Today was a real challenge for me. Today was the first day for me to be a sociologist and I must say that I think that I did a great job. We gave a help in hand to the community today. We interviewed people to hear their stories about what happened during the hurricane and after the hurricane. I think we gave an opportunity to the people that had no voice a chance to speak up. I think they really appreciated us for giving them that opportunity. Even though most of the stories were compelling we as being sociologist had show and almost feel as if we really knew what disaster was and that was the hardest part for me today. We went at library from 8 that morning to almost 8 that night. I think the people of Bay St. Louis will never forget us and they will always thank us for that.

Just being here in Bay St. Louis I learned that this is the place where hurricane Katrina really hit and New Orleans. I did not know this but I felt as if the people felt like they were being over shadowed by New Orleans because New Orleans is a big city. In almost every interview the speaker was bound to say that New Orleans dodged a bullet. I will take my experiences that I learned today and hopefully use it farther more as I continue to go deep into my major and my career.

Today we arrived in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. I know what people are talking about when they say Mississippi is the definition of the country. The thing that surprised me the most about Mississippi residents was their accents. I was expecting strong southern accents and my assumptions were very off. After we were settled in our hotel we traveled to the local Hancock Library. I had mixed feelings after first seeing the library, because my city library was much larger, but after learning the impact the library had on the community I realized that my city’s library was bigger in size but definitely not as productive or involved with the community. It seemed that this was a place that wanted residents to be present just as much as the residents wanted to be present.

We were welcomed to Bay St. Louis and the Library by important people within the community. They were very kind and welcoming and it seemed that we had helped in so many ways already when we had done nothing. They made me feel like our presence was more important than our volunteering. After a long introduction we watched a film about Hurricane Katrina and the impact it had on Bay St. Louis. It was very touching and put things into perspective. Each staff member that talked to us had a different experience with the hurricane. After hearing all of the different testimonies I really got emotional because although they all had different stories, every victim’s life was affected by the hurricane.

After leaving the Library, we went on a “tour” of the city. There really was not much to show, because the after affects of the natural disaster were still present. It was hard to believe that the city actually had some type of development within it because it was full of houses spread along the ground into pieces and trailers. This was very shocking to see because I cannot imagine my family going through the same issues. My heart was lightened because never once they anyone I talked to blame themselves or anyone else for what happened.

Today was a full day of work!!! We were split into “work groups” and given certain assignments to do within the library. I was lucky to work with Katie and Jayme, because without them I do not think everything would have been as smooth as it was. We were one of the two groups to start the day off. The only assignment that I had mixed feelings about was the oral history part. We were to interview people about their experiences going through Katrina. Talking in public is not my strength so I really did not want to do this part, but in the end it was the most influential part of the day. I thought we were at a disadvantage because instead of conducting 2 oral histories like everyone else, we had three to do. All three interviews were very emotional and difficult to hear, but I found them very helpful for both me and the person I was interviewing. It seemed that the interview was just as hard for the victim as it was for me. This opened my mind and I actually cared and wanted to listen to what they had to say. After finishing the interviews our group started to help organize the history of the library into a scrapbook.

That night the library was hosting a film screening for residents. This was new to me because libraries are usually strict about their noise level. Although we had to read subtitles the entire time it was a very good movie and I was stunned with how many people were in attendance. It only showed the importance of the library within the community.

Today was another early day. We had to check out of our hotel and be back at the library at 8:30am. There was one more oral history to be completed and the people to conduct it were not chosen yet. In the back on my mind I was thinking about how much I did not want it to be me. With my luck I was one of the four chosen to conduct the interview. The lady we were interviewing was Mrs. Prima. We were all well acquainted with her which made the interview a lot easier. She answered each question gracefully with emotion and meaning. It was easy to feel her pain although it was obvious that tried to prevent from breaking down.

After the interview was completed many people complimented me on doing a good job conducting the interview. This came as a shock to me considering that this was not my comfort zone. I started to think why questions just kept coming and coming. The answer that I came up with was that it had nothing to do with me. It was all Mrs. Prima. Because I started to understand what she and others went through during the storm, I realized that this really had an impact on me. I really cared about the situation in Bay St. Louis.After the interview we loaded the bus and went to the laundry mat to wash clothes, and after that we were on our way to New Orleans!!

Day 7: Bay St. Louis

Wow, what a day this was!  We got up really early to go back to the library and setup for our long awaited oral histories.  After some of our reflection time on all the information we had heard in regards to Hurricane Katrina from the day before, and all the horrific images we had seen, I was excited to get to actually hear in depth stories from people who had lived through it.  At the same time, I feel like I went into the day somewhat skeptical, and with somewhat mixed emotions.  It’s hard to go out and see the massacred homes with no remains left but the stairs or the mailbox, and then imagine approaching a way to help through simply talking to people rather than getting out and building homes or something involving more physical work.  Also, all the talk about the money spent to refurbish statues in the library, as well as seeing some people who are relatively speaking, doing well as compared to some who are still in FEMA trailers or without even that, was a complex model to piece together.  I can say after doing the interviews, I can totally understand why that was the task that we were chosen to do, as it forced us to step a little out of our comfort zone to do interviews, but in a way that helped us to grow and learn, all while providing the victims with almost a form of therapy and rejuvenation.

