Katie CP #5

Today Youssef and I went to dinner. We decided on a seafood restaurant, called The Wharf, because Youssef wanted seafood after visiting Panama City. We talked about a range of subjects and a lot about the culture in Burkina Faso. Youssef talked about the different laws there and compared them to things he noticed in America. Youssef also told me that he moved up groups in CIES. Youssef is now in group 3 for speaking and group 4 for everyone else. I congratulated him and he seemed very excited, but he said he still needs to focus and work hard to graduate from CIES by September. Youssef has described his study habits to me before and since he is a very diligent student I believe he can definitely meet his goal. A cultural incident that he had when he got to America was very interesting. He said that in Burkina Faso, most places don't accept cards, and if they do, the card scanners are often broken. Therefore, everyone in Burkina Faso typically carries around $1000 to $5000 dollars with them whenever they are out. When Youssef came to America he didn't realize that everyone uses cards so he continued to carry around about $1000 dollars with him. He said that when his friends found out that he was carrying so much money around with him they laughed and warned him not to do that. I thought that was very interesting and asked if he was ever afraid of getting robbed. Youssef said that he was not because in his country robbery like that is not common; most robberies are from stores or markets.