The second day in Hancock was another very interesting day of our journey. We met a few people that experience the bad side of hurricane Katrina; they took us through the days before the hurricane and the days after the hurricane. They also told us about what they did to get money to try and get there community back to what it was. They also fill that New Orleans is getting more help than them and it wasn’t even hit by hurricane. Just being in the community I saw a lot if people that was really close and you can tell that they all were trying to help each other out. It was really sad to see that the hurricane wipe out every house that was on the beach front of that city. I even saw a “BANK” and the only thing that was left was the Vault, which was crazy. Hancock County is a nice place and is going to be beautiful when it gets back to normal, and the people are extremely nice also.

After conducting two oral histories and getting to know the people of the area a bit better, I find that my opinion of Hancock County and the Bay St. Louis area has changed somewhat. Having arrived at the library, my opinion of the community was somewhat skewed. I believe that the people of Hancock County are more diverse than I perceived them to be upon first observation. The people that I interviewed were people with two legitimately different stories; one of them stayed through the hurricane while another came back in the aftermath.

My first interviewee was blessed enough to return to an almost untouched house. One of the most obvious questions asked was whether or not there were issues of guilt that went along with that experience. Our interviewee of course said that she had moments of survivor guilt which I feel is completely valid and hard to avoid when people around you may have lost not only their homes but even family members. To survive such a tragedy is one thing, but to survive that tragedy with a home still standing is a completely different story. It seems that for my interviewee, her issues began to get worse once she returned to a city that was drastically changed. When we asked what she felt like she lost more than anything else, her answer was one word, “Freedom!” Among other things, they had enforced curfews and were not allowed to enter their homes, regardless of damage. One major issue she had with the experience was losing faith in her local police. The interviewee felt that the police had abandoned them and betrayed their trust, first by allowing other visiting officers to abuse citizens of the area, and then by refusing to honor their wishes to return home even after showing proof of where they lived. Issues of police brutality arose when sharing a story of a partner being forced to the ground and pressed to the wheel of a vehicle after getting arrested for sitting in a car too late at night. Being a black male, I feel that it is interesting to note that a middle-aged white person has developed a negative opinion of the police post-Katrina when I have formulated my own negative opinion of many police officers at such a young age without these traumatic experiences. This may speak to issues of social standings and the level of trust certain people have in the system supposedly built to protect them.

In the other oral history, a person spoke of being relatively lower income and not really having much of anything to lose in terms of possessions but instead discussed losing two close family members. The trauma of losing relatives under those circumstances was painful enough, but for the interviewee to then go on and explain the confusion surrounding the identification of their remains truly revealed how damaging things had become. To be able to have such understanding about the stresses that all people were facing at the time and honor a sincere apology from officials reflects on that person’s strength of character. While their stories were different, after the Demon Storm, they both began a journey into healing and rebuilding. This struggle is something that they will have to work on for many years to come.

I think it is very surprising to have heard that one of my interviewees would stay through another devastating hurricane. Personally, I understand not wanting to leave the place you have lived all your life, but at the same time, to have gone through so much in one place, I think that it would be less emotionally taxing in some ways to actually leave the area and try to begin again. Either way it would be difficult, but for me, I think leaving would be a better alternative if at all possible.

Friday was an interesting day. We began the day by returning to the Hancock Library, where an interview team completed our last oral history. While this oral history was being conducted the rest of us went to the Laundromat to get a jumpstart on our laundry and get some breakfast. After everyone finished their laundry and ate breakfast we got on the bus and began our journey to New Orleans, LA. Once we were in New Orleans, some of us immediately hit the streets. In fact, my first stop was to a local barbershop; which charged a very high price.

To be continued ……

While the time that we spent in Bay Saint Louis was the longest stay for the duration of our trip, I feel that it really was not long enough for our group to be able to fully understand everything that had happened to the citizens of this area.  While in the beginning, I really felt that scanning postcards for this group was a really strange thing to be doing, but as I sat at the scanner and looked at all of the places that were pictured in the postcards, I realized “This is their history and this is the only way they still have a connection with these places” because most of the pictures were of homes, marinas, camps and other places that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

I really began to understand the significance of this town and the way that one of our hostesses explained the meaning of community and just everything that this town had held dear but was attempting to rebuild.

On a lighter note, I think that Dr. Sutton should petition the university to get a cat like Wheezy.