Without getting in to any specifics about my particular oral histories, I can say overall that it was touching to see how we as the interviewers gradually gained the respect of the interviewee, and how as this occurred, their willingness to open up and not fear that they will be judged or rejected.  It really renewed my sense of how important it is just to be a good listener, and show you care about other people, even if you can’t provide them with money or a physical way to make it better, just listening goes a long way.

Though stratification is far from absent in the different levels of recovery from the hurricane, it is an institution in society that simply exists, and there isn’t any way I see to make that change.  At the same time, it is true that we do need people to recover at different times and in different manners in order for more people to be available to help others and resources to be available.  The more affluent people as a general rule did same to fare better in some circumstances, be it access to help, a trailer, medical attention, etc.  Yet, this is just kind of the way it is, and we can’t expect everyone to wait for the very last person to get back on their feet and try to move together all at the same time because it is just not reasonable.  It is not fair to wish the worst on people of higher socioeconomic status in order for them to experience what some of the most underprivileged go through, we must try to identify with everyone and remember how much more horrible this is than any of us can really begin to comprehend.  The oral histories really opened my eyes a lot more to how resilient these people are who returned, how much lending a helping hand makes a difference, and helped to put the city of Bay St. Louis in perspective for me.

We later had the opportunity to watch a Finnish movie with English sub titles called “Mother of Mine.”  It was by far one of my favorite movies I’ve ever seen; it even brought me to tears.  I definitely want to try and find this movie to buy.  This was a neat cultural activity to get a glimpse of some of the library activities, and the people in the area.

Day 8 & 9: New Orleans

We traveled to New Orleans today after a trip to the Laundromat, and conducting the last oral history at the library.  We had a good discussion on the bus about what the individual oral histories meant to us, and how we felt about our time at the library.  I feel like it was a general consensus that people got much more out of it than they expected to when they went in.  This was definitely a major eye opening experience for me.

After checking in, we walked around and went shopping and got dinner.  I can’t say we had the most pleasant dinner ever, but we definitely got to experience the culture of New Orleans.  A walk down Bourbon Street, lined with tons of restaurants, bars, clubs, and souvenior stores, is unlike anything I have ever experienced, and definitely gives new meaning to why they call it “The Big Easy.”  I have never seen anything like some of the hair styles, clothing, and PDA that I witnessed while visiting this street.  Quite a culture shock from the seemingly a little more conservative and smaller town atmosphere of Bay St. Louis.  We also learned to be very careful due to the rising levels of crime in the city, particularly after the hurricane, so we made sure to travel in groups, and hide all personal belongings.

The next day we visited the organization called ACORN, and heard a very different account of the hurricane.  It was much more of a geographical and more city overview, and less personal hard times such as we experienced in Bay St. Louis, so the combination really rounded out our experience learning about the hurricane.  Despite all the news reports, I really had failed to realize that the levies were what really had caused all the damage to New Orleans.  Between Bay St. Louis and New Orleans, it was two very different sites due to the water vs. wind damage, as well as the types of houses and attention that the places had received.  Though we heard much more information regarding New Orleans, the help didn’t seem to have filtered down to them as Bay St. Louis received, but also there may have just been such an extreme number of houses destroyed in New Orleans that it was just taking that much longer.  It’s hard to decipher exactly why some areas have recovered faster, and how their ability to access resources and receive outside help may have modified their recovery.

For lunch, a few of us went to an amazing restaurant called mothers with the best po’ boy sandwiches I’ve ever had.  It was definitely a favorite spot in the city, and seemed to be a good representation of where the locals go to eat.

This is my first post in a while as I have had a rough couple of days, emotionally speaking. At the church this morning, I thought again of something that has bothered me off and on throughout the trip and hit home most especially in Hancock County.

Primum non nocere means “First, do no harm.” Sociology involves the science of observing people and then analyzing how and why they behave the way they do. I am not a sociologist, but the techniques of observation and analysis are familiar to me from my doctoral work. What has bothered me is the risk we take in harming the people that we study through the very act of observation. I was uncomfortable at both the George Washington Carver homes and the Lower 9th Ward because it seemed we were close to the line, if not crossing it, of gawking at the residents of the neighborhood and causing them discomfort. A 45′ bus is not an easy thing to disguise and neither is a multicultural group of 23 people with cameras. A number of participants have already blogged guiltily about the hand-lettered sign on a falling-down house in the 9th ward reminding us that “1600 people died 4 u 2 take this picture.”

