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Bole Ethiopian Cuisine

My daughter attends Augsburg University and hangs out with some friends who identify as Somali and Muslim. They’ve introduced her to their culture and the importance placed on sharing food (and all resources) with each other, so she was a great help to me when I was choosing a culture to explore for my visceral cultural experience assignment for Multicultural Counseling class at Winona State University.

 We ate dinner at Bole’ Ethiopian Cuisine in Saint Paul’s Como neighborhood on March 8, 2024.  Bole is housed in a brick and mortar building, located at: 1341 Pascal St. N., St. Paul, MN, 55108.   I had some awareness of Ethiopian food from my practicum experience at Axis Medical Center in Minneapolis.  Axis Medical Center focuses on serving the Minnesota refugee and immigrant community and the majority of staff members are from African countries.  I value and am grateful for the time I spent at Axis because I had the opportunity to work alongside people with various cultural backgrounds and worldviews, providing me with new insights and perspectives and increasing my awareness of the stressors related to immigration and acculturation experienced by people, new to the United States.  Aside from all that, I also got to experience lunch breaks with colleagues from Somalia, Egypt and Ethiopia and that was a treat!  I learned that what I bring for lunch is intended to be shared with everyone, even if it’s just a sandwich.  At lunch in the clinic, food is set on the breakroom table, and all are welcome to take whatever they are hungry for, whether they contributed to the meal or not.  The concept of “my lunch,” was an unfamiliar concept to my African colleagues, who wouldn’t think of not sharing whatever they have with others.

So, back to Bole’ - the interior of the restaurant was set with small tables that could easily push together for large groups. The aromas in the restaurant were of spice and simmering stews – wonderful! We were seated at a small table and given menus to explore.  Luck for us, the menu included pictures of each dish with a list of ingredients below, because we didn’t know how to interpret the Ethiopian names.  I was grateful for my daughter’s knowledge of the culturally appropriate ways to eat in an Ethiopian restaurant, and she taught me how to use injera (a sour fermented pancake-like flatbread with a slightly spongy texture) to scoop and dip into the dishes that we ordered. Had she not been with me, I may have requested silverware, which was not present on any of the tables in this establishment.  We ordered 3 options from the vegan menu:  Miser (split lentils simmered in oil, onions, garlic, curry, ginger and berbere), Shiro (ground chickpeas, onions, garlic and traditional spices) and Tiqel Gomen (Cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions, ginger, garlic and turmeric).  I posted a picture of our meal below that we were well into eating before I remembered to do so!  I should mention that our server was a friendly, helpful guy who spoke English and helped us with our attempts to pronounce the words on the menu.  Our meal was served on a single plate, each of our 3 choices were situated in single mounds, surrounded by a lettuce mix and side plate of injera came along, too.  My daughter instructed me to tear a piece of injera and use it to pick up some lettuce along with some of the vegan stew and eat it, like the way you eat a taco.  The food was delicious and the process of eating with injera was more time consuming than it would be to eat with silverware, allowing us to be more engaged in and more mindful of the entire eating experience.  I plan to go back to Bole’ and look forward to trying the rest of the menu options.

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Visiting The Aliveness Project

I chose to visit The Aliveness Project www.aliveness.org in south Minneapolis.  The Aliveness Project links people living with HIV to resources for leading healthy, self-directed lives. Their goal is to end HIV in Minnesota by 2035 and they encourage people to donate to the cause, which is simple to do on the www.aliveness.org website.  The Aliveness Project is housed in a brick and mortar building at 3808 Nicollet Ave. S. and offers community members resources like: a food shelf, hot meals on site, case management services and integrative therapies. Established in 1985, The Aliveness Project has evolved over the years to meet the needs for people living with HIV and those that are most at risk of being diagnosed with HIV in their lifetimes.

