Day Three Final

Well day three is over and again I find myself exhausted. It really has been a long three days. To recap my earlier post, we woke up at about 8:30-9:00am loaded a semi full of various goods (water, clothes, food, etc.) and then went over to the Coliseum. At the mass shelter, housing three hundred or so people, we were able to set-up a camera and do some interviews. We did a number of interviews ranging from a guy who evacuated New Orleans to a set of teens volunteering their time helping with the kids in the shelter.

We came back to the AME shelter, we have been staying at, for lunch and to regroup. After lunch, we went to a ordination ceremony for elders in the AME church in Eastern Mississippi. It was very interesting for me...your average white guy from the north to find himself in a black church in the south. It was defended a situation I am not accustom to and so it was a learning experience for me. After the church service, we went back to the AME shelter and had the most impactful and interesting interview I have had yet.

The interview was with Cleveland, a man from Biloxi who has been staying at the Coliseum since last Tuesday. It ends up Cleveland will be heading back with us. He is relocating to Richmond, IN, which is offering free long term housing for people effected by the hurricane. It was just really interesting to talk to this man who has lost everything. He walked into the shelter at the Coliseum with seriously, just a fanny pack worth of stuff. And now he has decided to move to Richmond. He says he has a good feeling about it, but he also pointed out that really it can't get much worse. Either way over all he had a good attitude and was really amazed and effected by the out pouring of support.

We closed our day by doing an interview with our professor, who is also a Reverend in the AME church, so that worked pretty well for the story I am looking to tell. Faith in times of tragedy. Now I am going to sleep I'll try to go in to more detail about everything when I am not so tired.