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Samihah Maven

Dia de los Muertos Benchmark

El elogio

Me preocupaba Hassan. El fue el esposo de mi prima y yo lo trataron como mi primo.

Edgar Warren nació, el veinte de octubre de mil novecientos sesenta y ocho en Filadelfia, PA a Edgar Warren primero y Sallie Warren. El separo su vida entre su casa con Dios el veintinueve de septiembre de dos mil catorce. Hassan fue amado por su familia y amigos. El graduó de la  escuela secundaria de Benjamin Franklin. Hassan siempre tuvo un amor por la cocina. El graduó de la escuela y trabajo como cocinero para viente anos. Hassan fue casado y tenía tres hijos y una nieto. Siempre fue solidario.

The person who has passed is my dear cousin Edgar “Hassan” Warren. Hassan was my cousin’s husband, but in my eyes he was my biological cousin. I decided to create my sugar skull and mask in remembrance to him because I believe this was the only loss that really affected me. Usually, I am not affected by funerals or by anyone dying, but with Hassan it was different. Hassan’s death was the only death that I actually felt sad and mourned over. I believe I mourned over his death because he was such a vibrant, loving, compassionate, and charismatic person. I thought that this project would be a great way to show that I truly cared about his death and that he will forever be alive in my heart. I also thought of this project as very therapeutic. I thought of this project as therapeutic because it helped remember the positive memories and how he was truly a good person instead of remembering how he passed.

My mask reflects him because it shows how much of a vibrant person. For example, the vibrant colors represents how much of a fun person he was. As I made the mask, I remembered the times I used to see him take my older cousin Daja and her two siblings to ride their bikes down Broad St. I used to think, “Wow. I wish my dad would do that with me.” I thought this because my dad was never a bike riding type (he never learned.) So, I explained this to him and we actually went. I was so excited this day! I mean, even though this was not my father or even biological cousin, he took me in as his own child as we rode our bikes to the supermarket. It felt like I was apart of the Warren family.

I reflected this moment through the bright colors. I used bright colors such as, red, green, pink, blue, and even a bright yellow! I thought no other colors could reflect this “biking moment” ,but those. I also added cotton balls along the top of the mask to create a “chef hat.” I chose to create a chef hat along the top of the mask to show how much he truly loved to cook and how passionate he was about food. Throught Hassan’s life, I always remembered him with a chef’s coat on. I used to make fun of his uniform when I was younger. But, I was always curious as to why he always had the uniform on (even on Saturdays.) My curiosity began to stop when I finally asked him why he always wore the jacket.

My sugar skull represents him because it is a reflection of a joke he always said. The joke was,”At least, I’ll die black.” I thought of this funny, yet sarcastic joke as I began to paint the sugar skull. I thought it was ironic and I found the humor in yet a not so funny situation.

In conclusion, I believe “Dia de los Muertos” has opened my mind to celebrating the passing of loved ones because I find it very therapeutic. I find it therapeutic because Dia de los Muertos, helps me think of the positive as I try to represent my now, passed loved one on a mask and sugar skull. I believe it helps you think of how much laughter and joy they bring to your life rather than the pain they caused by departing.

https://www.movenote.com/v/kvEDAi6qG9ZeE

When I was 4 years old, my father Peter Debrah, passed away on July 4, 2004 in Ghana. When my dad died I was young so growing up I didn’t really remember anything about him. During the years he was alive, when I was born he use to travel back and forth to Ghana, so I barely got the chance to see him. Although, even when he was with me, he would be at work as a engineer . However, he had gotten a second job as a DJ. So with all of that it, I was not with him all the time that I could remember my lifestyle with him. My dad meant the world to me as much as my mother does. Growing up, everyone said that I was his twin and I acted just like him. Even though, I don’t remember him and what he has taught me. I feel like he has a great impact on me and my life.
 When I was giving the task to create my sugar skull for “Día de los Muertos”. I automatically thought about my dad. It has been eleven years ever since he died. However, when it comes to his birthday or the day he died, me and my family never did anything for him until last year. When I was little, I would write letters thinking he would get them. Putting it under my pillow so that the tooth fairy would give it to him. I realize doing this can bring some happy and sad thoughts but I can represent him through the sugar skull and tell others about him.
 During my creation of the sugar skull, I thought so hard about what would I do. Coming to a conclusion last minute, it was right in front of my face. I decided to the flag of which my dad was from. Which is Ghana, the colors were red, yellow and green with a black star in the middle of the yellow. Making the sugar skull his flag shows and explains his background and different morals he had in life  from others. Also, choosing the sugar skull as the Ghana flag represents more than just my dad but the whole Ghana community. As my dad and mom once said “At the end of the day, us Ghanaians we are a family”. So I just didn’t want to think about my dad but my history/generation who I and others have lost.
 Día de los Muertos opened my mind up to celebrating the passing of my love ones by realizing that no one is fully dead if their not spoken of. As I talk about my dad, now I actually feel like he is listening. This celebration brings thoughts to my dad who is paradise that he is gone but not forgotten. Also, that I will truly cherish him everyday and tell my future kids that he was just not my dad but my keeper.

