An important item relating to my cultural background is a simple, round clay pot. This pot is called a kiri mutti, a kitchen pot used to boil milk around special occasions or in my family's case, New Years. Every year my family gathers outside to light a small fire using wood chips and lighter fluid, carefully placing it under the delicate stand for the pot. Then we fill the clay pot with coconut milk, a staple in Singhalese cuisine. While we wait for the milk to boil, my family and I reminisce over the passing year and talk and think of our hopes, regrets, and the things we're thankful for as a moment of meditation. In traditional Singhalese culture (although kiri mutti is shared between other Eastern South Asian cultures), depending on the direction the milk boils over depicts the benefits or disadvantages of the next year. While my family specifically doesn't read too much into the predictions, it's a very warm moment for me to be able to bond with my culture and family. When my young parents immigrated to America from Sri Lanka, they left much of the culture and traditional comforts behind in favor of the opportunities America offered at the time. They both immigrated to America, met each other, moved to Las Vegas, and began a family there so far away from their birth place, yet continued small practices that always made my home feel more familiar in a way. While I never got the chance to learn Sinhala and communicate with my parents in their home language I'm so grateful for being able to experience just a sliver of what life was like in Sri Lanka.

– KW

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant