Author: egasparr

While many, such as myself, have been fretting over the lost of celebrations during the time of March and April I questioned how others have been impacted across the world. Personally, my study abroad, formal, family holiday Easter celebration, and concerts were canceled for the rest of the semester and summer.

I read an article that interviewed a women about her life changes and cancelations due to COVID-19. The virus directly conflicted with Chunyun, the beginning travel period for the Chinese New Year. Typically this is a huge migration of people that could not practice their celebration due to the virus.

As most American’s have been concerned with canceled events, schooling, and work, China and other Eastern countries have taken more extreme measures. The interviewee in China claimed that her and her family. had to apply for residential ID cards. These cards limited the number of people able to live in households. Some households were only allowed to hold three people maximum, causing distress in the country.

As things have settled down in China, the interviewee said life has started to return to normal, but will take time to become the same once again.

Islam does not have that many holidays in comparison to many other religions. One of the biggest holidays as known as Ramadan, where Muslims are obligated to fast. The main reason for the fast empathy of the less fortunate, and reflection on their own lives. During the fast, they are not allowed to drink or eat from dawn to sunset.

I was able to FaceTime one of my good friends to talk about her experience as a Muslim during Ramadan. As one may feel that it would be hard experience, my friend describes it as a rewarding time. She plays soccer all year around at a competitive club level and said the hardest part of Ramadan was being energized for games and practices without being able to fuel up beforehand. On some big games she said she broke fasting in order to gain energy and focus for the team. Due to this she decided to fast on “make-up” days after the holiday was over.

As a Catholic, I practicing not eating meat on Friday’s during lent. Even though this fasting is not as extensive as Muslim’s during Ramadan, it is a change from my typical eating habits. Having this change effects my life by having to be conscious of what I am eating. My friend related to this by stating how conscious she to be of her actions during the holiday. Since Ramadan is condensed, my friend said it turned more into a routine as the days went on. Similar to Easter (a celebration at the end of lent), Ramadan has a celebration with a big feast at the end.

For my second ICR project I was asked to “Research and develop a short essay and infographic detailing the COVID-19’s impact in China and discuss how this has affected international perception of Chinese nationals and dependents as the virus continues to spread.”

Since the project was pretty open ended I felt that I was able to talk about the controversy of the virus with this writing. I started off by talking about my own experience. From my study abroad being switched to a new country, and later being canceled. I continued by talking about being sent home to online classes and sharing how I have been impacted greatly from the virus. As everyone else has been impacted in extensive ways too, I thought I should address the racism that has come with this virus. Throughout the essay I acknowledged that people must not blame China for the virus. Even though the virus has come from China, we must not show hatred towards the country. No one in this situation wanted an illness like this to occur. It is not China’s fault for all of the issues that have surfaced. People must be educated about cultural differences and be more understanding about China’s own situation.

To continue my ICR from my remote home I was asked to do three projects in relation to the IACA. My first project was to develop a one-page flyer  in order to share with Butler community as well as wider community and other community partners. At first, I was unsure how to approach this project as there is not an official website for the IACA. After some addition research through other online platforms such as news articles, other Chinese association websites, and the ICR site leaders (Benny and Kwans) emails I was able to find out some events that the IACA does to give back to the community.  I was interested to see all of the things the organization does such as having speakers come into the Indianapolis Children’s Museum to educate the youth. I wanted to highlight these things in the flyer to show the community how much of an impact the organization makes. In addition, I wanted to include a photo of the IACA doing something in the community so I chose to include a picture of one of their drum performances. Below I have attached the flyer the I made the organization.

When I first heard the words “Islamic Lunar Calendar” I assumed it was a calendar that showed the phases of the moon. After some research, I learned this calendar consisted of much more than I thought. The calendar consists of the 12 lunar months which determines the right days for the holidays. Each day of the week has a different meaning. For example, Friday is considered “the gathering” and Saturday is considered the “rest”. The months follow this same concept. For example on of the months is named “Safar” which means void. Four out of these 12 months is shown to be “sacred”.The number of days in the months are determined by the conditions, the position of the Earth, and how well the moon is seen.

The calendar adds all of the Islamic holidays that many countries follow. Specifically Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and other primarily Muslim countries follow this calendar as their holidays correspond with the calendar days. Even though most countries follow the same calendar as the United States, but this calendar is still special to the Islamic religion.

As cooking has become one of my hobbies during quarantine, I decided to make one of my favorite Eastern dishes, fried rice. In the past, I have ate many authentic fried rice dishes from different Chinese establishments. Many fried rice dishes I’ve had have been prepared slightly differently. Some contain different vegetables such as peas, peppers, carrots, onions, sprouts and broccoli. Other fried rices contain meat, including shrimp, chicken, or beef. Some other proteins I’ve had in fried rice have included tofu and eggs. While mixing these ingredients into the rice, typical fried rice is made with soy sauce to create a brown color. 

