Kathy Leidig, spent much of their service experience in Guibéroua with a

musician from a nearby village, learning to play Ivoirdian instruments. In a

convocation after they returned to campus, Kaufman played the stringed dodo,

speaking the tribal tonal language of Beté into the instrument to create

mystical sounds never before heard in Goshen, telling stories and saying

words over various rhythms. He drummed the djimbé, often used in worship

or for dancing, while Leidig played a women's bamboo flute from which sound

is coaxed through both blowing and singing pitches. Their performances,

and the projects of other SST students, are efforts to value local cultures and to

appreciate them on their own terms.

SST Director Wilbur Birky cites a Nigerian proverb from novelist

Chinua Abebe which asserts that "there is no story that is not true."Birky says

while "the real stories of real people may seem to contradict each other," in

reality "they coexist as expressions of the diversity and the contradictions that

temper our lives."One reinterpretation of the biblical story of the Tower of

Babel which has influenced Birky is the notion that rather than providing

many languages and peoples as a punishmentfor hybris, the story may

suggest "that many languages and peoples represent the remedyof diversity

in the face of the problem of homogeneity."⁵⁵The interweaving of music and

stories from other cultures into students' lives, and back onto campus, is a

powerful testimony to the crossing of cultural boundaries. Near the end of her

service term, one student wrote in her journal:

55_{"Vision for SST -- Wilbur Birky -- October 1995," 1. In a 1994 survey of}
Goshen College alumni, graduates were asked what impact their Goshen College
education had on helping them meet Goshen's "Ten Desired Outcomes."The
outcome rated highest by students was "intercultural openness with the ability
to function effectively with people of other world views."

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