Stories and Pathways

  I asked all my fellow interns this afternoon to describe, in one word, Ethiopian food. The words I received were; interesting, delicious, hearty, surprising and yummy (that last one was mine).  Prior to yesterday, I had never eaten Ethiopian food. But given that this summer I would be working with Ethiopian Jews, at the Ethiopian National Project (ENP), researching Ethiopian life and culture and the importance and impact of the work carried out by ENP, that trying out the food on day one wasn’t a bad idea. Me and some of the other interns walked to a place nearby and ordered two veggie platters. In a matter of minutes we received a huge platter, filled with vegetables, spices, and lots of different beans and lentils. Thankfully, one of the interns stepped in and explained the process of eating this food. With no utensils in sight, we started scooping up veggies and beans with the Injera (a sponge-y Ethiopian bread). At first the experience was very much about the food, loo...

  A couple weeks ago I was sitting in a terminal at O’hare airport,  mentally preparing to go to Israel for the first time. I had found a program that would send me to Israel, got my entry permit, found an internship, gotten through the multiple security checks to get to the plane, said goodbye to my mother and (finally) there I was. After all that. Sitting in an airport terminal wondering if I was completely off my rocker. There was still a pandemic, I had never been to Israel, and to top it off I spoke zero Hebrew.       Mid-panic, out of the corner of my eye I saw a curly haired girl come up to me and ask “are you J-Internship?” surprised I responded “Yes! Are you?” She immediately took the spot next to me and we began with the standard small talk. Where we’re from, what we’re studying, where we’re living and how overwhelmed we were. She was bubbly and fun and chatty and I knew we would get along well. As the panic started to dissipate, she asks, ...