An individual gifted with a good life and plucked from their culture to be placed in a new one will never fully adapt to it. This is exemplified by Ghada's mother, and how she reacts to being thrown into the country and customs  of the British. In this quote, Ghada describes her mother’s stubborn tendencies upon arriving in England:  ""We’re not staying." And she put this philosophy uncompromisingly into affect. She refused to learn English, she had no English friends, she would reject any suggestion of decorating our shabby house, or even buying such a basic thing as a refrigerator" (186). This  high level of denial is immediately striking. The other odd thing about the behavior of Ghada's mother is that she does not even take into account both the fact that the U.N. has been completely ignoring the Palestinian refugee crisis and Israel’s continuing seizure of Palestinian land at this time, and that it shows no sign of turning to the issues and facing them any time soon. The change of cultures came far too fast for Ghada's mother, and she was so badly affected that she never made more than one English friend in the forty years that she lived in England. Ghada’s mother’s denial of her situation is obvious proof of the permanent damage caused by the culture shock she underwent following her sudden uprooting from the land of her birth.