Rising From the Grave (Aunt Tam's Journal #5)

The sun was setting on my paddy. The already beautiful sight of the fully grown rice was amplified by the red and violet encircling the warm ball of light. It was time to get cleaned up and sleep, until dawn, when I would get back up again with the sun.

As I walked to my hut I saw someone coming my way. It was Phuong, the girl who ran my noodle business for me. She handed me the days earning, and I gave her her pay. Counting my money, I walked into my hut. I organized it in my belt and got cleaned up before bed.
Deciding to take one last look at my paddy to sleep peacefully, I stepped outside. Just at that moment, the daughter of one of the woman whose's rice paddy I work at came running.
"What is it, Cam?" I asked.
"Madame Tam, Madame Tam!" she yelled. I let her catch her breath for a minute. She spoke again:
"These people came to the village! They said they were from this... Team for the Rectification of Errors. They said they're giving back our properties! Yours too, Madame Tam! They're giving back your house and all your fields! Finally, justice has come!"
It took me a moment to compose myself.
Yes! Finally! This torture was coming to an end. I could raise my family name and our honor from the grave. No, it was never buried. Our honor was just a torch, waiting to light a bigger fire. And now it was time.
I could sleep an hour late. Cam and I headed into town to claim our property. 

Book 6 of Virgil's Aeneid

Summary
Aeneas and his crew arrive at Italy. Following his fathers advice he visits the temple of Apollo to pray, where he finds a priestess named Sibyl. He asks Sibyl if she can grant him entrance into the Underworld, and she says this will only be possible if he buries Misenus, and if he finds a golden branch from a tree which has to snap off easily. He returns to Sibyl, having completed the tasks.
When they arrive at the Underworld, they see souls who are not granted entrance because they have not been buried properly. Charon the boatman lets them pass the river when he sees the golden branch.
In the part of the Underworld for people who died in the same of love, he finds Dido. Aeneas tries to speak to the ghost of Queen Dido and tells her that he actually did not want to leave her, but he was following the orders of the gods. Dido ignores him and runs to Sychaeus, her once husband. 

He’s lead by Sibyl through the Underworld. Next they speak to spirits of those who died at war. Aeneas finds Deiphobus, the son of Priam, whose body is torn apart.

From a distance, Aeneas observes Tartarus, the part of the Underworld where the evil are punished. He watches the Fury Tisiphone whip the guilty, as Sibyl explains to him what other creatures and punishments await sinners.

After Aeneas places his golden branch by the gates of Elysium they are granted access. In the Groves of Blessedness, he finds his father Anchises. Anchises shows him all the spirits who will be purified and given another life so they may make Rome prosper. After Aeneas’ soul has been moved and inspired to create Rome, he leaves the Underworld through the ivory gates. 

Epic Simile

Lines 1033-1047

My son, it is beneah his auspices

that  famous Rome will make her boundaries

as broad as earth itself, will make her spirit

the equal of Olympus, and enclose

her seven hills within a single wall,

rejoicing in her race of men: just as

the Berecynthian mother, tower-crowned,

when, through the Phrygian cities, she rides on

her chariot, glad her sons are gods, embraces

a hundred sons of sons, and every one

a heaven-dweller with his home on high.

Quotable Passages

Lines 725-735

Aeneas suddenly looks back; beneath

a rock upon his left he sees a broad

fortress encircled by a triple wall

and girdled by a rapid flood of flames

that rage: Tartarean Phlegethon whirling

resounding rocks. A giant gateway stands

in front, with solid adamantine pillars—

no force of man, not even heavens’s sons,

enough to level these in war; a tower

of iron rises in the air; there sits

Tisiphone, who wears a bloody mantle.

Lines 846-854

They came upon the lands of gladness, glades

of gentleness, the Groves of Blessedness—

a gracious place. The air is generous;

the plains wear dazzling light; they have their very

own sun and their own starts. Some exercise

their limbs along the green gymnasiums

or grapple on the golden sand, complete

in sport, and some keep time with moving feet

to dance and chant.

Muddy Excellence (Aunt Tam's Journal #4)

I was starting to get somewhere.
I was exhausted, yes, from working under the sun for so many hours, and a little frustrated that I didn't get exactly what I deserved for my work, but seeing my own rice seedlings grow gave me a feeling of bliss so unique I would probably never feel it again. I felt happy with my feet in the mud, walking carefully between the delicate, beautiful sprouts. I took off my hat and wiped the sweat off my forehead.
I felt at peace here. I liked work. It distracted my mind from the things that would destroy it. Thinking too much was lethal.
I admired every single seedling. I felt like a mother watching her children play. After almost one year of this lonely suffering, I finally felt pleasant.
After I was done caring for my little green children, I would go to bed for only a few hours, then get up at dawn and get back to work.
No one else I knew put so much work into their rice paddies. But mine were going to be perfect. After all, I couldn't settle for less. Maybe that's more the reason why Chinh brought doom to our family: not because we owned more land, but because he couldn't bear with the fact that we had more passion for greatness than others did. Maybe that's why Ton hasn't come back, because he feels he can never regain this greatness.

