In what ways did the nomadic lifestyle give the author an education? How does this lifestyle compare to going to school in a classroom?

Salh's father fought for her to have an education instead of living as a nomad. In what ways did the nomadic lifestyle give the author an education? How does this lifestyle compare to going to school in a classroom?

Nomadic life taught Shurgri how to live off the land and within environmental challenges with animals and weather. She was taught responsibility, and respect for elders. She learn the importance of each person’s roles, and how they roles approach their chores and activities in order to keep the family together, care and protect from danger, and keep the entire clan to run smoothly and learn the consequences if these are neglected. Some of type of lesions are taught in a classroom, but are enforced or instilled in family values and depending on the teacher passion for teaching.

I agree with the points TonyiaR made espe4cially the importance of person's roles and the points about the family. In addition I think it taught her survival skills both emotional and physical plus the ability to think independently when needed without losing family connections or rules. These lessons where equal to those she could and would learn in the traditional classroom and perhaps gave her the strength and guidance she needed to succeed there to when she has the opportunity to even in the orphanage camp.

One big skill I think Shurgri learned from the nomadic life is about people - how to read them, how to respond to time, being cautious, etc. This helped prepare her for "city" life and ultimate move to new countries.

Shugri learned a great deal about survival as well as dealing with people. Her grandmother was a terrific role model without even realizing it. I was amazed at the skills Shugri honed at a very young age. Even when she put herself in danger early on with the warthogs, she figured out how to save herself. Of course, as a child, she still tempts danger!

The skill set taught to Shugri by her grandmother was significant. Not only did she learn survival skills but also bravery, confidence, thoughtfulness, cooperation, and perseverance. These are skills which often take a lifetime to achieve if at all.

The skill of observation and how to think. To become to know yourself and to form your own ideas about who you are and what you believe - and then to absorb those ideas, really feel them, accept them, and become strong enough in them to be able to stand up for them. To question that which is going on around you.

Strength, resilience, survival
She learned skills that can't be taught in the classroom!

I felt this early life gave her the belief that anything is survivable, you just have to figure out how to survive it. This relates to not only physical survival due to lack of food and water, but later in her life as to how to defeat a bully and how to protect her honor. She learned to think her way through to the other side, and now see herself as a victim or stuck in place.

The skills that Shugri learned from her grandmothers, and learned on her own, were crucial to her survival later in life. As other readers have noted, these were skills that can't be taught in school! However, these skills for survival can be applied to other situations (such as surviving in an orphans home).

The author gained great respect for her beloved ayeeyo when she realized that the nomadic life did not follow basic societal norms, but instead was an intuitive lifestyle influenced by nature, weather cycles, bravery, physical endurance, and survival with confidence in learned abilities not confined by gender roles. Salh learned by "doing" the numerous tasks necessary to thrive. She gained knowledge from her own and others mistakes; lessons that had a greater impact than a classroom explanation. The author also describes the beautiful Somalia tradition of creating poetry and committing these verses to memory and repeating them to each generation as a legacy of cultural communication outside of any classroom.