Gas Station Life on East Main; Adil Cheema, Between Two Worlds

Gas Station Life on East Main

Adil Cheema, Between Two Worlds

Adil Cheema works at the Vacero typically from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. every day except Sunday. As his father's only son of five children, he is expected to follow his father's lead and take care of the store and his sisters.

While Mohamed Cheema came to the United States just over ten years now, his son Adil Cheema has only had his green card for 6 months. Although father and son believe in the same Islamic principles, Adil admits to his overwhelming shock at seeing American women, while Mohamed married an American woman.

Mohamed’s wife of five years is also Muslim, however, she is very different from Mohamed’s other wife in Pakistan, mother of Adil.

Adil explains his expectations of his sisters and mother in Pakistan, “I need my clothes pressed, I need food from my sister. Like when I came here I never pressed my clothes before, I never polished my shoes before.”

Reminiscing on life in Pakistan, Adil recalls, “When I come from school, I take my uniform off, and make a mess in my room, and women take care of that.”

Conversely, Adil is expected to take his sisters to the grocery store and must fly with them when they come to and from Pakistan and the United States. Adil is also expected to pursue his education to make money for his family and help his father at the gas station.

“I do nothing in Pakistan, but here, I do a lot… I don’t like that,” Adil confides, expressing his perceivable differences between two worlds.

To sum it up he says, “It’s a fast life here, men have no time to enjoy.”