I am an Egyptian Muslim, educated in Cairo and New York, and now living in Vienna. My wife and I have spent half our lives in the North, half in the South. And we have experienced first hand the unique nature of the human family and the common values we all share.
I think my character's getting to the point where he can't even eat spaghetti with red sauce anymore, where he has horrible nightmares, he can't sleep anymore.
I don't really think they saw anything in me, except the fact that I was interested in it. Some of the kids would miss a week here and miss a week there, I think they could see that I really enjoyed it.