- For me, I didn't understand the concept of the sports being so big with school.

I'm like, you're going to school to learn.

When I first came to Baton Rouge and to the States, during football season I saw the caravans parked on campus.

And I was like: "Did something happen?"

I had no clue.

And they said: "No, they're here for the game".

And I was like: "But the game... ...is not till Saturday night!

Today is Wednesday afternoon."

And I said: "Don't they work?"

You can choose to be left out or join in, and enjoy watching and learning.

(majestic music) I was born and raised in Mauritius Island, which is located off the east coast of Madagascar.

What brought me to Baton- Rouge is me attending LSU.

It was not very common to see someone from a different culture, a different country, speaking a different language as well.

I had to explain my name and how to spell because it was something different.

When someone found out I was Muslim, they told me: "Oh, so how do you come to work?"

And I said: "Well, I drive".

"Oh, you can drive?

"I thought Muslim women don't drive".

(transcendent music) Sometimes you feel like you are being singled out.

At the time when I came, I will say, I did not wear the hijab.

This is something that came as I learned more about my religion.

We do pray five times a day every day.

And some people was like: "Oh my gosh, "five times a day!"

But the ritual is not just a physical action of praying.

It's reaching within yourself to communicate with our Lord.

I like to pray also here because you can see outside.

It's just a good place to meditate and contemplate and... review the life's journey so far.

Being from an island, I love the beach.

So as I look at the ocean, being just one dot on the place of the earth, and now I'm on the other end, being like a grain of sand.

Tiny, small, atom, but still part of a huge place.

9/11 brought a lot of raw emotions.

Islam was very foreign.

A lot of people became fearful of the Muslims community in general, thinking that they are terrorists, and they do bad things, they kill people.

We had to be very mindful and very careful as we would go outside, even to the grocery store, because I have been told and whispered by people walking by: "I'm gonna blow you up".

Some of them knew me as a person.

They would come and ask me "Is it true what I see on the news?

"Is it true what I hear about "you know, the terrorists, the religion?"

And after the conversation, they realize: "No there's no need to be afraid".

And realizing that we do have a lot in common.

I was on the Interfaith Federation of Greater Baton Rouge.

I felt it would be a good idea to have a Muslim woman volunteer, to be more involved, more visible in the community.

I felt that I needed to learn, because just as I feel like sometimes people don't know about me, the same goes for me.

When you get to know someone without any barriers, it opens such a better way to communicate and to relate to each other.

Louisiana, it is a beautiful state, but it's also... it's what you make of it.

You can go from the swamp to maybe the little hills as you go up, and the rivers, the bayou, the fishing, the gumbo is you throw everything in a melting pot, and somehow it comes out great!

Living in Louisiana definitely has opened my mind to many things that I didn't even think I would be able to do.

Chances we take in life and opportunities that we have, we should never let them pass by.

(peaceful music)