Leaving Home - Creative Activities   more activities >>

Packing for the journey
Do you remember packing for your departure? Who helped you or did you prepare alone? Were there special mementos you felt you must bring with you to remind you of home? Make a list of all the items each person brought with them. This will help others to remember their own and there will probably be many things in common.

One thing I've still got
Do you still have any of these items which you brought with you? Maybe you could bring them in to show the group and make a small exhibition together of things which have survived the ups and downs of life in England.

What I looked like
Did you buy any special clothes for your journey, or have them made up for you before leaving? Who helped with this? Do you have a photo of yourself before your departure, dressed for the journey? If not, draw a picture to show what you were wearing and carrying.

How I felt
What were your feelings on departure? Were you scared, excited, sad, optimistic, or a mixture of all these and other feelings? Did you tell anyone how you felt when you were leaving?

"Last glimpse photo of home"
If you could take a 'mental photograph' of your last sight of your native land as you stepped on the boat or plane, what would the photo contain? Were there friends and family members to wave you off? Draw an image on paper of what would have been your 'last glimpse photo of home' if one had been taken.
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Farewell photo
Alternatively, arrange other people in the group as if they were the family you were leaving behind. Tell them who they are representing and what your memories are of the people concerned. If you remember the kind of things they said, give each person a phrase associated with the person they are representing.

Destination unknown
What image did you have of the Britain you were coming to? Had you seen photos or films beforehand? Did you have a clear idea of what would happen when you arrived?

Have passport, will travel
Do you still have your original passport? What do you feel when you look at the picture of the young you, setting out on this adventure?

Pramila Desai's farewell photo to her husband

My journey
Can you chart your journey from your home country to England? Using a ribbon or string, pin your route on to a map which includes the important places you stopped at or passed through. Share your journey with others in the group and put the journeys you have mapped around the walls of the room. Take time to imagine one another's journeys, to find common stopping places and to identify similar experiences.

Coming back home soon?
So many people came to England expecting to stay just a few years, save money and go home to settle. What were the factors which kept you here and prevented you from returning home with money after a few years? Were they economic factors, such as the difficulty in finding work which was well paid? Or was it the higher cost of living? Or was it emotional attachments and new relationships which made you decide to stay?

If I had my life over again
Do you feel it has worked out as you thought it would at that point? If you had your life over again, would you make the same decision to leave your home country? Compare your answer and your reasons with others in the group.
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Journey into the unknown
Imagine packing for a minimum 5-year stay in an unknown country. What would you definitely take with you to remind you of home? What would you have to leave behind?

Farewells
How would you prepare for such a big move? Who would you need to say a special goodbye to?

Do you have to go?
How do you think the rest of your family would react if you decided to emigrate? What reasons might they produce to try to prevent you from leaving? Play out a scene between a mother and son or daughter in which the parent tries to persuade the young person to stay at home. Use Ade's or Anthony's story to help you.

Big decisions
Imagine you are considering leaving home to try life in a distant country. Divide a page down the middle and write out the pros and cons of leaving or staying. Go through them with someone else and try to decide what to do.

Window on the world
What ways do we now have of finding out about the places we are travelling to in advance? How many of these methods would have been available to the older people telling their stories in this section?
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Everything is different here
So many things started to feel different for our story-tellers, even on the journey over. Consider Mr Pang having to learn how to eat with a knife and fork and having alcohol for the first time in the plane. Imagine if it was the other way round and you were flying to China to live and had to learn to eat with chop sticks, as no knives or forks would be provided. Write a postcard home to tell the family how you managed, or didn't, and draw a picture for them of your struggle with the chopsticks.

Different journeys, different reasons
Choose a story in this section and decide if the story-teller is a refugee (someone fleeing a state of danger) or an economic migrant (someone seeking work and a better standard of living). How do you think a person's attitude to their journey would be affected by their reasons for leaving?

A long, hard slog
Notice how indirect were the journeys of some of the story-tellers. Some took years of travelling, often escaping from danger, before they were reunited with their families. They often had to raise large amounts of money before they could travel the next leg of their journey and much of the journeying was dangerous.

Lost at sea
Look at Mrs La and Mrs Loung's stories. Write a diary entry for two or three days of their journey as though you were one of these women. You could include having to take the difficult decision to separate from other family members, the danger of crossing seas in tiny boats, losing important photos and certificates overboard which you had carefully preserved over many years.

Together after so long
Many of the women in these stories had been apart from their husbands for some time, as the men-folk often came to Britain well before the rest of their families. How do you think these husbands and wives must have felt about seeing their partners after such a long separation? Remember that some of the women had not been long married in their home countries before their husbands had left for Britain.

Write an 'interior monologue' from the point of view of a young man or woman preparing to meet their partner after a long separation. What worries would be surfacing? And what hopes?

Pramila Desai's passport showing her entry to the UK in May 1963

Mapping the journey
Choose a story from this section and make a map to show the journey of the story-teller. Some people flew, but their journeys were often long and indirect. Many people sailed and stopped off on the way. Compare the journey you have marked out with others in the group. If there are older people willing to come to the classroom and share their journey story with the class, this marking out of the journey is a good joint activity for young and old.

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© Age Exchange 2006