My Ancestry: Learning About My Past

                                                               My Ancestry:

                                                    Learning About My Past

When asked about my ancestry, I would usually say that my maternal roots are British and my paternal roots are German. Which, is true, but not a very specific answer. I am going to be focusing on my maternal roots, which are actually from Guernsey, a small island in the English Channel. The farthest I could trace back with great detail was my great grandparents, who owned a hotel in Guernsey. Their child, Elizabeth Anne Taylor, was my grandmother. During the occupation of Guernsey by the Germans in WWII, my grandmother was sent away as a young girl, along with 4000 other school children. The occupation (1940-1945) shaped the island-and its residents-into what they are today. Elizabeth married Roy Kelling (my grandfather) in 1955.

My Grandmothers Passport

My grandparents moved to Canada in 1965. They thought of Canada as a place with more opportunities, both for them and for their children, my mother and uncle. Another reason they moved to Canada is because my Great Uncle John (Grandmothers brother) had moved to Canada with his wife Anne a few years previous and told them great stories about Canada. 

A newspaper article written about my Great Aunt and Uncle just before they moved to Canada

Guernsey is approx. 78 sq km, meaning that it is 128,009 times smaller than Canada. The size of Barrie, Ontario is 76.99 sq km, which means that Guernsey is only about 1 sq km bigger. The population of Guernsey is 65,849(2014), versus Canada’s population of about 36,048,521 million(Jan,2016). That means that there is about 359 82 672 more people in Canada. Now, looking at these numbers, you could see why there would be a lot more opportunity in Canada, given the space and number of people in Canada. Even in 1965, when comparing Guernsey and Canada you could notice that there was a large difference.

Guernsey is divided into ten parishes, which are Castel, Forest, St Andrew, St Martin, St Peter Port, St Pierre Du Bois, St Sampson, St Saviour, Torteval, and Vale.

Map of Guernsey. Vale is where my family is from.

If I was a teenager in Guernsey , I believe that my life would be different in some ways and similar in other ways. My family is from Vale, which is about half the size of Orangeville. For teenagers, I don’t believe there are many opportunities. There are no universities in Guernsey, meaning any high school student that wishes to go to university must leave the island and go to a university elsewhere. I hope to go to university, but if I lived in Guernsey then my wishes may have been different. Though, there are a lot of sport opportunities in Guernsey, seeing as almost every sport is catered for on a regular basis with domestic leagues and competitions. I have always loved sports and have played them for most of my life, so this would have been a similarity to my life in Orangeville. 

Because there is a limited amount of jobs in Guernsey, there is a right to work in place in Guernsey which basically means that if a person wants to take up employment or self-employment in Guernsey or wishes to change jobs, he/she must have a valid right to work document issued by the housing authority confirming that he/she is lawfully housed. Compulsory school age is 5-15 years, meaning that a student could drop out of school when they turn 16. There is a secondary selection test at age 11 which determines whether a child is placed at one of the three secondary schools or given a special place at the grammar school or one of the independent colleges. I could imagine that any student that is given a special place at the grammar school or one of the independent colleges would possibly have more opportunities then a student that goes to one of the secondary schools, because this would probably mean that they have a unique talent and/or skill that would open new doors for them. I believe I would probably just be at one of the three secondary schools.

The health care system in Guernsey is different to that of the National Health Service in the UK. There are no junior doctors employed in the system, so patients must pay for visits to primary care doctors as they are in private practice. Visits to the doctor, dentist, A&E department, as well as other services including chiropody and physiotherapy, are not free of charge. But, the life expectancy was 80.4 years in 2004, which was amongst the top ten countries in the world.

Overall, I believe that if I was living in Guernsey that my life would have been well-off and comfortable, comparable to my life in Canada. Though, I am thankful that my family moved to Canada for more opportunities because I would not have had as many experiences as I have. 

Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FTKfrFcoWT_1z7no3ghMweBd3tFQVNi6FIwa9JkcK8g/edit

How I feel about Amir- Chapters 1-10

I believe that Amir tries so hard to please his father, that he becomes blind to the world around him. This caused me to dislike him in some ways. When Hassan was raped by Assef, Amir turned away because he believes it's what needs to be done in order for his father to forgive him for 'killing' his mother. He needs the blue kite, which he won in the tournament, because he wants his father to be proud of him, no matter what the cost is. When Amir turned away from the alley, he thought "I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba"(Hosseini 82). This shows that he will do anything to win Baba's affection, even if it means sacrificing his friends innocence. Amir was always resentful of the way that Baba was with Hassan, the way he treated Hassan as more of a son then he ever did with Amir. Though, as the book progressed, he was haunted by the guilt of leaving Hassan in the alley to fend for himself, and he realized that the past can catch up to him easier then he hoped it would. In the very first chapter, Amir is speaking in the present, and is now an adult, and he foreshadowed "That was a long time ago, but it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws it's way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years" (Hoesseini 1).

The Kite Runner

The father/son relationship between Amir and Baba and Hassan and Ali differs in many ways. Baba is distant, tough, and rarely shows Amir any affection. Ali is caring, kind, and gentle. "Hassan's father, Ali, used to catch us and get mad, or as mad as someone as gentle as Ali could ever get" (Hosseini 4). Everyone in Kabul respects Baba and knows that he is a rich and powerful man, but Ali is a Hazara and Shi'ite therefore being teased and taunted by Pashtuns his whole life. Amir admires his father and always tries to live up to his expectations, while Ali accepts Hassan the way he is and doesn't try and change him or tell him to act a certain way. Baba believes that to be defined as a "man", Amir must do what he does. He must talk about politics and soccer, and have a strong demeanor. When Amir was young, Baba built an orphanage, and Amir wanted to know why he cared about those children but he didn't even pay much attention to his own son. He wished death upon those children, because they got his fathers affection, while Amir had to act a certain way to please Baba.

My Defining Moment

A defining moment is something that helped shape you into the person you are today. I was 13 when I met Travis, and that day has changed my life. Travis is 26 years old and has autism. My dad started being one of his caretakers about 3 years ago. I remember my dad asking me if I wanted to go for a car ride with him and Travis. My dad first started working with Travis in the beginning of 2013, and I remember climbing into the back seat of the car and my dad introducing us. Travis smiled a big smile (with a front tooth missing because of a mishap that happened a few years ago) and all he said was "hi". Travis has a way of saying hi that is different from everyone else, and every time I hear him say it I just feel so happy. Travis can't string full sentences together, but he has a way of getting his point across, and anyone that has worked with him for a while knows what he wants when he wants it. Just because he doesn't have a very large vocabulary, doesn't mean he can't understand something said to him. If you ask him a yes or no question, he'll answer it with ease. If you ask him to do something, he can usually do it. He's done so much for my entire family, he's brought so much light into our lives, and at this point I can't imagine what it would be like to not have him in my life. People say that what I have with Travis is special, and after meeting Travis I started working with the Orangeville Wolves, the special needs hockey team. Without meeting Travis, I wouldn't have realized how much I enjoyed working with special needs people, and I never would have met a lot of the people I know today.