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Teen denied food while abroad

The 17-year-old exchange student says his Egyptian host family was stingy and often fasted.

HALLOWELL, Maine - Jonathan McCullum was in perfect health at 155 pounds when he left last summer to spend the school year as an exchange student in Egypt.

But when he returned home to Maine just four months later, the 5-foot-9 teenager weighed a mere 97 pounds and was so weak that he struggled to climb a flight of stairs. He was hospitalized for nearly two weeks, and doctors said he was at risk for a heart attack.

Jonathan, 17, says he was denied sufficient food while staying with a family of Coptic Christians, who fast for more than 200 days a year, a regimen unmatched by other Christians.

But he does not view the experience as a culture clash. Rather, he said, it reflected mean treatment by his host family.

He said he never got breakfast and his first food of the day usually was a small piece of bread with cucumbers and cheese for lunch. Dinner consisted of beans, vegetables and sometimes fish, then an evening snack of bread.

"The weight loss concerned me, but I wanted to stick out the whole year," he said. He didn't complain to his parents, who said they had limited their contact with their son at the instruction of AFS Intercultural Programs, believing the distraction would run counter to its goal of immersion. A teacher alerted Jonathan's parents to his deteriorating health.

The host father, Shaker Hanna, rejected Jonathan's story as "a lie." He said Jonathan ate enough at each meal to feed six people, adding that he was constantly exercising and playing sports.

Jonathan's parents said AFS should have warned them that students placed with Coptic families would be subject to dietary restrictions. They also said AFS provided false assurances that Jonathan had seen a doctor and was in excellent health. They are considering a lawsuit.

AFS communications director Marlene Baker referred calls to the program's lawyer, Patricia Peard, who said she could not comment.

AFS, a nonprofit formerly known as American Field Service, is one of the largest and oldest organizers of student exchanges.

[Last modified February 28, 2008, 01:42:48]