Meeting new people and cultures

Over the weekend, my sister came home from Iowa State University, where she is studying fashion design. She asked if she could bring along her roommate, Sarah, and a new friend. A couple times each week my sister goes to Turkish class to learn the new language and the friend she brought home for dinner was her teacher. His name is Abdul, and he is working on a PhD in mechanical engineering. My dad is an electrical engineer at Rockwell and Abdul hopes to work there after he graduates, although now is not a good time in this economy. Rockwell Collins is planning on laying off another hundred or so employees within the next month, so I am even worried about my dad losing his job.

What I found most striking about Abdul was that he had never spent time with an American family even though he has lived in the United States for more than two years now. In fact, my sister was the first American girl to initiate a conversation with him and have dinner with him. This made me a little sad that there are so many people at Iowa State University, yet most people will not even make an effort to converse with a foreign student.

I really enjoyed his company and thought it was so cool learning about another culture and religion (Abdul is Muslim). I enjoyed listening him to sing in Turkish and play his lap-drum by the bonfire. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. I also liked hearing stories about Abdul and his family back home in Turkey. His great-grandfather was a great healer of broken bones, and he actually saved a wild bobcat and kept him as a pet for fifteen years!  In the winter he found the bobcat injured and brought him into the house and set his broken leg. The bobcat slept by the fire every night. He set the cat free when it was healed, and the cat would often leave a dead animal at the doorstep, the feline thank you, in tribute to the human who'd saved his life. Every winter the cat would come back to sleep by the fireside.

I think we can all learn something from this; I know I can. We should not be afraid to talk to other people who are different from us, foreign, even if they seem scary. We should make conversation with them and be welcoming towards them. We can learn something from them and make new friends, and they can learn something as well in addition to meeting new people.