Chapter 6

Orientation is officially over. I must say it was a good experience. We were able to meet past students, understand the services offered to students, understand the expectations as student and eat free food, but as my economics professor would state “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” They eat healthy here if I didn’t already mention this. We usually have soup, sandwich, fruit, and juice or water.  

There are a few luxuries which I will experience while I am here. I will make you all a little jealous now. They clean my room and bathroom every Wednesday. The school provides us coffee and lunch on the days we have class. We have access to the study facilities 7 days a week for 10 hours a day. Let’s just say my tuition is being spent well, and now it is up to me to make sure I don’t waste my money!

On Friday the school provided the student with a tour of the city of Edinburgh. As you have seen in the previous pictures it’s such a beautiful city. Although it rained for a portion of the tour I still took pictures. It was great to not only see the city, but have a tour guide explain the history.

Now let me provide you with some humor. I have a few friends from Nigeria, and they are really nice people. However they all say I look like Denzel Washington! I wish women in the states thought I looked like Denzel, LOL! Everyone from Nigeria says this and their explanation is that I have his smile, laugh, and posture, but I don’t see it. I have tried to understand why they keep saying it, but I won’t tarnish their opinion of me. I will just be known as Denzel while I am here.

I have also found that all the individuals here have strong religious backgrounds. Most of the backgrounds are Christianity although there are other religions on campus. Furthermore, they are not afraid to talk about their beliefs and how they were raised in religious homes.

My friend from Nigeria told me about his childhood. Every morning at 7am his father would ring a bell and that bell means come to the prayer room (regardless of what time you went to bed). His father would say to them only enter this sacred room with a clean heart and body (no shoes) praying and worshiping God. He said he remembers his father teaching the family how to pray and how his father would call a name randomly and they had to pray and talk to God. Also, everyone went to church on Sunday and when you returned home you had to sit down and tell your father what you learned at church and how you can use it in your life. This occurred until he stopped living in his father’s house.

I found this very interesting. I don’t know many families that have prayer time together. We are so wrapped up in other things, but we forget to give God thanks. We find ourselves so focused on the dominations, socialization at church, and how we look at church that we forget that we serve one God who we don’t give enough credit of our success in life.

I am not saying that we need to force people to practice our religious beliefs, nor am I saying that every family has to worship God the same. I do believe that we should not be afraid to talk about our belief in God and it’s time to take back our homes and neighborhoods and teach generations to come that we have morals and values.