<>Week 3-Culture<>

Here’s a cultural tidbit!
“She opened a door onto a two-room apartment. We were going to have electricity! There were switches on the all that turned on light bulbs and—something we had never seen—a ceiling fan.” (p. 41)
So far, Ayaan’s mother has managed to get a fake passport so that they can escape and try to get closer to get word of her father. However, her mother is very strict about where they go due to the difference in religions. Ayaan’s mother will only go to where it is considered to be a truly Muslim country. She refused to go to Ethiopia because there were too many Christians, or “unbelievers”. She wanted to go to Saudi Arabia so that she could be in God’s country to be as close as possible to God.
When they first leave the country, Ayaan and her siblings are absolutely fascinated by the concept of an airplane, and that it can allow them to fly. Upon arrival in Saudi Arabia, they stay with a member of their clan (as previously mentioned that whenever they meet someone that they trace back to find a common ancestor and then if it is a close similarity then that person will offer hospitality and security, sort of like staying with a long lost relative instead of a total stranger, even if you’ve never met them before.).
They get the message from their father, which prompts Ayaan’s mother to purchase a small apartment, in which they have electricity. Electricity is a huge deal for Ayaan and her siblings, especially the ceiling fan. It is definitely something that I take for granted on a daily basis, that I can walk into a room and know that it will be lit by the flick of a switch, or that when a room gets uncomfortably stuff that I can turn on a ceiling fan. In fascination over the ceiling fan, they break it because they throw things at it out of curiosity.
I’m curious as to what else they will explore being out of Somalia and into a more modern world.