Word: dehaim
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...Talal al-Dehaim...
When Talal Al-Dehaim's friends learned last summer that he was leaving Saudi Arabia to go to college in the U.S., they told him it might not be a good idea. Attending an American school had been almost a rite of passage for ambitious Saudis, but after the 9/11 attacks and the discovery that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from the desert kingdom, many Saudi students, as well as those from other Arab and Muslim countries, rushed home fearful of repercussions. Few filled their places. As he made the long journey from Riyadh to Marshall University in Huntington...
...Saudi governments worried about that too, and last year they agreed that one of the best ways to dispel the apprehensions on both sides would be to foster more person-to-person contact. So over the next four years, Saudi Arabia will pay for al-Dehaim and as many as 20,000 other young Saudis to come to the U.S. to study. The U.S. has pledged to speed visa processing for the students--while still running full background checks and in-person interviews at the consulate in Jidda...
...welcome has been warm--"Everyone is so friendly," al-Dehaim says--but Marshall's Saudis marvel at their American schoolmates' near total lack of knowledge about their country. "My neighbor, he asked, 'Are you riding camels at home?' Someone said, 'Did you bring your own oil with you?'" says Ahoud Alqahtani, 20, one of the few Saudi women at Marshall. "We don't know a lot about their country," admits Justin Carpenter, 21, a student senator. "But I bet we're not as different as we thought we were...
...Dehaim, some friends back home now ask whether they should study in the U.S. too. "It's a lot of work," he tells them. "But it's cool...
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