Carlos-CP6

On Wednesday night, a group of us were able to get together with our Saudi/Kuwaiti friends once again. This time, we all met up at Aladdin's for some hookah and tea. Our group was was huge, and we ended up filling up the room we were in and had to move to a larger one. Things were very comfortable during this meet up, and although the group was too large to all be in on one conversation, no one was left out. It was great seeing more people from TEFL join us throughout the night and I was very glad that they got to meet this great group guys. We had at least 5 hookahs going at once and a number of tea kettles as well. I was able to invite my one conversation partner, Ali, and introduced him to his other country men. At the same time I was able to hang out with my unofficial conversation partner Abdullah.

Although there were many interesting conversations that night, one conversation with Mohammed and Hassan stuck out to me. We discussed religion and Hassan explained to me that half of their group were Sunni and the other half Shiite. He said that they all pray together and that real Muslims can pray together and do not separate themselves. We began to talk about extremists and about my views of the Muslim people, before and after I met these CIES students. I was grateful to have this conversation with these new friends. It was on a very deep and personal level and I thought the conversation and exchange of ideas was truly a bridge between our two different cultures. I feel closer to this group now more than ever.