Camille-CP4

Last Wednesday night, I organized a Hookah night at Aladdins which turned out to be extremely successful. All of the Arabic kids came as well as many students from the TEFL class, it was great to see everyone out of CIES and in their natural elements. I talked with Abdullah for a long time but conversation with him can become frustrating since he is so shy. I will ask him a question, and he will give me a short 3-4 word answer and then become silent. I then will have to formulate dozens of more questions in hopes of sparking some sort of topic of interest. During the hookah night, I was told by his friend Muhammad that I am the first girl Abdullah has ever spoken to outside of his own family. Whether or not this information is true, I was taken aback by this news. I then realized I cannot be so forceful and frustrated whenever he is unresponsive.. but learning this information helped me gain wider perspective on his lifestyle from back home, where women are not seen as equals to men.