The PrEP Clinic began in 2021 and has been funded primarily by private donations and grants. All HIV prevention services: HIV testing, PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), STI testing and treatment, syringe service program, PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) and other community health supports, are available at no cost to anyone living with HIV.  Dylan Boyer, Director of Development at the Aliveness Project stated that “racial disparities in who contracts HIV persist at alarming percentage rates. What we are doing – the idea to provide free healthcare to somebody is pretty radical. What we are doing in providing free PrEP is an anti-racist effort.” According to information found on www.reachtwincities.org, “daily PrEP use can reduce the risk of acquiring HIV from sex by more than 99%. Among people who inject drugs, PrEP reduces the risk of acquiring HIV by more than 74%.”

The clinic services in combination with a community-based approach is unique to The Aliveness Project, which is run by and exists for people living with HIV who take a “for us, by us” approach to community care.  This is important because of the shared experience and deep sense of kinship that exists between folks living with HIV, allowing members to not only get the care that they need but also allows them access to the fellowship that comes with supporting each other.

A hot meal is served, every day between 12-3 pm to Minnesotan’s living with HIV.  The food is all made in-house and served by volunteers, who are welcome to eat with the community.  I visited The Aliveness Project on a Friday afternoon as part of an assignment for my Multicultural Counseling class at Winona State University. My intention was to eat a free lunch and, I’ll admit, I was very uncomfortable as I approached the entrance.  When I stepped inside, I was surprised by all the activity; people were waiting to be seen at the Thrive clinic and others were exiting from what might have been a group session.  There was a front desk that I skirted past, as I really felt out of place and was hoping I could become invisible.  I headed to where the meals were being served and discovered a well-stocked food shelf, situated in the dining room.  The procedure was simple; grab a tray, walk past the food line and point to what you want to eat.  When it was my turn to approach the line, a volunteer operating the register asked me for my number.  I could feel my face turn red and I whispered: “I don’t have one.” Looking a bit confused, she directed me to get registered at the front desk, so I stepped out of line, put my tray back and left the building.

As I walked back to my car, I felt relieved, but also frustrated that I entered the building under the guise of needing a free meal and left feeling like I had been denied access to a meal because I didn’t have a number.  I thought to myself, “what’s the point of the number? Why would a hungry person need a number to get a hot meal? It was hard enough to humble myself to line up for a free meal, why didn’t I stay humble and ask questions at the front desk?” I began to feel entitled and put out, thinking: “I took time out of my day to come here, and things didn’t go as I planned.  I didn’t need a free meal anyway, I just wanted to experience what it’s like to be needy for a minute.  I didn’t feel welcome and or like I belonged there.  I felt like everyone knew I was a fraud.”  Which brings me back to feeling relieved, because I didn’t belong there, I didn’t need the services available through The Aliveness Project, but I didn’t know that when I was sitting in my car on that Friday afternoon. 

See, my entitlement as a middle class, white, able-bodied woman allowed me to walk into The Aliveness Project without any knowledge of who they serve, what they do or what their mission is.  My privilege allows me to walk through my south Minneapolis community and expect that all doors will always be open to me, even those that I don’t need to walk through.  It wasn’t until I sat down to blog about my experience and started researching The Aliveness Project, that I learned The Aliveness Project serves the people of Minnesota living with HIV.  Having HIV makes a person eligible for access to all services and resources available through the Aliveness Project and all that’s required is to show proof of an HIV diagnosis and a Minnesota ID. 

So, in the end, I didn’t sit down for a free meal at The Aliveness Project, but I did walk away with increased self-awareness and knowledge.  My experience aligns with the pre-exposure and exposure stages of Ponterotto’s model of cultural identity development. I also learned that my life experience excludes me from being part of the HIV community and I’m able to accept and honor that boundary.  Learning about The Aliveness Project inspires me to be a stronger advocate for the LGBTQI community by being more open to talking about sexual healthcare needs in therapy sessions and spreading the word about the good work being done by The Aliveness Project.