A few days ago, I met up with Mohanad again! We met at the TCU Bookstore again, and I got
there a little early and settled in to read a book while I waited. While I was into my book, some guy stole the
chair that I had saved for Mohanad. So
when I spotted Mohanad, we went in search of another set of seats, which we
didn’t find. We had to end up sitting outside, which was FREEZING. Speaking of, I miss the warmth. I am ready for
summer.
So, we sat down outside and started chatting. It was our
first meeting since Spring Break, so we talked about what we had done. Mohanad had ended up taking the 17-hour drive
down to Miami, which I think is crazy. I
hated my 7-hour drive down to Corpus Christi, so I can’t even imagine what a
17-hour drive might be like. He said
that he had a great time, and I think he thought I was kind of lame for not
doing anything too exciting over Spring Break. OH WELL.
Mohanad and I had kind of an intense conversation the other
day. It was really interesting, don’t
get me wrong, but I’m not exactly sure how we got onto some of the topics that
we did. We started talking about his
family, and I learned that he has 3 sisters in addition to his twin
brother. We started talking about big
families, and he told me that he has a friend that has 11 brothers and 14
sisters. I was dumbfounded for a few
seconds, and he definitely saw the confused look on my face. In Islam, men are allowed to have four wives,
which I knew already, I just didn’t realize that it was an actual
practice. He told me that his father
always jokes around with his mom about going out and finding another wife,
which I found to be hilarious.
Apparently, his mom always just says, “Go right ahead,” which is
something that I would say. While we
were on this topic, he asked me if Christians could have more than one
wife. I explained that no, Christians
can’t, unless there is some hidden statement that I am unaware of. I also explained that it is against the law
in the United States to have more than one wife. He also asked me if it is normal to have big
families in the United States. I wasn’t
really sure how to answer this question, because every single family unit is
different. I basically just explained to
you that it depends on how you were raised and sometimes includes your
religious background. This section of
the conversation was extremely interesting to me because it was such new
information to him and he was so eager to learn about the culture and
lifestyles of Americans.
A topic that I was really stuck on came up when Mohanad
asked me: “In America, how do you do discrimination?” When he said that, I had absolutely no idea
what he meant. He then explained that in
Saudi Arabia, they have different tribes that families belong to. These tribes basically are the class system
of the country, so if you are in a higher up tribe, you aren’t supposed to talk
to someone in a lower class tribe. Once
he explained that, I understood what he was referring to. I still was a little unsure on how to answer
his question though, because I don’t believe that we have a similar equivalent
to that here in America. I then
explained my mental definition of discrimination and the how I grew up learning
about it. I also told him that I didn’t
really see it as an issue in the current times, but I have never witnessed any
racial discrimination firsthand.
I have really been loving getting to know Mohanad, and
learning about his views on life, and seeing how he reacts to my views on life.
His upbringing was much different than
mine, because Saudi Arabia is much different than the United States. He is a great guy and he has brought so many
interesting insights to our conversations.
