So, tonight was my first night in the ESL class with the refugee development center. Tonight, the language buddies met with the genuine instructors to learn a bit more about what the next 12 weeks will hold. At the end of class we engaged in an empathy exercise that you might find interesting.
Here’s the scenario: you are given 20 minutes to leave your home. You don’t know when or if you will be able to return. You will be able to get on a bus with the people who live in your house and a backpack that contains 10 items. You have 20 minutes to decide, what are the 10 items you’re going to put in your backpack? For the record no living things, such as a pet, can go in the backpack. We were given a few minutes to think about it. Here was my list:
- Clean underwear
- Family photos
- Snacks
- Medicine
- A multi tool
- Toothbrush
- Deodorant
- Jewelry
- A favorite book
- A journal to write in
The next part of the exercise ramped up the difficulty. It turns out that to make room for more people on the bus, everyone has to share a backpack. Take seven things out of your backpack. What three are you left with?
Here are my three:
- Family photos
- Medicine
- Jewelry
I picked family photos because I’m sentimental, and because even though I was able to leave my home with hubby, if we were to get separated I would want something to remember him by. I chose my medicine because life would go downhill very, very quickly without it. I chose jewelry because it is an international currency and travels well.
We talked about some of our items as a class afterwards. There were backpackers who chose things like a water purifier and blanket, only to leave them out later. There were more practical people who had clearly worked with refugees before who said that they would bring identification such as their birth certificate. Other people, like me, said they knew it wasn’t practical but in their final three they also included family photos. I was not the only person to have a toothbrush in my top 10.
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