Viking_Yearbook_78

Now halfway to her goal , Fatma is taking graduate courses, practicing field -work and learning special skills such as sign language. " I want to help the individual children according to their level of ability. Right now, they are just all put together in one group.We must not treat the handicapped as animals." Fatma will return in the near future to her sand– sculptured city in Saudi Arabia. She will take with her not only new knowledge and goals but impressions of her sojourn in America. " Here I like the outdoors. The mountains, the sea, the snow, the rivers. American students are very friendly, very helpful." Independent and curious, Fatma has traveled-often alone- from Egypt to Greece to Spain . " In America it is not good, the availability of drugs and alcohol. And the crime, like stealing and kidnapping. It is not like this in Saudi Arabia. There, cops give traffic tickets, clean up accidents and help old people. There is not crime like there is here." In her immaculate, well-ordered apartment, she reflects over her favorite cup of tea and says, " I see myself someday in my own little house with my books and my parents. I plan to go back to Saudi Arabia and work and " -in the ancient Middle Eastern tradition-" take care of my parents when they are old."