From Thai Food to Perkins | Megnot Abebe ‘25

Have you ever considered why you do things a certain way, like eating a particular cuisine?

Growing up in Ethiopia, I wasn’t exposed to Thai until I came to college and experienced Silk Thai. But I am now very fond of Thai cuisine. The options available to me in Ethiopia, paired with the consumption patterns of my family, defined my eating palette. This social phenomenon applies not only to cuisine preference but to more significant matters like core values and life trajectories.

We are all embedded within a sociopolitical context that shapes our values and cultures. In the current book we are reading with Perkins Fellows, At Home in Exile, Jeung writes about how we can’t escape the logic of capitalism in which we are embedded (87). He refers to our desire for upward mobility for us and our children. This is paired with the fact that, as humans, we are likely to imitate what we see. Indeed, social reference theory explains how humans shape their actions and behaviors in reference to the persons and models we engage with. We shop at the same places our parents do and adopt a lot of our life values through instances of socialization like school, family, and community organizations we are part of. And maybe if more people around me liked or ate Thai food in Ethiopia, I would have tried it sooner. 

So, what does it look like for each of us to go on a journey of cultural exploration to understand what cultures have shaped and can shape our understanding of the kingdom of God and how to pursue it with our neighbors?

In the book, the author offers a model of community development through the traditions of the Hakka people—one of the grateful guests and can be translated to “the guest families” (56). Jeung explains that the Chinese Hakka people were “modest, unassuming” but also “despised”.  Undeterred by how Hakka people have been known, Jeung affirms Ralph Ellison's statement that you can “create yourself” by choosing the values of the ancestors to hold by reclaiming their history and, therefore, Jeung reclaims “his identity as Chinese Hakka”. This is impactful because he invites us to reimagine our identities by choosing models that defy a capitalist system that exploits others and subvert it by approaching it with Christlike meekness and humility. Through the story of the Hakka people, Jeung uses a hermeneutic understanding of guests and community development based on his cultural background. In addition, this story teaches us more about his familial history and his struggle with identity.

The model of meekness that has led my vocational journey and exploration of community development after Jesus is Saint Nicholas of  4th century Myra (present-day Turkey). He is one of the most beloved saints in the Orthodox Church. After his death, it was found that he often made secret donations, earning him the title: of “protector and helper of those in need.” So even in a society that pushes us to seek personal fulfillment and material wealth, we can have models for our faith that are different from only what we know and see, like Saint Nicholas. We can, through that, choose to join a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12).

This inspiration of knowing how we can better serve communities around us is what led me to consider being a Perkins Fellow. I wanted to better understand community development through a faith lens and then see it applied while being part of an organization that does that in Charlottesville.  Being a Perkins Fellow also meant that I got the honor to continue the legacy of Dr John and Vera Mae Perkins legacy—one that emphasizes the importance of reconciliation, relocation, and redistribution in our faith journey and justice with our communities.

After reading this, I hope you would take a second to reflect on which or whose model you want to follow as you guide your life, as well as read more about the life of Dr. John and Vera Mae Perkins to be inspired by a life of justice, mercy, and love. As we learn the stories of Kingdom builders that have come before us, we can be challenged to imagine a new model for community, one cuisine at a time.