Around Town

On Wednesday, our great site coordinator Susan sent us on a "scavenger hunt" around Nashville. We basically had a list of places to stop throughout the town that would familiarize us with the city and with the agencies at which each us (the four NEP volunteers) will be working starting on Monday. I will hopefully have some pictures posted when I get my camera cable and new computer. Here is the hunt, which should help you get to know the city and what our year here is about.

1. Battle of Nashville Monument - the only Civil War monument to memorialize the dead from both North and South

2. Connexion Americas - This is the site where my roommate Tara will be working this year. Connexion is an organization that seeks to assist Nashville's quickly growing Latino population in finding the resources they need to become assimilated, and to provide hospitality for immigrants and advocate for their concerns. Connexion is located in a house in Music Row.

3. The Upper Room - I'd seen their devotional booklets before, bud I didn't know where they came from until we visited the Upper Room, the spiritual development ministry of the United Methodist Church's General Board of Discipleship. Nashville is home to the UMC's denominational headquarters. The Upper Room building includes a very nice chapel. At the front of the chancel over the communion table (I have to get used to calling it that again after the Lutherans got me to call it an altar) is a large wood carving of DaVinci's The Last Supper. The chapel has been created to incorporate some of the same elements of the painting (or woodcarving replica in this case). The chapel's table is the same as DaVinci's, and the ceiling over the chancel matches that of the painting as does the tapestry panels on the sides. There is also an amazing stained glass window at the back which includes the Pentecost story in over 9,000 pieces of glass.

4. Vanderbilt Divinity School - The Divinity School is in a pretty plain building on a very beautiful campus, which despite being in downtown Nashville seems even less urban than ISU's. We also met Patrick's mentor who is the Divinity School librarian.

5. Alektor Cafe and Book Store - We weren't sure where we were being sent for lunch, but the Alektor Cafe turned out to be a great suprise. It is run by a Greek Orthodox priest and his wife (who we found out is a former Presbtyerian). They have a book store that sells Greek Orthodox materials such as icons, chant CDs, and jewelry. The cafe is interspersed through the book store (everything in an old house) with a table or two in each room and on the front porch, which was our choice with the great weather we have been having. My chicken salad on pita was great, as was the "world's greatest brownie."

6. The Campus for Human Development - This is my site placement for the year. The Campus ministers to Nashville's homeless population by providing a wide array of services. We took a tour with an enthusiastic staff member and met some of the Campus' participants. The Campus is less of a traditional shelter and soup kitchen and more of a safe place for the homeless to gather, build relationships, take advantage of educational opportunities and receive access to needed services. I'll have much more to say about the Campus later, since I start work there on Monday.

7. The Nashville Public Libary Civil Rights Room - The new main library downtown has a great room dedicated to the civil rights movement, which includes the library's books on that subject, a "lunch counter," and famous pictures and quotes from Nashville's involvement in this movement.

8. The Gateway Bridge - over the Cumberland river. Some apparently call it "the bridge to nowhere."

9. The Martha O'Bryan Center - I talked about this in my first post from Nashville. This is where NEP Volunteer Chasie (rhymes with Stacy) will be working this year. Martha O'Bryan serves the community of the James A. Cayce homes, Nashville's most impoverished and largest public housing projects. The center is very nice and provides children and their parents (over 90% of families are single women with children) a place to receive needed services and a social network to draw on.

10. The Tennessee Centennial Mall - This large park creates a huge lawn for the state capitol, and commemorates much of Tennessee's first 100 years.

11. Fisk University - We were running late by this point, so we did a quick drive by of this important historically African American university, which is home to the Fisk Jubillee Singers that I learned about this summer in class.

12. Preston Taylor Ministries - PTM is Patrick's placement for the year. This is a center for youth and children in a housing project in West Nashville. The homes in this area are actually very nice, but the center itself in this case is quite limited in its physical space. When we visited, youth from St. Paul's Christian Academy near where we live were reading with the children at PTM.

and six hours later...

13. Las Paletas - I had never been to a gourmet popsicle shop before! Mine was plum, they also had avacado and hibiscus along with more traditional flavors. Our site coorinator Susan was there to meet us and presented us with our first stipend check (will this stretch for a month?), which was a nice reward after an exhasting but GREAT day. It was amazing to see all that happens in this city, especially in the agencies with which we will work this year.


*****

My computer has a delay in shipment, so hopefully it will be coming soon, and so will pictures. Until then it is the Green Hills Public Library.