The Berea students come from all over the world, and I have found some friends in the international students. They often share with me their culture and on Saturday September 12 I visited an Ethiopian Church in Louisville, Kentucky with 5 Ethiopian students from Berea. They were making the trek to celebrate what would be the New Year for them according to their Orthodoxy beliefs. They would also be entering the year 2008 as well. We left at 6:30 in the morning and arrived around 9:30. Unfortunately the service was just ending, but we did stay around and had some food with the people there. I was really surprised to see the reactions of my friends (Yhenew, Angesum, Kidist, Hannah, and Helena) when we arrived late. Mainly, Yhenew, who organized the group and checked out the van from Berea College to take the trip. He was very calm, but still disappointed. His disappointment did not make the situation worse and in fact I would not have known he was disappointed if it weren't for someone asking how he felt. His patience and peace about the situation was somewhat perplexing. I know if I went through the logistics to plan a trip for an event and then arrive tardy without getting to participate, I probably would have been frustrated. Despite the let down, we still had a good experience. We ate authentic Ethiopian food at the church, which requires you to eat with your hands. It was fun and so very delicious. To eat, there is a bread called 'enjera' that is round and flat like a tortilla but much more moist and flavorful. The enjera is used to scoop up the vegetables and meat that is soaked in spices which stain your hands with their aroma for a couple days no matter how many times you wash your hands. After the meal at the church we then went to one of Angesum's friends house where we were waited on and hosted so generously. Our hosts made us hot tea and even made Ethiopian coffee. The coffee beans were roasted right in front of us then ground and brewed. They were constantly bringing snacks and drinks to us. We stayed for a long time, long enough to eat lunch with them, which consisted of the same food we ate at the church. Our hosts' hospitality was remarkable, for one they treated us like their family even though they only knew Angesum. Two, they were kind in all their actions as well. They did offer some alcoholic beverages to us, but of course I am not of age. They were surprised I couldn't drink judging from my height and I told them I would have to come back after September 26 and they said yes please do and we will have your favorite drink. I don't think I will have a favorite but all that was mentioned to show another example of their hospitality. Their kindness reminded me of this from Matthew chapter 7:
"Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets."
After our feasting we went on to pick up some 'to go' food from an Ethiopian restaurant before we made our way back to Berea. Louisville has the closest Ethiopian restaurants so when we make a trip there it is a must to take some food back to Berea. We left around 3:30 and I got back just in time for a folk dance that I needed to go to for class credit. Before the social and folk dance class, the dance would have been wayyyyy out of my comfort zone but the experience was actually enjoyable.
Some other happenings at work include me being the new guy and adjusting to learn how they do things in the athletic training room. One example of my newness is in the task of taking water to various athletics. Sandy asked me to take water down to Coach Johnson and so I asked if that were the tennis coach, but she corrected me. However, I still drove the cart down to the tennis courts, upon arriving I was wondering where everybody was as I only spotted a few locals on the court. So I call and tell Sandy where I am and she says, "Kyle, you're in the wrong place buddy." This is somewhat embarrassing and I really felt like a goofball too. So I have to trek all the way across campus to where Coach Johnson really was, at the cross country trails, seeing as to how he is the cross country coach not the tennis coach. For whatever reason, I had it ingrained in my brain that he was the tennis coach. After driving around campus, I needed to make my next trip to the soccer fields to deliver water and ice for the game that night. Thankfully Sandy was already at the fields to wave and flag me down so I would know where to take the coolers, because I certainly did not know and felt like a chicken with my head cut off that day. Working in the training room has been fun with many lessons learned already. Today (Septmeber 19) I got to work the Berea College Invitational Cross Country meet along with Sandy and 5 other student trainers. It was fun and I got to stand at the finish line and see some athletes look like beat down dogs from their efforts and give them water, ice packs and clean up their cuts from their falls on the trails. Their were about a hundred runners for each race of the men and women from 8-10 schools.
My last experience I want to share with you concludes the work of my Summer Institute with the Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Program (EPG). Last night, (Friday Sept. 18) the Director of EPG, 2 other EPG students and myself conducted a 'trial run' of the hiking/biking trails that were proposed this past summer for consideration in the Kentucky Trail Town application. My responsibility was to act as the 'trail safety and security officer' which required me to recruit 4 people that would act as flaggers. We were expecting out-of-towners for this trial run and with their lack of familiarity they would need some guidance along the routes. My responsibility was to make sure a flagger person was at each of the 'unsure' sights to guide the riders along. The event was successful and we reached our goal to have 50 surveys completed by the participants. All that is left to do now is to send the surveys and notes from the trial run to the Kentucky Office of Adventure Tourism for review and wait to see if Berea becomes certified as a Kentucky Trail Town.
September has been a great month for me and I hope it has been the same or better for you!
Enjoy the pictures!
Cross County meet from Saturday (Sept 19) morning
'Trial Run' of the proposed hiking/biking trails from Friday (Sept 18)
'Trial Run' of the proposed hiking/biking trails from Friday (Sept 18)
Ethiopian food from a trip to Louisville.
Ethiopian food from a trip to Louisville.