A Flashback (Aunt Tam's Journal #3)

It was raining.
Normally, I would have liked the rain. I liked its soft rhythmic tapping. I liked that it spared us the work of watering the flowers. I liked how it puffed our hair up and curled it even more than usual.
Today I hated it. I despised it almost as much as I hate Chinh, and Bich, and Nan, and everybody else who has put me and my family to shame.
I lay in the hut I was hidden in, watching the rain drops beat the floor, crawling in from all the holes in the roof. Each thud made me angrier. I felt like I was going insane. But I would survive. I was stubborn, and it was my greatest trait.
When the rain stops I might go outside to watch the fog and the gray skies. Something about those gives me pleasure. I might go to watch people praying in the next door temple, and hope that Chinh catches a cold from standing under the rain.
After a while sleep took me, and the rain became a lullaby.
Life will get better too. I will fight for it. No matter what I have to do.

Aunt Tam's Journal #2

For a few days I'd been hearing that Que was back. I didn't believe them. Why would she come back? Where had she been?
I passed by her house one day, but the doors were closed. I just assumed she wasn't there, and all the things the villagers were mumbling angrily were just rumors.
She upsets me, of course, but I have no grudge against her. She appears to be just a pawn of her malicious brother.
I wonder where she went. I wonder if she's seen my brother.
I wonder if she's seen that traitor Chinh. Has he poisoned her mind with his corrupted, impossible dreams?

One night, I learned what the villagers were saying was true. She was back. A resentful, raging crowd was trying to burst open her house's front gates.
Should I do something? Should I not?
Was she guilty?

I found myself standing in between the mob and the shelter of her home. I found myself defending her, the poor, pure woman, who had suffered just as much as any of us.
There are some things that cannot be returned. Somethings that are lost cannot be recovered. And what if the thing you lost has a mind of its own? How will you possibly know where he has gone?
And even if you do, how will you ever take him back? With a red bird watching over your shoulder, ready to peck out the eyes of anyone who opposes it, say Que, what will you do? I have hope in you yet.

(Once again I apologize for posting very little, but I will try to write more this week as my arm hurts a little less.)

Aunt Tam's Journal #1

My brother has left. He'll go somewhere safe, I hope.
He's always been kind and caring. I guess it is because of this that he cannot live with this humiliation.
Do men have more honour so that it may be wounded, or are women simply stronger to bear the lashing, I wonder.
I do not know how to act to Que. She is not the one at fault here, but sadly left on the wrong side. If I tell her where my brother Ton is, someone might hear and go after him. I will put my and my family's survival as my biggest priority. I'll bear Chinh's whip of words. I'll pretend to accept what he deems me to be, so that I may live to rebuild our lost honour. Hard times shall pass eventually.
Poor Que. Poor, poor Que. How hard it must be to be in such a dilemma. It appears to be a dilemma, yet she has no choice at all.
Blood of the family runs thick, and her brother is good with words.

They seemed so happy, too... Ton and her... How unfair life can be.

(I'm sorry this is very short but my arm feels like it's going to burn up and fall off whenever I type soooo..)

Reflective Statement: The Thief and the Dogs

The Thief and the Dogs took place in a country I knew very little of. I’d been interested in Egyptian mythology since a younger age, but that wasn’t even close to life in modern Egypt. I didn’t know much about how people were treated based on their genders, religions, or affiliations, and knew nothing of their laws at the time.

As I read the book, I began to learn about the Egyptian culture during the 1950s.  In the text, there were references to the 1952 Revolution in Egypt, and other events and leaders of the time.

Our interactive oral did not necessarily address the current political situations in Egypt, but instead involved a lot of the laws and gender roles. Our class created a model court, where the rightful custodian of Sana was to be chosen by the judge. Each student took the role of either a character, an advocate, the judge, or a UN representative. Being one of the UN representatives, my duty was to make sure the session was faithful to the Declaration of Human Rights. This duty was very beneficial for me because I had to research this Declaration, along with the laws of 1950s’ Egypt.

We generally researched child custody laws, and discovered that the mother has the right to keep her child until the child is of a certain age. But this rule becomes unimportant if the mother has done something against the law. The fact that Nabawiya, Said’s former wife, cheated on him with Ilish Sidra, meant that she could not keep Sana.

The overall process fit the articles of the Declaration of Human Rights, and was very ethical. The only problems were that some witnesses did not get balanced interviews from both sides, and this might come off as unfair. Perhaps our research of Egyptian courts could be more in-depth and detailed.  I was never really familiar with processes in a courtroom, so I would have liked to do more research on that.

The model court was a great experience because although it got frustrating at times, it was a realistic debate situation where you had to listen to everybody carefully to catch any flaws in what the witnesses and advocates say. Overall the process was very useful because I got to learn about a different culture’s laws, which helped grow my understanding of the book itself.