The rain falls hard on a humdrum town

My students and I sat an interview with a woman from Somalia who eventually escaped to freedom in the West. She described her childhood in Somalia, then Kenya, then Ethiopia, and her ordeal with all the traditional African Muslim things that girls go through. The big deal was that she defected to the West and shed the burka.

We gathered afterwards to discuss. "Wow," I said, "I'm so jealous of her life. I never did anything as exciting as beg for political asylum. I need her life."

They stared at me with big, wild eyes.

"Well... except for the female genital mutilation," I clarified.

After that qualification they all agreed with me readily.