The independence of culture?

Recently a couple from Palestine, very likely only a country where peace has not been landed since its birth, came to the school to say Bye to us, as both of them have finished their PhD here. I know, as their once officemate, what they are awarded today mean so much to them, a couple at the age of forty. They brought us not only deliberately cooked food, but also their four kids and their 80 years old mothers, to say thanks to our support and accompany these years. My impression for that place is a place always filled with bombs and conflicts, people living in hatred. I hardly believed people there have the mood and the time to pursue advanced education. Being with them in the same office opened another side of the world to me. I learned that there is grassland and lively rivers in that piece of land, instead of only desert; the people have their own life, even in very modern style; people like western culture, but very different is that they have their own belief, more than only Islamism; and every one is so closely tied to each own's belief that it is part of their lives, inseparable.