Spanish Eulogy
Hola, mi nombre es Theresa Debrah, yo soy la última niña naca de Peter y Vida Debrah. Yo soy hablando sobre mi padre, Peter Debrah quién falleció cuando yo teno cuatro año.
(Hi, my name is Theresa Debrah, I am the last born child of Peter and Vida Debrah. I will be talking about my father, Peter Debrah who passed away when I was 4)

Mi padre, Peter fue nacido el quince de marzo del año de mil novecientas noventa y cinco en Accra, Ghana. Él naco y elevado allí, pero se trasladó a filadelfia.
(My father, Peter was born on March 5, 1955 in Accra, Ghana. He was born and raised there but moved to Philadelphia in 1995)

This project included 2 components, you got to research your dream college and practice how a real interview would be. It was difficult to memorize all your lines and make it look like a real interview

The Conversational powerpoint was a colorful fun project. This project helped me with seeing the differences between terms as well as similarities. The powerpoint includes time, date, opinion, location, identification, my favorite prepositions and much more. This powerpoint is very helpful when you have “brain fart” and need a refresher on a topic real quick. This contributes to why I enjoyed this project, it was short, sweet and very helpful.

This project is based on a traditional Spanish holiday. My project is about the passing of my uncle which happened about a year ago. This project contains a slideshow, a picture of my skull that I designed, a reflection in English, and a Spanish eulogy.

The person that passed away is my uncle. His name was Khalid Al-Tahir and he was 45 years old when he passed away. He was with my other uncle and grandmother and they were all in one car. They were on their way home from the masjid. They prayed the sunrise prayer, so it was still somewhat dark. They were at a red light and when it finally turned green, they went and all of a sudden a huge truck came speeding into them. They were rushed into the hospital; my uncle had a head injury, my grandmother had a broken arm as well as a head injury and finally my uncle was in a coma. Soon enough, we found out that my uncle and grandmother were released from the hospital however,my other uncle was still in a coma. Everyday we would get the same news, the news of him not waking up. It stressed my mother out because she was in America and it is very difficult to go to Saudi Arabia. About a month later, we found out he was pronounced dead. It hurts at the thought that the person I talk to is actually dead. A part of me didn’t want to believe it.A part of me thought that he was still alive so he’s still asleep. But reality hit me, and I thought that it was a time where I needed to accept it.

This person meant a lot to me because he was very nice and always showed empathy for others. With him living halfway across the world, we managed to keep in touch and always talk about things that were going on in our lives. I’ve decided to create this sugar skull in remembrance of my uncle. I thought that creating the sugar skull could help me bring back memories of the both of us. I didn’t actually see him face-to-face since it wouldn’t really work out. I am living in the United States while he was living with his family in Saudi Arabia. There was a time where my mom told me that we were finally going to Saudi Arabia and in my head I say, “Wow, I actually get to see my uncle and my aunt for the first time.” When I finally go there, I find out that he went to Sudan to see his family. I was very disappointed. Later on, when we went to Sudan, he came to visit us, however, I don’t remember seeing him. My mother would tell me that he visited and she introduced me to him, but I don’t remember. Now, all that I see from him is a picture of him on social media or from my aunt. Also, my aunt and mother would tell me stories about him. The stories are actually beneficial to me in general. It made me think about how he sees life and how he went on with his life when he was alive. Also, I thought about how his family reacted when the doctors told them he was gone. It must’ve felt heartbreaking. In my head, I said thank god I’m not there because I wouldn’t know how to deal with it. He was the first person that had died and that I knew personally.

So, for my sugar skull, I decided to put the two flags of the countries that he lived in, Sudan (his birth country) and Saudi Arabia (where he lived with his family). His favorite color was brown so I colored the sugar skull brown. I also wanted to draw a ring to show that he was married and put 45 small dots around the skull to show the age he was. Since, I previously mentioned that he was peaceful so I will be drawing a peace sign. Since his birthday is on March 16, 1968, he is a pisces, so I would be painting a pisces sign next to the islamic symbol on the skull’s forehead.

Dia de los Muertos opened my mind up to celebrating the passing of loved ones. It helped me realize how it affected me when they passed away and how special they are to me. It helped me recognize who I am because of these people. It showed me how worthy a human being can be when you start to think about memories that I had with those people. It showed me that I should thank God that I’m still living and breathing healthy. I have to appreciate the people and things that I have in my life because anything could happen at anytime and anywhere.

