564 Exchange Student ‘Starved’ in Egypt
Very strange story from AP today: A 17-year-old exchange student lost 50 pounds, almost a third of his body weight, while staying with a host family in Alexandria. His family is suing the exchange program, partially because the program didn’t tell them that the host family, Coptic Christians, would fast 200 days a year, and that they starved him. The family says they fed the boy plenty, that they specially prepared meat for him while they were fasting, and that the story is a lie.
He does look sickly thin in the photos, but his account of his diet sounds pretty typical:
He said he never got breakfast and his first food of the day usually was a small piece of bread with cucumbers and cheese that he would take to school for lunch. There was a late-afternoon dinner consisting of beans, vegetables and sometimes fish, and a snack of bread later in the evening.
That’s about as much as I eat most days. And while I’m not a growing teenager, I’ve been getting pudgy since I stopped going to the gym. But right. Who cares?
Point is, people here—while they do struggle to make ends meet, particularly with rising food prices—aren’t starving (though I have heard stories of food aid trucks supplying people in the desert south of the Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam). How can an American kid whose parents can afford to send him on exchange programs starve in Egypt? You can still get a koshari for the equivalent of 10 cents. OK, it’s basically animal feed, but if you’re shedding a third of your body weight, I imagine it’d start to look better. He could have asked his parents for $37 and filled his belly for a year. Something doesn’t make sense.
The weirdest detail: The kid now wants to spend a year in Zimbabwe, where people really are starving.
24 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
40 queries. 0.087 seconds. CMS: WordPress. Design: modified Hiperminimalist Theme.
RSS for posts and comments.
Valid XHTML and CSS.
I agree. There’s something very very strange about this story. It just doesn’t make sense. Even if he was shy to say “I’m hungry, can I please have a sandwich or something?” or afraid to try new foods like koshari, there’s still McDonalds, Pizza Hut, etc – i.e. the mainstays of most American teenagers. Not to mention the 589329875 kiosks selling chipsy and cadbury on practically every street corner. Didn’t he have any friends to out for a burger with???
I don’t know why, but this story is really bugging me. Maybe because the kid’s family is suing the foreign exchange program. Anyway, I want to hear more about what the family in Alex has to say.
Comment by mbk — February 28, 2008 #
Heyy, koshari is NOT animal feed. It is yummy, even if not the most balanced of meals.
But yes, the story does ring false. An older teenager who can be trusted (and has the resources) to travel halfway across the world for a study abroad program would presumably be able to go out for a fifty-piaster tameyya sandwich if he was hungry and not getting fed enough by his host family, or would have asked for more food/complained to the school or program that placed him with this family. I imagine the kid would also have noticed (along with people around him, in his program) that he was getting skinny and feeling weak. I mean, I can feel it when I don’t eat for a few hours, this kid didn’t realise he was starving?
The only thing that would make sense is that this kid, and his family, had the backpacker mentality of trying to live as cheaply as possible because they had spent so much on the ticket, and hadn’t accounted for any food money thinking it would all be taken care of by the host family, or perhaps the kid was terrified of trying Egyptian food and didn’t have the money to eat at fast-food places (which do have American prices). But even then, it really runs counter to basic human survival instincts.
Comment by SP — February 28, 2008 #
Exactly my sentiments when I read it. I guess the kid just did not go out to baladi areas. Too scared to go out, or just too western to not realize? Really freaking weird.
I mean the kid stole from a supermarket!!! Must be a Metro.
Comment by Atle — February 28, 2008 #
Sorry, just read the article more closely and it seems that there was a series of bad judgement calls. Which you can sort of see happening.
“Still, McCullum did not complain to his parents. His father suspects he may have fallen victim to Stockholm syndrome, in which people start to feel a sense of loyalty to those who victimize them.
McCullum’s parents first sensed that something was amiss shortly before Christmas, when they got e-mails from their son and one of his teachers about seeking a new host family. They also saw a picture of him on Facebook indicating he had lost a lot of weight.
In early January, the teacher sent another e-mail saying McCullum was “in bad shape” and “really, really NEEDS to go home.”
The McCullums said AFS provided false assurances that he had seen a doctor and was in excellent health.”
