgiving dinner. But I don’t feel any less at home lazing on the North Coast of Egypt, with my toes snuggled in the creamy sand in true postcard-like fashion. Does this mean that I belong nowhere, or everywhere?

Personal identity—or rather the lack of one—has been the most defining feature of my adolescent and post-adolescent life. I am the Cairo-born daughter of two Egyptian immigrants to suburban Toronto, themselves descendents of Tunisian and Turkish settlers. Since then, I had the peculiar, yet extraordinary, experience of living in Jeddah, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Washington D.C., Paris and Doha. When I first began high school, at the British School of Abu Dhabi, surrounded by my multicultural peers, I was more confused than ever. As one of the few students of Arab origin, I expected that the differences between my classmates and I would go beyond my “weird” sounding name; an aberration I was casually reminded of every time a substitute teacher would take roll call. My best friends, Brits and Australians, came from a different religious, cultural and ideological background than my own family.  I attribute our closeness to the one factor we all have in common—we are just as lost as each other. None of us felt totally at “home” in our countries of citizenship, nor did we feel Emirati. We didn’t understand the cultural references of our parents, or of the locals.  But we did understand each other.

To my delight, my own multicultural experiences continued to expand upon my arrival in the Education City residence halls; beginning with my Mormon American roommate on exchange from the U.S. Naval Academy, and most recently an eclectic mix of a Canadian, an Egyptian, an Eritrean-Texan and a Florida-born Cuban-Chilean. Whether we were debating politics over shawarmas, chatting over Mexican telenovelas or failing miserably at pronouncing words in Tigrinya, this experience re-affirmed why I chose Education City: to experience university life as it should be, teeming with diversity inside and outside the classroom. I was fortunate enough to embark on student exchange programs in both Washington D.C. and Paris; I have been to Canadian public schools, British private schools and Islamic elementary schools, and though these experiences undoubtedly broadened by worldviews, none of these experiences provided the impressive level of multiplicity represented in the unique multiversity campus of Education City.

My quest to resolve my personal “identity crisis” is by no means complete. I will surely grapple with it for the immediate future. However, I am confident that I don’t have to choose between any of my homes. As I matured and ventured into my college career, I realized that my home was a lack of a home, and my identity was a lack of an identity. My home cannot be confined to a space, race, or place. My identity cannot be constrained to a passport, apartment, or ethnicity. In Canada, I was considered the Egyptian, in Egypt I was considered the Canadian, and everywhere else, I was considered a foreigner. But time has taught me that the inability to categorize my home is a source of beauty, diversity, and enrichment. I might be destined to be a “wanderer,” but being lost is exactly where I feel most at home.

      

2nd Place

Walking down the street on a cold morning with my hand clasped around my mother’s index finger may be my first memory. I’ve seen pictures of that day, and heard about it that I have fabricated an entire storyline about what was going on, but I am sure only about the purity of that memory. It sits in the back of my mind, tucked away in a niche; it has no label associated with it, no reason that it is there, just a strong sense of contentment that fills me up when I think about it: kind of like a Patronus charm Harry Potter might use. I think back and, although I was not to know it then, within that memory lay my very first idea about what it felt to be accepted and loved.

When I hear about it now, I’m told that was the day we had bought our first house. We had been ‘homeless’ for four years, with my parents traipsing around the world figuring out where they wanted to settle and raise a family. During the first four years of my life, I suppose I must have thought it was normal to drive around in rented cars and never buy any furniture, but I was soon to be told that was not ‘a normal family.’

My parents kept an amazing scrap book of things they collected over their time on the road, and amongst my other artwork is a Crayola drawing of a square house with a triangular shaped roof and a tall chimney, with a walk way and two windows. I think my parents kept it mainly because that picture was nothing like any of the houses we had ever lived in, and certainly not one I had ever seen before. I feel at four years old, I had stumbled upon something profound: my ‘house’ was not even close to the reality of what ‘home’ meant to me. My home was not a simple structure of bricks and cement, it wasn’t a porch with a door mat on it, and it certainly wasn’t a drive way with flowers lining it. But then, what was it, and where was it?

For my mother, as for many others, the answer was simple: their birthplace. It’s a two storey house in the suburbs of Pakistan. That is where she grew up, where she studied each night, where she danced to her wedding music, where her children took their first breaths, and her parents, their last. Her roots are strong and permanent and her resolve, unwavering. But I am different to my mother; my birthplace is almost foreign to me. On the most superficial level, I don’t talk or think the same way, I don’t dress with similar intentions, and I don’t hold the same priorities or the same reservations. And no matter how strongly they try to convince me that I’m not, I am certain I am an outsider to them: someone on the side-lines looking in.

I know everyone laughs along to my broken Urdu, hoping to humor my attempts at pronouncing the different rolling ‘r’ sounds. They probably snicker at my inability to wear a Shalwaar-Kameez with the adeptness of a native. They probably wonder if my mother was able to ingrain in me the respect of belonging to our Khandaan, our family, and the sacrifices my forefathers made that allowed us to lead this life. They probably don’t question all the children. I am a stranger. I am not of their soil; I have not gone through the proper rites and rituals of belonging: I am welcomed but not accepted into my mother’s culture, or for that matter, my father’s.

But then where do I belong?

