Qatar is last on my list - for now
Qatar.
In the map on the right, it's the little pink blob poking off of Saudi Arabia.
I've only met one person from the Middle East before. He was from Jordan, in his mid 20's, and I worked with him at my factory job (Rubicon) when I was about 16 years old. I still have the industrial sheet where he wrote my name in Arabic. My memories of him are sketchy, but I remember that he was nice yet argumentative, and seemed to think that my ideas on Christianity and the Trinity were flawed.
Now I know 59 more people from the Middle East: 54 teenage students from Qatar, 3 adult chaperons from Qatar, and 2 adult chaperons from Bahrain (the tiny island country off the coast of Qatar). And they're all male.
In fact, my summer job, which started when they arrived in Chicago on July 5, is to be both an English tutor and an RA for these 54 boys; thus, I live at the Holiday Inn (Select!) in Naperville with them, and I go to the college on weekdays to tutor them in English and kind of watch over them, in a way.
It's much more difficult than it seems. They're rude, loud, obnoxious, insubordinate, rich, spoiled, they litter, they ignore you, and a whole host of other bad qualities. Many are like this, some aren't. Suffice it to say, these past 2 weeks have been insane (literally insane. Crazy. Of the membrane type). Before I started this job, my perceptions would be that these would be 60 good Muslim boys who were quiet, attentive, and willing to learn, and my job description would be to help them with their homework, speak English with them, and hang out with them. Instead they're quite the opposite (although they're still all Muslim, and the rituals they've brought with them to the U.S. are one of their more fascinating aspects), and our job description would be better described as being a teacher (not tutor), a nanny, having to tell them what to do and discipline them, and having to organize all their activities. I'm too frustrated to even hang out with them at nights many times.
Today, though, I think things were actually, for the first time, good. I merged my tutor group with Dijana's amazing tutor group (seriously, how did she get all the good kids?), and kicked the two worst, childish ones out. And things went smoothly today, they listened (to an extent), and we had - dare I say? - fun. I was on the verge of quitting this week, but maybe things will turn around. I wish some of the other tutors were this lucky, but I think that even for them things may change.
Qatar. Doha. Rich as hell, but with almost no history - they were desert tribes, then England took them over but didn't care about them, then oil was found, then they gained their independence, and now they're rich. That's their entire history. These kids need to prove to me there's more to Qatar than money and an irrational hatred of gay people, and perhaps then I will respect their country. And maybe after today, this will happen.
In the map on the right, it's the little pink blob poking off of Saudi Arabia.
I've only met one person from the Middle East before. He was from Jordan, in his mid 20's, and I worked with him at my factory job (Rubicon) when I was about 16 years old. I still have the industrial sheet where he wrote my name in Arabic. My memories of him are sketchy, but I remember that he was nice yet argumentative, and seemed to think that my ideas on Christianity and the Trinity were flawed.
Now I know 59 more people from the Middle East: 54 teenage students from Qatar, 3 adult chaperons from Qatar, and 2 adult chaperons from Bahrain (the tiny island country off the coast of Qatar). And they're all male.
In fact, my summer job, which started when they arrived in Chicago on July 5, is to be both an English tutor and an RA for these 54 boys; thus, I live at the Holiday Inn (Select!) in Naperville with them, and I go to the college on weekdays to tutor them in English and kind of watch over them, in a way.
It's much more difficult than it seems. They're rude, loud, obnoxious, insubordinate, rich, spoiled, they litter, they ignore you, and a whole host of other bad qualities. Many are like this, some aren't. Suffice it to say, these past 2 weeks have been insane (literally insane. Crazy. Of the membrane type). Before I started this job, my perceptions would be that these would be 60 good Muslim boys who were quiet, attentive, and willing to learn, and my job description would be to help them with their homework, speak English with them, and hang out with them. Instead they're quite the opposite (although they're still all Muslim, and the rituals they've brought with them to the U.S. are one of their more fascinating aspects), and our job description would be better described as being a teacher (not tutor), a nanny, having to tell them what to do and discipline them, and having to organize all their activities. I'm too frustrated to even hang out with them at nights many times.
Today, though, I think things were actually, for the first time, good. I merged my tutor group with Dijana's amazing tutor group (seriously, how did she get all the good kids?), and kicked the two worst, childish ones out. And things went smoothly today, they listened (to an extent), and we had - dare I say? - fun. I was on the verge of quitting this week, but maybe things will turn around. I wish some of the other tutors were this lucky, but I think that even for them things may change.
Qatar. Doha. Rich as hell, but with almost no history - they were desert tribes, then England took them over but didn't care about them, then oil was found, then they gained their independence, and now they're rich. That's their entire history. These kids need to prove to me there's more to Qatar than money and an irrational hatred of gay people, and perhaps then I will respect their country. And maybe after today, this will happen.