In the City of Khovd, Capital of the Khovd Province of Mongolia, hotel owner Bayar Namshir and his wife Khulan Namshir lead a fairly simple life. The middle-aged couple has been experiencing a rut ever since their twenty-something daughter Munkh Namshir moved out to marry her Turkish boyfriend Mehmet Ataturk. There's also the matter of the passion having gone out of the marriage. Some in the prestigious Khan neighborhood of Khovd have begun to fear that the Namshirs are about to divorce. Divorce is still seen as a shameful thing by the deeply traditional people of Mongolia, but these things happen.
One day, Somali-American Muslim student Jibril Osman came to the City of Khovd as part of an exchange student program. The University of Khovd entered the agreement with the University of Minnesota with the purpose of broadening their respective students cultural horizons. Jibril opted to stay for a few days at the Namshir Hotel since the University of Khovd's men's dormitories were packed, and the student housing committee told him his off campus apartment wouldn't be ready for another week. Jibril's journey in Mongolia was off to a rocky start, to say the least.
"Make yourself at home, Jibril," said Khulan Namshir, and the plump, bronze-skinned and dark-haired Mongolian matriarch smiled at the young Black man. The lady of the house looked much younger than her nearly six decades. Jibril nodded respectfully at Khulan after she showed him his room. The place was downright Spartan, consisting of a large bed, a table, three chairs, and little else. There was a bathroom attached to the place, and a small fridge where he could keep his perishables. Bare bones as far as hotels are concerned.
"Thank you ma'am," Jibril said politely as Khulan showed herself out. The young Somali American man couldn't help checking out Khulan's ass as she exited the place. In the Twin Cities, where Jibril was born and raised, there were plenty of Asian ladies, mostly Indians, and also a few Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. Jibril had never met a Mongolian woman before. Hell, Jibril knew very little about Mongolian culture, save for the documentary on Genghis Khan which University of Minnesota professor Tyrone Brownstone made him watch last year.
Jibril opted to spend a semester at the University of Khovd because it was paying his room and board. Ah, the many privileges that come with being an American college student in a foreign country. The University of Minnesota was covering tuition, room and board for twenty Mongolian students for that semester, and their counterparts at the University of Khovd would do the same for twenty American students. Jibril had another reason for wanting to be out of Minnesota for a while, and it had little to do with academia...
Certain men are destined for a life of trouble and adventure, and Jibril is quite simply one of them. Born in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, to a Somali immigrant father, Malik Osman, and a white American mother, Jennifer Cosgrove, Jibril is the son of two completely different worlds. The tall, brown-skinned and dark-haired young man is half Black and half white, and a Muslim on top of everything else. In the Somali American community, Jibril was constantly accused of being too white. In the American community, Jibril was accused of being too Black. What's a biracial brother to do?
Jibril grew up to be good-looking and masculine, and soon, the same Somali ladies who once thought he wasn't Somali enough started to notice him. Jibril ignored the Somali ladies and instead focused on white chicks. During Jibril's first year at the University of Minnesota, he dated civil engineering student Judith Klein. The tall, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, athletic gal from Duluth looked like porn star Joslyn Jane from the Black Patrol series. Jibril had a lot of fun with Judith, and was tickled pink when the Somali ladies saw them together. Black women always turn down good Black men and then get mad when those same Black men date white women. It's the oldest story in the book.
