A Thousand Farewells

 

 

For a journalism assignment I read the book A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed's. The book is about Nahlah's life, from moving to a refugee camp as a young girl, to being a reporter for CBC.

Nahlah grew up in Winnipeg Canada. From what she describes in her book, her childhood was quite normal. Out of her parent’s sight, she lived a seemingly normal Canadian life. She went to school, made friends, and would play with those friends. But when she was with her family life was a bit different. Nahlah grew up in an Arabic home.

"In those years, life for us kids was about being well behaved. It was about sitting up straight, legs together, hands on lap. It was about keeping clothes clean, about speaking only when spoken to and playing only when given permission.”

Nahlah’s parents tried to teach their children as much Arabic culture as they could. They had to learn the Arabic language, and all the rules that came with being Arabic. Even after all that their parents taught them, they still felt it wasn’t enough. So at the end of 1975 Nahlah’s family packed up and moved to Jordan

Nahlah remembers the refugee camp that they lived in quite well. She describes thing about the camp in such great detail, a lot of the times when I was reading I thought I could smell the things she was describing. Sometimes people think journalists don’t have an imagination, no creativity; they only put fact to paper. Nahlah proves those people wrong, the way she wrote this book with the vivid details really kept me interested.

“The basta was an ideal spot from which to watch the refugees walk by and sample every foul smell the market had to offer. The souk was a place where underwear, live chickens, and bell-bottom jeans coexisted, where stall-keepers advertised their wares at the top of their lungs.”

Like a lot of my classmates, I felt it was hard to keep up with all the names, and places Nahlah mentions. Maybe it’s because they are mostly foreign names like Abasah and Abdullah, but I felt like Nahlah added too many of her relatives in this story. I understand that Arab families are usually large, but I felt she could have not mentioned a couple people.

I think what journalists should take from this book is that you can’t take any experience for granted. Nahlah had a pretty terrible experience when she moved to the refugee camp. But looking back on what she had learned from that experience helped her with her work as a foreign correspondent. When other reporters flocked to the Middle East after 9-11 they had problems finding people to talk to because they didn’t know the Arab culture. Nahla on the other hand knew all of the rules that went with being in an Arab country and she used that knowledge to her advantage.

One of my all-time favourite memoirs is Russell Brand’s “Booky Wook” mainly because it’s about sex drugs and comedy (Hey I like all three of those things!) Now to be fair the two books are about two very different things, but there is one comparison I can’t overlook, both Nahlah and Russell had difficult upbringings. Nahlah grew up in a refugee camp; Russell had a crazy mother and a playboy for a father. Now I know this comparison is a stretch but the way I grew up wasn’t nearly as hard as the ways those two had to grow up. Is the secret to writing a good memoir having a hard childhood? Either way I enjoyed both memoirs. I guess I like reading about other people, I always think “What would I have done in their shoes”

Being a journalism student I learned a lot from this book, but the one thing I hope I’ll always remember is the quote from the back cover of the book.

"People are not quotes or clips, used to illustrate stories about war and conflict. People are the story, always."