Families Country of
Origin: American Samoa
American
Samoa is a small archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean and is comprised of
five volcanic islands (Tutuila, Ta'u, Ofu, Olosega, Aunu'u, Nu'utele) and two
coral atolls (Swain's and Rose Islands). Tutuila contains about two thirds of
the total area and is home to 95% of the 64 000 islanders.
In
the time of 1000 B.C. Southeast Asian immmigrants arrived in the Samoan islands
and from there they settled the rest of Polynesia.
First
sparsely contacts with Europeans began in the early 1700s, intensified with the
arrival of English missionaries and traders in the 1830s.
International
rivalries had been settled by the Treaty of Berlin in 1899 in which Germany and
the US divided the Samoan archipelago. The US formally occupied its
portion.
Despite
of modern influences Samoan people still hold firmly to "Fa'asamoa",
the traditional Samoan way, related to their language, dress, food, customs and
even property (http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/american_samoa.htm#Culture).
Five ways
that I will prepare for this family’s arrival would be
*Educate myself
*Educate the other early childhood professionals that will also
be assisting with this family.
*Prepare the students by discussing the family’s country of
origin. Discuss with the children how
they may feel if they were moving to a new country as well as how we could make
the child and their family feel welcomed.
*Display items in the classroom that would be familiar to the
child.
*Locate music from the country of origin that they are
relocating from and play it as background music in the classroom.
The preparations that I would take will help the child and
family to feel welcome in their new environment. It will help them know that I care about them
and respect where they are coming from.
I would hope they would see that I was making an effort in understanding
their background to assist their child in the relocation.
Great insightful information about American Samoa. This information has truly feed my information that I did not know. This information is a good starting point for anyone getting to know about this culture.
ReplyDeleteCreating the environment were the child feels welcomed makes it so much easier to deal with the transition from their place of origin to ours. Having to come from were you are comfortable and everyone looks and sounds just like you to a place were the person doesn't even speak your language is very difficult to do and deal with. However, making these small preparations can make it a lot more bearable to deal with.
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