What it really sounds like is that the parents and kid were both a bit too insistent on his sticking it out, or ashamed of complaining. Though still very strange that the kid was “reduced” to stealing food from a supermarket. Perhaps the parents are projecting guilt for not having given their son more spending money on the study abroad program.
Comment by SP — February 28, 2008 #
[…] Elijah Zarwan, from Egypt, discusses a wire story about a 17-year-old American exchange student who was allegedly 'starved' to death after being paired with a Christian Coptic family, which fasts for 200 days a year. Share This […]
Pingback by Global Voices Online » Exchange Student Starved in Egypt — February 28, 2008 #
Perhaps he merely went on a hunger strike against the utterly atrocious Egyptian standards for cooking, being as it were the English of the Arab world….
Comment by The Lounsbury — February 28, 2008 #
Hmmm…..I hear a lot of questions but not many people looking at the facts. The kid lost 50 lbs.! The host family said he ate enough for (6) people…an obvious false statement as the kid would have at least maintained most of his body weight if he ate that much. The AFS administrators and friends tried to convince him (the exchange student) to change host families in the middle of his stay…they wouldn’t have done that for no reason. Finally, the host families are responsible for “feeding” the exchange student…most people in America would never dream that the family hosting an exchange student would not provide the exchange student with enough daily food intake to, at a minimum, maintain their current body weight. It is not incumbent on the exchange students family to also provide their childs food allowance over and above the AFS fees they already paid. Beside, none of you know the financial situation of his family…they might not have had enough money to send. Yes, it must be a great conspiracy!! The kid starves himself for (6) months (for no reason) and then makes it all up to discredit the Egyptian family..!! I don’t buy it people! The facts speak for themselves.
Comment by Give Me A Break — February 28, 2008 #
did anyone ever think he starved himself?Anarexia maybe bulemia and was to ashamed to admit it because he is a boy? He may have eaten enough food for 6 people and threw it up.How would anyone know unless they accompanied him to the bathroom. People hide bulemia from their own families who know them well,forget about strangers raising suspicions.
Many boys these days have eating disorders its not just girls. So didn’t people think of this? Especially since food in egypt is inexpensive and he had many chances to be out & about, I just don’t buy it. Oh and starvation really changes your take on foreign food,as in you will eat what ever you can. But anyway the food there is great. If he didn’t like the dishes why not by some very simple foods i.e fruits, veggies, rice,milk. Even still don’t go to a foreign country in N.Africa expecting meatloaf & gravy. Too many loopholes in the story.
Comment by hmmm — February 29, 2008 #
PS forgive my typos I did not attempt to revise.
Comment by hmmm — February 29, 2008 #
Give me a Break – I don’t think anybody here is saying that he did this on purpose to discredit the Egyptian family. Obviously mistakes or lapses in judgment were made by everyone involved in the situation – the boy, his family, the Egyptian family, the school, his teachers, fellow students, the exchange program. Maybe his family is in a difficult financial situation – we don’t really know. And people tried to help him find a new host family – but he didn’t change families because he didn’t want to live in a dangerous neighborhood. Fair enough. But wasn’t there anyone else at the school or among his friends (in Egypt or in the US) who could have helped him? No one for the boy to turn to for help? Nothing he could have done to help himself before he lost a third of his body weight and put his life at risk? Something’s not right.
Comment by mbk — February 29, 2008 #
Have many informed opinions about this. AFS is very very firm internationally on ensuring several annual orientations with students before departure and in host country incl. with other AFS participants while on exchange. Each AFSer MUST have a neutral contract person outside of the host family to intervene if there are any problems for the student and they can and will be moved. AFS International monitors and grades every AFS country. If a country in any way fails to be firm on high standards then the country will be suspended from the AFS network and not allowed to host. Plus BEFORE departure kids get a 24 hour home country and host country AFS emergency number they can contact to seek ANY kind of help. In other words one only gets one side of the story here. Sadly students often do themselves much harm and can be very manipulative. hard to know. I met hosted students and sent over 500 students personally including to Egypt from South Africa AFS. I even sent kids during Ramadan and we worked to ensure they would be OK to navigate any diet limitations or work around it to feel comfortable and happy. Didn’t have a problem.
Also I was an exchange student to South Africa and lived in a township with a very low income family. Food was there but even when I reported to AFS it was a little tough AFS made sure that they helped with an extra “subsistence” allowance because of the circumstances.