In Hancock County, students had the additional complication of carrying out a service project while at the same time being trained to observe social stratification issues around them. These blogs are wonderful tools for collaborative work but they are also a public display of research in progress. In the 72 hours we stayed in Hancock County, views of the community matured rapidly among many participants. Surface observations at the beginning of the trip often did not hold up to be valid. The consensus at the end was that this was a strong, closely knit community trying its best to recover from a storm of unnatural ferocity and restore the community to all its residents. We went to help, I only hope that we did no harm.

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.

This post is going to cover the span of a few days. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting, and I think I have a better idea of how I feel about the experience in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi now. I know it may have been a good idea to express some emotions as I went along, but they were too raw and I hadn’t really processed anything well enough to articulate them. So here we go…

We arrived in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on Tuesday, after traveling from Montgomery/Selma, Alabama (which I still need to reflect on a bit and get a journal written about that!). It was a fairly long trip, but nothing compared to the first day. Towards the end of the drive we watched a video from a news story produced by CNN about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Bay St. Louis. It was narrated by a CNN correspondent who is actually from Bay St. Louis and the first time she was seeing the destruction from the hurricane was on camera. As we were watching the video it showed the wreckage of the houses caused by the insanely high winds and the water which rose to levels of 30 to 40 feet. Then I looked out the window and realized that everything I was seeing on the video screen was right outside. Very little has changed in the last 2 years and it seems that not a lot is being done to rebuild the city. I don’t mean that nothing is being done in the sense that people aren’t working towards it, but it is hard to see the progress. Most of that has to do with the fact that people are still dealing with insurance companies and trying to get settlements that compensate for a reasonable amount of the damage (although it seems that isn’t usually the case). With all that said, I was shocked. This may sound completely ignorant, but I expected a lot more progress to have been made in a nearly 2 year time frame. A person I encountered while in Bay St. Louis made the comment that people have forgotten about the Mississippi Gulf Coast and have the ability to ignore the damage that was done by the hurricane. I was one of those people. I just figured, ok its been 2 years they have to be rebuilding and people lives are basically back to normal. I guess there were many components that I had not taken into account and my perception of time and the ability to rebuild were very skewed.

Just as a little side note before I get into some pretty heavy things, we stayed at a hotel with a casino while in Bay St. Louis. I can see how people get addicted to gambling. I did win quite a bit of money overall though.

So onto some things with a bit more substance… The morning after we arrived, we went to Hancock County Library to begin our service learning there. The first day we were introduced to the people we would be working with. We were given a bus tour of Bay St. Louis and Waveland. It was really hard to see the destruction of the storm, especially because earlier in the day we heard some stories and saw pictures. It was a very different experience to see the houses, or lack thereof, and trailers on properties where homes used to be. I think the thing that stood out to me the most was the story we heard from the retired director of the Hancock County libraries. Afterwards I felt a little bit resentful towards her, because its hard to hear someone talk about losing boats when you know other people lost everything. My opinion was completely changed the a couple days later when I had the chance to interview her. I realize it must have been hard to know what part of her story to tell when she was talking to the entire group. I can’t imagine reliving it over and over. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to explain myself very well with what I want to say. I guess I’ll preface myself by saying first impressions are not always what they seem. You have to dig deeper to find out more about a person. If you’re not willing to dig deeper then you may completely misjudge someone or not understand their perspective.

We spent all day Thursday doing oral histories of library employees and doing research of historical landmarks in the area that were destroyed by the hurricane. The two interviews I help conduct that day were interesting, but not emotionally moving in the way I expected. I was actually a little disappointed when I didn’t get something jucier. I know that sounds weird, but thinking about it later I hope the people won’t regret that they didn’t take advantage of the experience. The final day at the library a group of us were given the opportunity to interview the retired director. It was a completely opposite experience from the first day we listened to her speak to us. It was a more intimate setting, so she must’ve felt more comfortable to be open. I sat there as she spoke to us and I kept thinking to myself I wish everyone else could be here to listen to this. I know that wasn’t an option. I walked out of the interview incredibly drained, because I had judged her so wrongly before. She has been through so many things that I couldn’t even comprehend dealing with. Yeah she had significant advantage over other people in the community because of the connections she has to local government agencies, but she made a great point. No one in the community would be able to progress if people who have privilege don’t take advantage of it. (I may have completely butchered her words, but it was something along those lines). It is necessary for some people to progress so they can help others. I really don’t even know how to explain how I felt after listening to her story. I felt a little guilty, but at the same time I’m so glad I was able to talk to her. She is a really amazing lady. I’m not sure what else to say about that right now.

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 ……

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.