I have really liked learning about diversity and cultures in class this week. We discussed all the things that can make up different diversity in families and there are many ways that can occur. Brother Williams asked the question why are we learning about diversity and culture in this class? I think learning about those things gives great insight into families and why they do what they do.

For example this last May I went to Africa with my brother to do humanitaritan work. We were there for just over 5 weeks and then we went on to visit London and  Paris on the way home. This experience completely changed my view and perspective of families and especially my family. As I saw families in Africa do certain things it would cause me to look at my family and our traditions and rules and I began to understand them a lot better. Although what the families in Africa were doing seemed so foreign to me I didn't understand how they could live like that at first, but then I realized that they didn't know any different just as I didn't know any different until I left my country. I don't believe that there is any complete right or wrong for the ways families do things. Our culture is the greatest influence on how we act and think I believe. Even after being in Africa for only 5 weeks the way I did things started to change. For example washing my clothes by hand and hanging them up to dry was just the way you did your laundry and taking a bucket shower every day wasn't so absurd after awhile. I looked forward to those bucket showers! My showers were al least with hot water and I knew a lot of people that only had cold water. So I began to think that the way that my family in America did things wasn't absolutely right it was just the way that we had grown up and the things that we had learned how to do.

I strongly believe that culture plays a large part in the way families act and behave. So as we study cultures and diversity and how those can be different in different cultures I think it can really help us to understand why families gain traditions, set rules, have certain roles, etc. Without understanding those things we would never be able to really understand a family. I think it is just like the family systemss theory. We can't fully understand an individual by looking at the individual by himself we have to look at the whole family to understand. I think it is the same way with culture and family. We have to understand their culture to understand the family.