Learning & Growing

This week Hayder was taught how to cook and also helped him learn the rules of the road to prepare for his upcoming driver's license test. We were explaining various driving situations and telling him how to react when a situation presents itself. He was having trouble with certain signs on the road. For example, he had no idea what the "no passing zone" sign indicated. This is where symbolism is extremely important when completing a task that has symbols(i.e., driving). We had to draw pictures for him to imagine a real situation involving traffic. When we tried showing him how to bake a pizza in the oven there was quite confusion. He did not understand that the pizza needed to be defrosted before we out it in the oven. We advised him to read the back of the box which has directions on it. Overall though, I think Hayder is adapting well to life in the States. He is showing signs of ethnocentrism by comparing his own culture to American ways of life. I think for future interactions with Hayder we will have to try and get him more involved in his community so he can meet as many people as possible. Like I said though, he is doing very well and even was recently hired doing electrical work!