There are always interesting parts of living in a dorm, but perhaps the most highly anticipated is Korean food day, or as it is always referred to, “delicious Korean food day.” All of the Korean parents come to campus and cook tremendous amounts of Korean food.

Before I go on, let me point out that I really like Korean food. When Nancy went back to the States last summer and asked what I wanted brought back, the first thing I thought of was seaweed, which my Korean dorm boys have gotten me addicted to. I think Korean food is wonderful.

However, since my Korean guys only get this delicacy once a year, they feel a moral obligation to eat beyond any reasonable limit. This produces so much methane that I fear a smoker will enter the dorm after Korean food day and the whole campus will be destroyed in an atomic fireball.

When I go from room to room to say goodnight, they have gotten in the habit of asking me to rate the odor level of the room. Being eighth grade guys, it is a point of pride to be rated the smelliest. There are five rooms in the dorm, and I would say that it is an absolute tie right now.

The greatest fear of a dorm kid is that a family member will be hurt when he is away from them. That fear came true this week for one of our dorm guys. Joey is one of the nicest kids you could ever meet in your life, and has a smile that could chase away the rain. His brother Justin, who is 16, was home with his parents in Zambia when he passed away in his sleep.

You always feel inadequate as a dorm parent; if the truth be known, I often feel inadequate as a parent, but never so much as when we got the news. Imagine being 14 and having to handle that without your parents. We all cried and cried, and then we had to tell the dorm.

Joey is pretty universally loved here, and so the dorm cried and cried. Those who had suffered sibling loss took it the worst, and I was surprised how many of them there were. In eighth grade, everyone tends to take everything personally, and most things become “what if this happens to me?” It was a very sad, very troubled night.

Joey was able to go home, although it was a six-hour plane ride and then an all day car ride from there. His parents live in a very remote part of Africa. There can’t be too many things harder than what they are going through; please pray for them as they come to mind. Joey’s brother and sister are going to college in the States, and finances are preventing them from coming back to the funeral. That has just got to be such a tough situation for all of them.

Back in the dorm, things were pretty tentative for a few days, but 8th grade guys are pretty resilient. By the end of the week, I heard several guys, right before lights off, asking “anyone with bad gas to please come to our room so we can win smelliest room.”

In most situations, it would be bad taste. In this situation, in the unique world that eighth graders live in, it was a sign of healing.

Your pal,
Steve

Ben, JT, Matthew and Katie!