The group dinner

About Umaima Al Hosni

The Bread’s Journey

You wake up, grab your chair, Join the breakfast table, and fill yourself with the energy you need to start your day. But, have you ever taken a thoughtful look at the bread in front of you? Have you ever asked yourself about the process that brought this bread to your plate?
Guess what, the bread story does not start by you buying it from the nearby grocery; its story starts way before that.
Probably, the mother land of your bread wheat is another continent. The United States, which ranks third in producing wheat after China and India, exports about 23% of world wheat. There are many wheat farms in the United States; only Washington State has about 40,000 wheat farms. To narrow down, Pullman, WA exports 20% of its wheat to the Middle East. Farmers in Pullman use high-tech procedures in planting and protecting the wheat from different risks. Diseases, like stripe rust, threats like wire worm can form a serious problem if neglected. Farmers depend on natural rain fall in irrigating. Farmers have to wait until the wheat grows enough to be harvested. “Planting wheat doesn’t take that much work” Larry Cochran, a farmer from Pullman, said. He owns a farm of 2000 acres, and the only farmers who woke there is his wife and himself.
Farmers have to wait until the wheat grows enough to be harvested. Harvest usually takes place when wheat begins to turn to a golden color. A huge machine called a “Combine Harvester” is used to harvest the wheat, and separate the chaff from the wheat. The wheat then is put into a large container. The straw can be either sold for animal food, or cultivated. The wheat, on the other hand, is then taken to the silo, which can hold up to 250 Tons of wheat. It is the place where the wheat is cleaned and dried. The next step is separating the inner white piece from the outer skin. The course of breaking, sifting and reducing continues until the flour and bran is totally separated.
Wheat is then exported from Pullman to different places around the world including the Middle East. It is exported as flour, grain, and couscous. It is taken into barges, and then it gets transferred to cargos. The ships reach its destination, which could be your country. Wheat gets distributed to the bakeries and markets, where you find it, buy it as bread, or bake it at home.
So next time, before taking a bite of bread, remember of the long journey that brought your bread into your plate.


By: Reem, Salwa, & Amira

camping

It was my first time to camp! The weather was quite cold. But as soon as a fire took  place we all gethered in a circle. We got the chance to talk and play with Americans students.

Native Americans

What a day!!!


It was a real fun to learn this much about the lifestyle of the Native Americans. We went to a museum
that showed us the interesting life that Native Americans had ones here.

To the Lake

I will always remember the 3rd of July ..
I went to a lake with Dr. David and some friends. We did some hiking together and then we did some shopping. The views that we enjoyed from the ship were unforgettable.
Thank you Dr. David for such a day.

with the seniors

we did today some more community service at the seniors house. we chatted with the older people about everything. We played with them and had a great time. We were really happy as we made them happy.

farming

It was my first time to try the farming work , but guess what, I enjoyed it. I had a real great time there. And I have learned a lot about the environment.
I hope to go there again and do some more environmental service.

Every day is an adventure ... Today we tried the Korean restaurant.

learning is fun ^_^

I have never been to a more crowded place!!

To the Cinema

when the idea of going to the cinema came up, everyone got excited. But i think no one was excited as much as I was. Maybe because I have never been there before. It was a gold chance. I knew that after that night I will say that my first time of going to the cinema was in the USA.
We walked and walked. and it seemed to me that we will never reach it. What hindered our progress even more is that we didn't know our way..


About an hour later, we found ourselves finally there. Most of us didn't like the movie, and some of us took a taxi back to the dorms, yet everyone had a great time. Being together, I guess, was our real source of enjoyment.

ohhh green Pullman,,,

we love you,,,,

the first thing I bought from the USA ^_^

A Father and a Mother in the USA

One of the amazing experiences I have ever had was the chance to spend a night with an American family.
Ghinwa, a student from Lebanon, and I spent our second night in the USA with an American family. Mr. Saied and Mrs. Maryam took a good care of us. I took them as a father and a mother in the USA. In fact, one day I was doing some shopping with Mrs. Maryam and I run into a friend at the supermarket. Spontaneously, I found myself introducing Mrs. Maryam as my mother in the USA!
Both Mr. Saied and Mrs. Maryam were very kind and generous with us. Moreover, having fun there is not the only thing that I am happy about, because that experience showed me the real life style of an American family. And, staying with that family in particular rectified my idea of how Muslims are treated in the USA, since the family was a Muslim one that has been in the USA for over 30 years.

my room in the host family's house