Spanish Eulogy:

Hola, me llamo Saraa Fadl. Yo estoy en el grado décimo. Voy a hablar de la muerte de Khalid Al-Tahir. Él nació en Sudán y vivió toda su vida ahí. Luego, él vivía en Arabia Saudita con su familia. Él era una persona de paz y amaba a todos él conocía. El trabaja como ingeniero civil. Él es muy competente con su carrera.

Yo soy en America. Yo vivo en Filadelfia, Pensilvania. Todos los días, yo creo que él. Mi mamá nos dice cuentos de él. Yo creo que como mi prima esta sin su padre. Yo buscado veo ella cuando nosotros ir a Sudán. De la manera que, es malo tiempo, asi que yo no podía vio ella.

Reflection Paper

The love one that I decided to do for Día de los Muertos was my aunt. Her name was Jacquleine Brocco I called her aunt Jackie so did all her other nieces and nephews. She meant so much to me. She was much fun to be with we would always laugh and dance. She was so easy to talk to. My aunt jackie was a great mother, sister, cousin, wife and aunt. She was so lovable. Losing her took a toll on everyone's lives. Especially her children and sister. My aunt was like my Best friend I could tell anything. She gave the best advice when it came to school and she never sugar coated anything for us. Also,even if came to something we was going through she would give us some type of advice to help us or to ease our minds. I decided to create my sugar skull in remembrance of her because I miss her so much. I've could've did my cousin instead we were close but I felt closer to my aunt. Even though it’s been a couple years it still hurts and I miss her so much. So making a sugar skull wasn't a morning thing it help me to remember who she was and to show what type of person she was. For those who didn't know her. Also, remembering someone who has passed doesn't have to be a mourning thing. So making this sugar skull in remberce of her helped me to see that.

My sugar skull reflected the things she liked and what she wanted to do. The orange and brown feathers represent Thanksgiving. My aunt Jackie loved Thanksgiving she would always have my mom cook. We would have all my cousin over. She loved her family and this time of year. When she past it just wasn't the same. During Thanksgiving we would have our family drama but she would always try to find a way to ignore or make it funny. Sometimes she would play music and blast it through the house and start dancing. Sometimes do this loud obnoxious laugh and me and my cousins would always join in laughing and seeing who had the weirdest laugh or who could laugh louder. The reason I gave my skull purple hair is because she had a lot of hair. When she would wet is it would get super curly, when it would start to dry it’ll still be curly but get really big and puff. We would all laugh and call her Diana Ross, She would always give us this look like really guys. Another reason why I chose purple hair instead of Black is because she always talked about dying her hair purple. My older cousin would always debate with her the color she should get. We all thought Purple would be too much. On my sugar skull I place one silver sequin on the left cheek because my aunt only had one dimple on her left cheek. My aunt's children, sister and brother all had dimples but they had both on both cheeks. She the only one in the bunch that had only one dimple. I always thought that made her pretty unique. The reason I painted my skull yellow was because she was light skin.

Día de los Muertos really Opened up my mind. After doing various ways of researching what Día de los Muertos is and doing a Día de los Muertos of my own by creating a mask and a skull really helped. It helped me to see that when your loved one dies you can have a way remembering who they are without it having to be sad. So doing this sugar skull and masked helped me to see that. When doing it I thought it was going to be very emotional but surprisingly it wasn’t. It felt pretty good to talk about her and not it being emotional. Now I know a different cultural way of remembering my aunt. In my family we always block of our street on the day she passed and eat dance in remembrance of her. All the friends and family come around then towards the end we go and light candles and let balloons go. Día de los Muertos is a very good cultural alternative way to remember your loved ones and knowing how other cultures deal with the death of their loved ones without it being emotional. Día de los Muertos really opened up my mind to remember my aunt Jackie. In addition, to Día de los Muertos helping me understand this I would highly recommend others to try this to remember loved ones who have passed.

Eulogy

Intro

Me llamo Ashton. La persona yo elegir está por Día de los Muertos, está mí tía Jackie.

Origen

Mí tía Jackie es de Filadelfia. Ella somos afroamericano y puertorriqueña.

Identificación

Mi tía es una quedarse en casa madre. Ella querido su hijos. Sus llamo es Jamod, Jalyke y Jasper.

Características

Ella son joven y bello. Mí tía es baja. Ella es también loca, creativa, inteligente and aplicada. Ella es muy amorosa y cálida. Ella siempre querido útil gente si podía. Mí tía es a fuerte mentalmente.

Localización

Ella es veintisiete cuando ella morir. Yo ella tan mucho. Cuando yo escuchó ese ella morir yo están devastado. Su muerte made hecho saber eso es vida también corta. Yo desear ella está aúa vivo. Ella está como mí mejor amigo.

Condiciones

Este proyecto está mucho diversión. Eso no hacer mí triste eso mí feliz. Yo sentido buena de acordarse la buena tiempo ese nosotros pasar.