Atlanta, Decatur, The Nantahala river and Asheville
I left Memphis and to be honest I was ready to leave, I was getting a bit sick of hostelling and so was looking forward to staying in a family home. I stayed in Decatur Georgia with an Iona Community associate called Horace Holden. He and his family were extraordinarily hospitable. I arrived late on the 12th of August and Horace kindly collected me from the Greyhound station to begin a week packed with a variety of events.
I stayed in his family home just one night as Horace had arranged for me to spend a couple of days volunteering at a place called the open door communtiy. The open door community is based in a big old house in Atlanta that is home to a community of volunteers and staff who work locally with disadvantaged people. A snippet from their website reads, “we seek to dismantle racism, sexism and heterosexism, abolish the death penalty, and create the Beloved Community on Earth through a loving relationship with some of the most neglected and outcast of God’s children: the homeless and our sisters and brothers who are in prison.” http://www.opendoorcommunity.org/
On my first night there was a medical and foot clinic for local homeless people. Some medical students from the nearby Emory University volunteered and I think maybe a fully qualified doctor was present too. I was put to task in the foot clinic. My role was to sterilise all of the utensils, and to clean and refill the foot-spa tubs ready for the next person. The young volunteers working on our friends feet did a great job and there were lots of banter flying around the room. Unsurprisingly everyone using the foot clinic was in high spirits. After a couple of hours of scrubbing and honestly feeling slightly relieved that I wasn’t let loose on some poor fellows I zonked out for the night.
The following day I attended a Greek class at Columbia Seminary with a couple of students who volunteered at the open door and in the evening I helped prepare the evening meal which basically involved a lot of chopping. After seeing such a great deal of poverty and homelessness here in the U.S. I was really grateful to have the opportunity to contribute at the open door even if it was only for a short time.
Horace took me to Emory to see the University there and it turns out he is a bit of a legend there. Each of the sports coaches we walked past knew him, I found out that he is in the sports hall of fame there, a fact he only admitted after I cajoled him a wee bit. After that Horace took me up to his farm in the Wesser area of North Carolina near the Smoky Mountains. Horace, his wife Jody and I drove up and we met some of their friends Bill, and his two children Nolan (18) and Caitlin (20), and also Bill’s partner Mary and her friend.
On Saturday 16th August we went paddling on the Nantahala river in a variety of different vessels where there is a good bit of whitewater. The outdoor centre there was actually founded by Horace in the early 1970’s and so he is a bit of a legend round there as well (he even has a bridge named after him which I thought was pretty cool). After the paddling we off to a nearby wee town, the name of which escapes me, had a wonderfull family style soouther meal and watched some fantastic bluegrass musicians led by a fellow called Wayne Henderson. The fellow Mr Henderson was a fantastic guitarist and a great story teller, he told lots of funny stories about mountain life which I shant attempt to retell here but he had the knack. He makes guitars and was letting people have a look during the interval and I got chatting to him, he mentioned me in a wee story about kilts that he told which was kinda fun.
On Sunday Horace and I drove up to Asheville to meet a lovely couple called Mason and Prue Wilson whom are also Iona Communty associates. We had a spot of lunch together and then I was kindly hosted by Mason and Prue which was very kind of them. Horace left to head beack to Wesser and I was sad to see him go. He is one the kindest, most generous people I have met and I am grateful for the time I got to spend with him, his friends and family. The following morning I headed for my trusty bastion of budget travel, the old Greyhound, to move on to Raleigh.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
[…] Carlosc647 wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOn Saturday 16th August we went paddling on the Nantahala river in a variety of different vessels where there is a good bit of whitewater. The outdoor centre there was actually founded by Horace in the early 1970’s and so he is a bit of … […]