Because AFS host families are not paid the family and organization make sure they are able to provide minimum food requirements. I was very close to my family (re potential Stockhom syndrome) and it wasn’t easy at all for many reasons but there were various AFS people to report my concerns to in a safe and confidential way andwe sorted it out.
The host families are interviewed 3 times before being chosen including a visit to the home. The student (and host family about the student)receives a detailed form from AFS before departure (not less then 2 months before departure) about the host family. This form is about 15 pages long and includes names and ages and occupation and religion of everyone in the house. It includes diet, typical day of meals and day in the house. Also photos, cultural info etc. THEN on top of this AFS students get detailed pre-departure orientation that includes cultural info including from students from that country who are around plus those who have gone. Students also have their own spending money and are taught before that they do not have to assimilate. IE he could have eaten whatever he wanted, and would not be with family every moment. AFS USA is rich rich rich in terms of staff and training resources and is picky about where students go and quality of orientations. So sadly something is “not on” with this story
Comment by Colleen — February 29, 2008 #
Yes, what seems strange is that the student and at least some of the people around him did actually ask for help but no-one seems to have done anything till the situation became pretty bad. Even if they couldn’t move the kid to another family, they could have had the school or program spot him some money to eat out. But then again, people do pass the buck, parents trust the program, the program assumes parents are keeping track of their children, parents assume the host family is taking its in loco parentis responsibilities seriously, it happens all the time.
The money issue is odd too, the article mentions that the parents had sent their kid food in care packages and he had shared that with the host family, so they can’t have been that badly off. Perhaps it was an eating disorder, or a severe adjustment disorder. Whatever it was, clearly this is a kid who was not capable of fending for himself and should not have been sent off halfway across the world.
Comment by SP — February 29, 2008 #
It hard to say what the circumstances were , me not being there, but I have heard people from other countries that have come to the United States, marvel at the plentiful supply of food we have in the United States, they would even comment; “no wonder there are so many fat people here, I would be fat too, if I lived here”.
Comment by Charles — February 29, 2008 #
[…] ?????Elijah Zarwan??17??????????????????200?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? […]
Pingback by Global Voices ??? » ?????????????????? — February 29, 2008 #
You are all getting way out there on some thin ice! A student, with no history of eating disorders, goes to Egypt and comes back starved. The host family says they gave him plenty to eat but how could they have? I believe the fault is with the host family. I don’t believe they gave him plenty to eat and I don’t believe that he developed some form of eating disorder…for six short months. Anyone that knows anything about eating disorders (which I do) knows people don’t turn them on and off at will. An eating disorder would have carried over to when he was back home. But no, when he got back home he quickly put on 20 lbs…because he was being given enough to eat. So I guess we are suppose to believe it’s all the vast conspiracy to be mean to the poor Egyptian family that was doing everything they could to take care of the boy. If I had an exchange student living with my family and they started loosing that much weight I would have taken the matter into my own hands and sought help for the boy through all available channels. I would have treated him just like one of my own children. I guess that’s an odd thought outside the USA.
Comment by Give Me A Break — February 29, 2008 #
i have to say after seeing the pics, i think there is definitely something dodgy about this story. the boy looks almost happy about the very unhealthy state he is in, its disturbing to see the expression on his face.
Comment by dailyantics — March 1, 2008 #
Nobody is suggesting a conspiracy, o defender of the West. I think everyone would agree that it’s shocking that the host family didn’t give the kid the basic minimum he needed to eat. What’s surprising is that the situation went on as long as it did so that the boy lost a third of his body weight before anyone intervened, and even after the boy had had to steal food. Food in Egypt is not particularly expensive and it seems very odd that the kid would not have had the few dollars it would have taken per week to supplement the food his host family was (not) providing him. It seems strange that he or his program people or his parents would expect that he could just stick it out.
Comment by SP — March 1, 2008 #
I find this story strange too. First of all, I have lived in Alexandria since 2002 and do not yet know of any unsafe areas. Maybe someone can tell me about them. There are poor areas and not so poor but have yet to hear of a”dangerous area”. Food is inexpensive. What he would have spent daily on snacks in the US he could have spent to feed himself for 3 full days here. Where was his judgement in all of this. Stealing from a supermarket? Comeon guys! If I hadn’t lived here for the last few years, I would probably believe the press, but right now, I smell a rat!
