day 1 David Wall

At the end of day one I have a surprisingly full stomach.  We only worked about four hours on the farm today, but I ended up with a full day after going grocery shopping.  We stepped on an almost empty bus and headed for the DART.  This took about thirty minutes just to get to the dart, then the additional time of DART to the Fiesta grocery store.  It ended up taking almost an hour just to get there.  Once there, we split up into two groups of two. Me and my partner covered dinner, which was surprisingly easy to do within the budget, but that wasn’t where the biggest problem was.  We had to get back enough food for fifteen people, for a week, on public transportation.  Luckily we had thought ahead well enough to bring duffle bags, but that wasn’t enough. We still had to buy multiple bags, most of which broke even before we got to the bus, let alone back to Paul Quinn.  We got some help from the bus stop to campus.  I must admit that by then I was thoroughly exhausted and very happy that others were going to take care of the cooking.  What was also good is that pasta, while not tip top healthy, is cheap and therefore plentiful for us.  Because of that I am full on night one.  Without the cooperation of everyone it really wouldn’t be possible to do this efficiently.  Piling together all the money is what gave us any buying power.  Otherwise I would be subsisting off of rice and beans all week. 

Two things have struck me today.  First is that hunger is very distracting, and oh so tempting.  Walking past fast food restaurants is so hard when your stomach is empty.  It’s also hard to work hard.  It’s also hard to focus on anything.  I am an eater.  I consume three or four plates of food every meal.  And without that food I feel basically useless.  I can’t focus, I can’t work, I can’t remember anything, and it makes me into a completely different person that would be much more likely to compromise who he is just for something to eat, and that’s just one day.

The second thing is a little better understanding of what it means to be a minority.  For most of today I only saw one other white person, and that was Cody, also a student from ACU.  The dominant culture here is not one that I have been raised in, which is new for me.  I’m not saying it’s bad or anything, just that it is different and a little uncomfortable for me, and it made me think.  This is their culture.  This is how they were raised and what they enjoy and are comfortable with.  It’s also a wonderful culture that I am enjoying on so many levels.  But it’s not my culture.  And it has got me to thinking, that what I am experiencing is only a very minor example of what minorities face anywhere.  It is only by their grace and kindness that they are my friends and I am accepted.  I bring nothing to them, and it is giving me a new understanding and a glimpse into what minority actually means.