Our service learning projects at the library turned out really well. The first day we met the women we would be working with for the next two days and got a tour of the library and the area. The image that stands out the most from driving around and seeing the devastation that is still prominent were several lots of land that only had front stairs remaining on them. The waterfront area had several houses that you could see right through and many people only had trees on their front lawn left. Some people placed chairs and a house sign around trees on the lawn as a marking that someone did live there and that lawn used to be a home. Another image that stuck was a church that the whole front was missing and on the back wall there was an arrow and times for Sunday services spray painted. We also passed what used to be a bank and the only recognizable trace was the vault. Seeing a video of pictures of neighborhoods before Katrina and then going on a bus tour to see how little is left or rebuilt two years later was exactly what we needed to experience before conducting our oral histories the following day.

Although apprehensive at first, the oral histories were my favorite part of the three days we spent at the library. Being able to talk with three different people who lived through the storm in various conditions and the challenges they still face today was a lucky experience on both sides because we were able to hear first hand accounts and the were able to tell their story and let their side be known when a common feeling was that their area was somewhat neglected in terms of media coverage. The interviews were a lot of fun and everyone wanted to share with each other the stories we heard because each group got to talk with people with incredible stories that impacted all of us. It was surprising how well the interviews went because our group was anticipating them to be short with lots of awkward pauses but listening to what we were hearing it was hard not to ask a million questions and have them elaborate on their feelings before the storm, the actual events the day of, and how they have dealt with moving past the devastation.

It was great to spend a significant amount of time at the library to learn about the people who work there lives and see everything they have done as a community to survive. We got to see first hand how important the library is by observing the people who come in and out throughout the day and how many people came for the movie screening on Thursday evening. The library has played an integral part of recovery for the town and we were fortunate to volunteer and help them out.

One week into the trip already! This morning we checked out of the casino, where I managed to avoid the temptation to play the slots. We had one last interview to conduct at the library, this one with our hostess, Prima Plauche. She told her story eloquently and the 5 students who participated in the interview were all affected by the power of what she told them.

Before we could leave Bay St. Louis, a laundromat stop was in order. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve frequented one of them, but it was an enjoyable experience (beyond my pleasure of having clean underwear again) as we got a chance to meet more Bay St. Louis folks and talk with them. One lady turned out to be Patrick’s wife - he was one of our interviewees for the oral histories.

Jill and Margaret do their laundry

After the laundromat, we stopped for another fast food lunch and visited KMart to buy some dvd+r’s to back up the oral histories. I’d hate to lose them, so I want to burn them to disc and give to Lynn so they all aren’t solely in my possession.

The hour ride to New Orleans was used to have class discussion about their experiences of the past few days. As usual, upon reaching our destination we descended upon the poor hotel clerk (at the Royal St. Charles Hotel), hauled our stuff to the room, to find extremely tiny accommodations, to say the least. I’m not sure how the students, who are 3 or 4 to a room can even manuever. But, who stays in a hotel room when in New Orleans and the French Quarter?

We all got the afternoon and evening off and I’d bet everyone strolled to the French Quarter to take in the tourist view of New Orleans. I know Lynn and I did. We found a nice restaurant where we could eat on a balcony overlooking Bourbon Street - the best way to view the sights IMHO.

Today was very interesting. We spent the day at the Bay St. Louis branch of The Hancock Library System. We rotated through a range of task.

My group started out researching post cards. This task was very interesting; noting that we were able to research a historic building, the Reed Hotel. We found out the linage of owners as well as the name changes. This task or project will allow the library to maintain an archival record of historical buildings in case one building were to be destroyed or demolished.

We then rotated to my favorite station, the oral history station. At this station we were able to listen to the stories of library employees who survived the storm. These experiences were priceless, because they allowed us to gain perspective through the eyes of various people.

The one thing that I learned was the need to realize that there is a multitude of voices that still need to be heard in order to fully understand the breath of devastation that occurred as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Tomorrow, the plan is to leave early for the library to finish up our task. Then, we will do laundry before leaving Bay St. Louis, MS for New Orleans, LA.

To be continued …….

Today was my “big day” on the trip. Would all the equipment I planned on setting up for the oral histories work right? Even though you test everything several times before hand, there is always the great fear that technology will fail at the most important time. So, I didn’t start to relax until after the first batch of oral histories were completed. But the equipment worked great and our student cameramen/women did a stellar job of capturing what I understand were some very powerful interviews. I think I can leave discussion of them to the ones who experienced them.