Comment by doubtful — March 1, 2008 #
I think he definitely has an eating disorder, or some sort of mental problem. Even if his family was actively attempting to starve him, it’s quite possible to live comfortably in Egypt budgeting $10-20 a month for food. Even eating out everyday, you don’t need more than a dollar per meal.
Comment by iskndarbey — March 1, 2008 #
“Its quite possible to live comfortably in Egypt budgeting $10-20 a month for food.”
Really? You could live on a LE 55-110 food budget for the month? I.e. LE 3 per day? Not if you wanted to eat fresh vegetables or the occasional bit of meat or chicken. And even rice, pasta, etc are almost 50% more expensive than they were this time last year.
Anyway, I guess the point about how little money it would have taken for the kid to have had enough food, or supplement what the stingy host family gave him, still stands.
Comment by SP — March 1, 2008 #
While I think its reasonable that the young man could have purchased food on his own, I think he also lived by “when in Rome”. He was probably encouraged at the recruitment to do so, and also to make sure he would be able to “stick it out” and did not want to be the squeaky wheel, so let things get too big to handle. Not atypical of a 17 year old boy. By all accounts this is a good kid, that listens and follows instructions.
What stands out to me is Mr. Hanna saying the “boy that was with us ate for an hour and a half” and “ate enough for six people”. To me, that’s telling…its a bit of an over statement? But besides that, are we talking six Coptic christians or six young American teenagers? Appetites of six Coptic christians, who fast for 200 days a year, would still not be enough to maintain the weight of one healthy, American teenage boy.
Comment by cindi — March 2, 2008 #
I’m embarrassed as a citizen of this country to have tried this Egyptian family in the press, with so little information coming from their side. I’m disgusted that mention of a lawsuit by the parents accompanied the first news items. Here we have a kid, who is just months short of attaining adult status in the eyes of the law. What are his responsibilities for his own health, even at age 17? They are immense. We would expect him to know not to have unsafe sex, not to drive while under the influence, and to loudly ask for help if he was not getting proper nourishment. The fact is, this child had a facebook and myspace presence, and was constantly in touch with his friends back home–though not his parents obviously. Egypt is a place where one can get food from a street vendor for pennies, shop at mini-marts, or eat American-style fast foods. If you think I believe he never dined out with his friends, I do not. I’m angry we are being taken for a ride by this kid and his parents. They have deleted his previously public internet accounts of his Egypt experience, and now they have made his other internet presence private. I visited his myspace page before it was made private, and my impressions of him and his friends lead me to believe it is ludicrous to believe he could not acquire “anything under the sun” in Egypt. We are being hoodwinked, misled, and preyed upon by this family. I hope responsible journalism will show eventually that there is much more to this picture that has been told so far.
Comment by ammoore — March 2, 2008 #
I’m an U.S. American expat that has lived outside the U.S. for a while now.
I must say that this is the typical behavior of an American family that doesn’t want to take responsibility for their own f-ups. It’s always someone else’s fault.
The fact that he lost 50 pounds is no fault but his own. Give me a break. If you have money and you starve, you have no business being outside of your parent’s view at any moment, much less in a foreign country.
The parents and this kid should consider this a life lesson: My kid isn’t prepared to live in a foreign country on his own. We might have to even re-think sending him off to college since he is unable to grasp the intricacies of a medium of exchange called “money”, which has been around since 560 BC.
Even if the kid’s/family’s side of the story is 100% they should really reflect on how badly they raised their kid that he can’t even fend for his own in a situation that might be at best uncomfortable and difficult at worst.
No one goes abroad with 0 money, so there’s something else going on here. Perhaps he spent his money on something else that he would like to hide from his parents.
In any case, Mr. and Mrs. McCollum, here’s some “food for thought”: It might be a good idea to stop your child from going to Zimbabwe since he doesn’t even know how to buy food.
Comment by Matt — March 4, 2008 #
[…] ????? ????? ?? ??? ????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ???? 17 ??? ?? ?????? […]
Pingback by Global Voices ???????? » ???: “?????” ???? ????? ????? — March 4, 2008 #