To make my fried rice I used the ingredients that I had in my house. First I chopped and  grilled the vegetables that I was using in a frying pan. The vegetables I used were carrots, red peppers, yellow peppers, and broccoli. After grilling them I scrambled an egg and fried it with the vegetables. After this I added some cooked grilled chicken that I cooked for dinner the night before. Finally I added the white rice in and mixed it in with soy sauce. It was very tasty and was a good cooking project for the day!

After reading Layla and Majnun I noticed some similar themes that were familiar to me. In the beginning of the passage the author sets the scene of a sayyid who is very wealthy. The author compares the amount of gold and jewels to the amount of sand in the dessert. Beyond all of this wealth the the sayyid wanted one thing, a son. In our own Western culture many individuals value family and relationships over wealth. A common quote said in movies and everyday life is, “money can not buy happiness”. The importance of strong bonds can not be compared to money because money could never by such thing. The sayyid later has a son who he values highly. This heightens the theme, proving money is no match for a valued relationship even in the Eastern world.

The story expresses a theme about the importance of wisdom. Later in the story, the son becomes educated, becoming wise and knowledgable. Other students looked up to him as his words were powerful in their eyes. In the Western world, the young respect elders as older people tend to have a better grasp on the world we live in. This creates a sense of great respect for people who obtain much wisdom. Personally, I look to my elders for guidance since they have already surpassed the stages of life that I am living in now. To compare, the story’s theme matches with Western ideals, proving once again that our world is more similar than one may believe.

Katie, my best friend from home, has coronavirus. I never thought that someone so close to me would end up getting the virus. Even though she is young and healthy, her family is scared that they are going to get it. She went to the doctor today and they would not even test her because she is young and they don’t have many tests. Without testing her they diagnosed her with the virus due to her having all of the symptoms. Her illness developed in pneumonia and she is having trouble breathing. She said that when she coughs it feels like she might throw up. As she has told me the severity of the illness, I understand why we must take these measures. 

Hearing her experience has made me question how the rest of this virus will play out. China and South Korea stopped the virus relatively quickly, testing many individuals. In addition the country’s blocked off areas of travel, containing the virus as best as they could. Even though Trump claims that everyone here can get tested, that statement proves to be false. Since our country has now surpassed the number of cases in China, I question if we will take any more big steps to stop the spread. Since our president wants this to end quickly, I am concerned that we will continue down this negative path if the country does not follow China and South Korea’s intense measures.

After reading the Poetry of Rumi I noticed a similarity of themes that has been shown in a multitude of poems. In most of the poems there are common themes of love and prosperity. This is shown with a series of different metaphors including wine in poems one, three, 9, and 18.

Many of the poems include taking something dark and during it to a better perspective. For example in poem 19 the author mentions alcohol in a negative context using words such as “drunkards”. Later the author talks about broken barrels and a soaked ceiling, painting a picture of disruption in readers minds. The poem ends with the author stating that the glass is still full, creating a deep metaphor. I believed that this was a symbol for light when everything else in life is falling apart.

Poem 23 stood out to me the most. The poem states, “Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading.” I related this to waking up and being quarantined, waiting for the coronavirus outbreak to end. I usually am much lazier at home and do not feel productive. The poem continues by stating, “Let the beauty we love be what we do.” I interpreted this inspiring line as the author claiming that we must make the most out of every situation and pursue what we love even when things are going wrong.

In late February a Malaysian Mosque held a group of Muslims from 30 different countries to pray in unity together. As this practice was supposed to promote glory and prosperity, many suffered due to this gathering in an unexpected way.

One member attending this worship was a carrier of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The member that was the carrier possessed no symptoms at the time but spread it to many others who then possessed symptoms later (Beech).

This reminded me of the the cruise ship incident in Japan. On the Japan cruise ship one person caused a ripple, spreading the virus to other cruisers on the ship. Some who left the ship and their quarantines asymptomatic spread it to others later, causing a multitude of problems.

As a result of the Malaysian Mosque case, around 620 people were tested positive in Malaysia, causing the country to close its borders for a month (Beech). In addition, 73 coronavirus cases were linked to this gathering in Brunei and 10 cases were linked to this in Thailand (Beech). Sadly, three deaths have been linked to the event as well (Beech).

Even though I believe it is hard to remove normal life practices, especially religious practices, it must be done in order to stop the spread of the virus.