The students came from the tiny Arab nation of Qatar, with their roots in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, to a blue-collar American town named for the region's most famous Scottish immigrant.

Their favorite events? Irish dancing and a visit to an African-American church named for a Turkish mountain.

	Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Nasreen Zahan, left, and Hala Abbas repair the seats in the Music Hall at the Carnegie Free Library in Carnegie. Eight students from Carnegie Mellon University's Qatar campus spent their spring break visiting Pittsburgh and doing community service work. Click photo for larger image.

"I thought to myself, 'It's going to be just like "Sister Act"!' " said Hala Abbas, of Sunday services at Mount Ararat Baptist Church in East Liberty, "and it was!"

"I think if I was in the States, I would go every Sunday," Fatima Al-Rumaihi said, noting that she plays piano, sings in her native tongue and loves music, a big part of the Mount Ararat services.

But Miss Al-Rumaihi, Miss Abbas and six others from the Middle East were in the States for eight days. They are all students at Carnegie-Mellon University's campus in Doha, Qatar, who spent their spring break visiting the main campus, seeing the city and performing community service.

After a number of cultural events -- including "Riverdance" at Heinz Hall -- they spent three days in Carnegie, where they helped repair a pizzeria damaged by the 2004 flood and helped plan an Internet cafe for a Seventh-Day Adventist group that has been working in town since the flood.

The visitors, who are business or computer science majors, "were able to find on the Web and from other sources how to get everything we wanted for a computer lab for under $10,000," said Andy Campbell, who is coordinating the project for the church. "Our estimate was $30,000."

The students then spent last Thursday with their sleeves rolled up at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall. They dismantled and discarded a huge set of shelves, cleared 30 years' worth of rubbish from the stage area and repaired auditorium seats in the local landmark, which is in the midst of an $8 million rehabilitation campaign.

"What they did was just tremendous," said music hall Executive Director Maggie Forbes. "It was wonderful to have the help."

The students said they enjoyed the experience and learned quite a bit.

"What really got to me is how everything is organized," Mustafa Hasnain said. A Pakistani by heritage, he grew up in Qatar and New Zealand, and has spent considerable time in Pakistan.

There, he said, needs are great, but there are not enough people with the skills and education to organize the help. "There is community service, but it's not the same," he said. "Here everyone has a basic level of education, some basic skills."

"There are a lot of people in need here," Miss Al-Rumaihi, a Qatar native, said. "You watch TV and you don't really see that."

And Mehrunissa Anis said she learned something about herself. "I think I was spoiled," she said. "All my life people used to do things for me, but I started looking around and realizing there was more to it. Not everything is like it is on TV."

A Pakistani by heritage, she was born in Dallas, but grew up in the United Arab Emirates. She's been to the United States numerous times and took summer classes in Pittsburgh last summer, but found the work on this trip eye-opening.

Miss Anis said she never really learned to work for herself at home, living a somewhat pampered life. "There we have workers who take care of things," she said, noting that even the community service was done by hired help.

"I don't read to little kids in libraries [in the United Arab Emirates]," she said. "I don't know if they even have libraries there."

She said when she goes back, she wants to raise funds to improve rehabilitation centers that house mentally retarded children. "I want to do something for myself," she said. "I want to start from scratch."

It was the first visit to this country for Maha Alkhulaifi, of Bangladesh, and Nasreen Zahan, of Qatar, and they were both struck by the amazing number of trees and the abundance of interesting architecture.

"Every corner here has architecture," Miss Zahan said. In booming Qatar, there are few old buildings, and little attention to aesthetics, she said.

Both said they found people very friendly, and Miss Alkhulaifi wants to come back to study for a semester here, at least.

American life was less of a revelation to Sarrh Malik, a Pakistani by heritage who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia but also lived at different times in California, Colorado and Alabama, and went to a boarding school in Connecticut.

She said one thing this trip reinforced for her was the need to have an open mind, something she hopes can someday bridge the gap between Western and Middle Eastern cultures.

"You have to respect people," she said. "People will have different views from you on things, but that doesn't matter."

Miss Malik said she has often found herself discussing the struggles between Israel and the Palestinians, and said due to her heritage she supports Palestinian complaints -- but respects the right of others to differ.

"In the end, we all want the same thing. We want to live a happy life."

Which is something she and the others, in their small way, helped give to people in a small town half a world away from home.