For the same reasons my first ‘culture’ cannot accept me so can’t any other. I could never fit in anywhere because I was set to fit a multitude of molds very early in life: education in an international school, with the ideals of old-school Pakistani culture, and the teachings of a specific sect of Islam would be enough to create a major identity crisis. I guess after seeing so much of the world with such naïve eyes I have realized that there is no place that would shout and say that ‘she was one of us, she should be buried here with her family and ancestors, and her story will be told for years to come by those who lived amongst her’ as it would be for my mother and father. I have no place that completes me, rather I have many little parts of me that identify with different aspects of life – so much so that home for me can’t be restricted to artificial boundaries of countries or a cultural context. Home is the 2 x 2m box that encircles me and makes me feel comfortable and at ease. I have to create my own comfort zone and it will be different from everyone’s. No one has had the same experiences as me, and I can’t have identical experiences to anyone else.

I think that is what makes it beautiful. We all clamber and climb to define our roots, thinking we are some sort of great tree, when maybe, we aren’t. We could just be hermit crabs that live in borrowed environments until we outgrow them and are ready to move on. We carry ‘home’ around within us regardless of cultures and society’s definitions of what we are supposed to be.

I look for that first home in my first memory but I can’t go back to four year old me. I have moved so far ahead that I can’t find my way back to that cold morning. But that is okay, because I don’t need to remember the story of my first house, but rather, the feeling of warmth and love that standing with people I loved gave me.

And that is home to me.

3rd Place

No Longer a Tourist at Home

            The peril of being a third culture kid is that home becomes a foreign concept at times. While the irony in that is inescapable, it has become a distinguishing factor in my attempt to discover my home. Wonderful parents, summer holidays, a birth certificate and a passport, all branded as Sri Lankan, inevitably point toward me being a Sri Lanka as well. Yet, having spent only a quarter of my life – five years – in my supposed motherland; does that qualify me to call Sri Lanka ‘home’? I believe it does.

            The better part of my childhood was spent in Salalah, Oman and Dubai, U.A.E. It was an idyllic period in my life, where a child does not have to spend time philosophizing about their ‘identity’ or potential ‘identity crisis’ thereof. Then in 2005, I moved to Sri Lanka to finish my last two years of high school. Finally, I was home, or was I? The first few months, I felt like a tourist, I did not look like one but definitely felt like one. I could not figure out the public transportation system, I kept getting lost nearly all the time, and taxicabs must have made hefty profits whenever I hired them. Eventually the foreignness did begin to dissipate. Great realization stuck when I grasped the fact that I needed to take off my ‘Middle Eastern lenses’ that I was viewing my country with and just admire everything with a naked curiosity. I began to immerse myself in the cultural experience, purposefully got lost in the streets of Colombo, utilizing it as a means of exploring my homeland; I got caught in the rain, bought food from street vendors and bargained with taxi drivers like a pro. What unfolded next was beautiful, I began to feel Sri Lankan, I began to be Sri Lankan!

            I must reveal that my home in Colombo, Sri Lanka does bear certain cultures and traditions of our tiny island. The Sri Lankan customs inevitably entered my home. The neighborhood that I lived in was a stark contrast to the apartment-lifestyle I was used to in the Gulf. Neighbors walk in and out of your house, attendance at all events that celebrate birth and death and life in between is required, the older generation is always right, and you never refuse a cup of tea whether it is your first or tenth for the day. Initially, I felt like a fish out of water, unsure of how to conduct myself. But slowly, I allowed myself to be enveloped by the customs. If nothing else, my neighbors considered me a ‘project’ and enjoyed themselves immensely by giving me ‘advice’ and ‘tips’ on how to ride the ‘cultural rollercoaster’.

            While the presence of this Sri Lankan culture was felt in my home, I have also had the opportunity to mold my home into something unique and different. My parents, while traditional themselves, have raised me with a hint of liberalism. My grandmother would have been pleased if I got married at twenty, but my parents are willing to give me another decade to work on that process. When girls have to be home before dusk falls, I have the ability to hop a plane and live and study abroad. At times, I questioned whether I was being the black sheep of the family by not conforming to the ideal. Later on, I realized that the concept of ‘home’ is not meant to stifle, but to be a source of peace and comfort, to allow me to be myself.

            In many ways, I may never be the poster child for the traditional Sri Lankan woman. Yet, I have been able to carve my niche in my homeland. Even though I now live in Qatar, I still carry Sri Lanka in my heart. As Maya Angelou beautifully put it, “I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.” What is the purpose of home if it does not let us understand who we are? Just like a ship looks to the heavens for navigation, my Sri Lankan heritage is my north star. I may sail around the world, but I look upon my north star to guide me home.

CDA Selection

Do you think you are a role model?

Do you want to have fun while getting professional work experience?

Are you ready to make living in the residence halls an unforgettable experience?

If your answer is “Yes” to any of the above, then consider applying to be a Community Development Adviser (CDA) for the next academic year 2012-2013! Have a look at what current CDAs quoted about their position:

The application for the 2012-2013 school year is below! If you want to know more about this opportunity and meet current CDAs, come to the first info session on December 6^th, 2011 at 8:00pm in FB1 for females and in FB2 for males.

Apply to be a Community Development Adviser (CDA)! Applications now available  http://bit.ly/tHZn6S