It was the first day of class. Two of her new ESL classmates
wanted to know where Tara was from. They were both from Iraq.
Because Tara looked Iraqi, one of the women asked Tara, in
English, if she was from Iraq. Tara replied, "No, I'm not." Then
the women took turns asking Tara if she was from Iran, or Syria,
or Jordan. To each question, Tara responded with a simple no.
Laughing, one woman said to the other, "She's not from
anywhere!" The two went to their desks, talking to each other in
Arabic. The next day, the teacher divided the students into
groups of four. The students in each group asked introductory
questions of each other. A student in Tara's group asked her,
"Where are you from?" Tara answered that she was from Iraq. The
two women who had questioned Tara the day before were sitting
only a few feet away. Both of them heard Tara's response. "Aha!"
they both exclaimed. "You ARE from Iraq!" Tara smiled and said
yes. Then she apologized to both of them for lying the day
before. She explained that she ha