A Muslim exchange student lives with a Mormon family and attends a small private Catholic high school.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a sitcom script. It\u2019s a real-life cultural immersion experience for 16-year-old Muhammad Janjua.<\/p>\n
Janjua, who goes by Umer, is living, learning and forging new relationships almost 7,000 miles from his home in Islamabad, Pakistan.<\/p>\n
The people he lives and learns with can\u2019t imagine not having him around.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made instant friends,\u201d said exchange program coordinator Renee Kerr of Umer\u2019s first visit to his new school, Tri-Cities Prep. \u201cThree students went to his home that night and took him to a football game.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Umer, his short time in the U.S. has already led him to learn a lot about another culture and about his own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to see different perspectives, I get asked questions,\u201d Umer said. \u201cApart from telling them, it helps me understand more about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u2026<\/strong>Aspects of Umer\u2019s life in Pakistan have blended with his experiences here in the Tri-Cities.<\/p>\nHe and another Muslim student perform their daily prayers between classes, and he\u2019s excused to attend Friday prayers at the Islamic Center of Tri-Cities in West Richland.<\/p>\n
His host family went with him in October to celebrate the festival of Eid al-Adha at the Islamic center. He\u2019s cooked traditional Pakistani meals for his hosts and other exchange students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had about 25 to 30 kids at the house I\u2019ve never seen before,\u201d Kerr said.<\/p>\n
But he also attends church with his Mormon host family on Sundays and goes to Mass at Prep. He wears jeans and hoodies like any other American teenager, has seen the latest Hobbit movie and can regularly be seen cheering on Prep\u2019s athletes at basketball games.<\/p>\n
Zepeda and fellow Prep junior Claire Megna, both 16, said they and others though Umer might be shy or standoffish based on preconceptions. He\u2019s quite the opposite, they said. He was elected as Homecoming King this fall.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read it all.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Bob Brawdy\/Tri-City Herald Details from the Tri-City Herald in Washington state: A Muslim exchange student lives with a Mormon family and attends a small private Catholic high school. It\u2019s not a sitcom script. It\u2019s a real-life cultural immersion experience for 16-year-old Muhammad Janjua. Janjua, who goes by Umer, is living, learning and forging new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,24,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-interfaith-news","category-this-that"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n