My thoughts on A Thousand Farewells

This is not a dog-related post. I will be discussing the book A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed that we read for journalism class.

When I started reading this book I found it so interesting. I was reading about Winnipeg but from the perspective of a young girl from a Third World country. I was amazed at how appreciative Nahlah was to live in a place like Winnipeg. I grew up here so I wasn't appreciative to live here until I got older and realized what was happening in other places in the world.

This book was gut-wrenching at so many different times. Reading about the living conditions in Al-Wihdat, the refugee camp, really gave me a glimpse of what living in a refugee camp is like. Nahlah Ayed referred to the bathroom conditions and how the toilet was a hole in the ground with cockroaches everywhere. She would avoid going to the bathroom for hours just to avoid going in there. That alone is so far from anything we experience here in Winnipeg and it really is a wake-up call about things that people still deal with regularly.

I found the first few chapters were loaded with names of places and people, which was quite hard to follow. It got much better to read after the second chapter because she was mostly telling stories about people she met or people that she was with.

As I read the story of the bomb going off 50 metres from her apartment, it made me feel her anxiety and panic. Even for someone like Nahlah Ayed who had been almost beaten to death at this point, it seems the bomb being that close to her apartment made her stop and think 'wow...that could've been it for me.'

I really enjoyed reading about people that she met and their stories. I think if she had more content from other people in her book it would have been more engaging at times. I wanted to hear more about physical experiences — even though they were horrific — I found myself more engaged in the book when reading those parts rather than when I was reading parts about religion.

I think journalists and all people can learn from this book that passion can overcome fear. Even though after being beaten Nahlah Ayed was terrified to go in crowds, she overcame it. Her passion is journalism. Her passion is to tell stories and show people what is happening in the world as best as she can.

The only non-fiction books I've read are biographies, which aren't comparable to this at all. Because I've watched a few documentaries on conflict and war, I think this book would be extremely effective as a visual. I think some of the political and historical things could be easier to understand in my opinion for me as a visual because I found it hard to follow the names and many different conflicts at times.

I've never known a lot about the Middle East. I've always known about the constant conflict and hardships that people face, but I've never dove into something like A Thousand Farewells to learn more about it. This book really made me understand that journalism is useful for more than just telling us what is happening in our city, country, or even our continent. Journalism helps people who are unaware become aware. It's important we all know about what is happening in other places on this earth so we, the people who live in Canada and in other first First World countries , understand that we're privileged and there is much more more conflict, poverty, tragedy, and death than we can ever imagine.