A Chilly Chat

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.