Food

Food. My favorite part of the trip involved food. Spoken like a true Italian I’d say. My grandparents would be proud.

A tavola non si invecchia.

It’s an old Italian proverb, or at least I think it is. To be honest, I just grabbed it off of Google. Literally translated, this means “a table does not age,” but I like Google’s translation better: “At the table with good friends and family you do not become old.”

The best part of the trip was our fellowship at the table. After a tough semester with both academics and Bonner, sharing meals with my Bonner family was a great way to celebrate, and like the proverb says, it is keeping me young! From lunch at the inner harbor in Baltimore, to a BBQ with Bonners from the University of Richmond, to a mahi mahi filet in downtown Richmond, to PB&J at our service site, to tamales at NachoMamas, to fried chicken at a restaurant run by ex-cons, to our last meal together at a Burger King just outside of Richmond, the Sophomore class grew closer. Breaking bread with someone is one of the best ways to bond. And oh, did we bond! So, while I learned about the Civil War and visited a city I have never been to before, I enjoyed most the eating, talking, singing, and laughing with my classmates at the table.

Ok, I need to write about something other than food in this blog, so I’ll briefly share what I learned on this trip. On our walking tour of Hollywood cemetery, we saw confederate flags almost everywhere we looked. At first I was taken back; I have always automatically associated those flags with racism. But then I was challenged to view history from a Southerner’s perspective. For some, the flags may represent Southern pride, or freedom/independence in general. This moment, along with a visit to the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, reminded me to be open-minded and to try to pick out and take note of my biases.

I also learned that the South (and Virginia isn’t even that far south) is not a place where I would want to live.

Lastly, Boaz and Ruth, a faith-based reentry program, was awesome! To learn about it, just look at Chelsea’s blog below. Sheesh, I’m lazy. Anyway, it was great to see such a mature/well-established re-entry program, for now I have a measurement for success for other programs in Jersey that I may encounter. Now, back to food…at Boaz and Ruth, and the other site that we worked at, we worked in a community garden. While community gardens are becoming popular in New Jersey, it took a trip to Richmond to show me how useful they can be. I never gave much thought into how gardening in an urban environment can be useful. By going to Richmond, I have become a much bigger advocate of YouthBuild’s community garden!

Overall, I’m glad that I decided to go to Richmond! And now to quote my good friend DJ (see blog below), who seems to have stole my blog about food (and now I shall steal his quote): Atlanta here we come! We’ll all be twenty-one! (I was going for the rhyme?)