So, I want to provide a bit of information on the bronze sculptures that have been one of the topics of discussion over the past day. I sensed that some of our group was a bit astounded that the library would secure a $28,000 grant to restore the 6 bronze sculptures that were damaged in the storm. Why spend that money on art when so many people needed so much for basic survival?

Inner Music by Richmond Barthe

I understand the grant came from NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities). “NEH is an independent grant-making agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities” (from the NEH website). So the money given the library system came from an organization who gives money for preservation. It didn’t take available money away from any other purpose.

The importance of restoring the sculptures was explained to Lynn by a staff member today. The sculptor was Richmond Barthe, an African American artist who was important for being one of the first to “focus thematically on the lives of blacks” (Answers.com). But more importantly to the Hancock County Public Library, he was a native of Bay St. Louis AND was the first African American to get a library card in the Hancock County library system. So it is easy to understand why returning his works to their original condition was a priority to an organization whose mission includes the collection and preservation of significant artifacts of local people and history.

My computer has been a moody little something back at the hotel so I am going to make sure I do my blog now in the Hancock Co. Library. I spent the morning with my team (Antonio and Teresa) sorting through the library’s news articles (dating back to the 1970’s) and then filing them. Here and there I would stop and read through some of the articles. I saw where many of the smiling faces of the Hancock Co. library were featured in numerous articles and spotlighting for all of their hard and excellent workd. They even got honored at the White House! I saw an article about rising gas prices in the late 90’s (if we only knew $2.50 a gallon would ever be considered cheap) pictures recounting 9/11 and of course, pictures recounting and still recounting Katrina. I found an article from the late 90’s detailing what a Hurricane was and how it is formed and going through some of the strongest ones from Camille to Andrew. These names all sound like cousins or nieces or brothers in our family, but they carry such a greater connotation when the word “Hurricane” is put in front.

Right now, I am preparing to do my groups 2nd oral history interview for the day. The generosity of the people here at Hancock Co. Library to not only open their facilities (and provide breakfast and lunch and snacks) to us but also their stories is amazing. If you ever want to see strength personified, come down to Bay St. Louis to meet these people. And you can also check some of these people and their diaries. As one of the employees said today, don’t forgot about them.

Today was the first day we spent in Mississippi, and it was very different from all the other days of our trip. We woke up rather early to head over to the Hancock County Library in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a number of library officials and even some city officials. The people who worked at the library then began to tell their stories about hurricane Katrina, and they had so much to tell that this portion of the meeting lasted for nearly three hours. I feel as though it is absolutely impossible for people who have not lived through it to understand what the devastation was like, but these peoples’ stories really helped to provide some insight. The most incredible part of this morning for me was a presentation given by Prima, the main librarian. This presentation entailed many before and after picture of the libraries, along with a before and after of her house. The before picture showed her beautiful house and pool on the water, and the after picture showed all that was left of the house: an oven and a dishwasher. I can’t even describe the goose bumps I had when listening to this presentation. We heard a variety of stories about the devastation the library staff faced, and how the community really came together to overcome such tragedy.

After spending the morning at the library and having lunch, we went on a tour of the area given by our friends at the Hancock county libraries. The things we saw on the bus tour of the town and of surrounding towns were absolutely incredible. I know that I am one of the many people guilty of thinking that the recovery process in Mississippi was mostly over, and the sights we saw on our tour absolutely confirmed the opposite. There were countless numbers of foundations where houses used to be, and so many houses still had a huge amount of damage. The rubble from the disaster was everywhere, and it was very hard to think that this occurred nearly two years ago. One typically thinks of two years as being a sufficiently long time to recover, but parts of this community look as if they were hit by the storm yesterday. It is just so chilling to see the images we saw on the bus today and realize how little progress has been made in some of these areas in almost two years. It just goes to show how much dire need of help this community was in; because half of the town is still completely ruined after what I had thought was a long time. It is obvious that the devastation from this storm is much deeper than I had ever imagined, even after looking at countless images of the terror Katrina brought. It was so moving to hear all the stories, and I am now really looking forward to interviewing some people tomorrow and recording their oral histories. It should be really interesting and moving to hear more stories in-depth, I just hope I don’t cry!

After spending some more time at the library in preparation of our interviews tomorrow, we headed back to the hotel for our group reflection. We were on our own for dinner, so Ronnie took a bunch of us down the street where we had a little bit of a choice of what to eat, and then went back to the hotel for the night. Last night I had a good time losing money on the slot machines, so tonight I’m planning on winning it all back. This time I’m going for roulette though, as I learned my lesson about slot machines last night.