My Life Circa 2003 - Part 2

Sent November 18, 2003:

Hello all,

I'm back in Charleston, having returned from my project at the Mississippi State Hospital. The project went really well and we accomplished everything that we had set out to do. Over the course of three weeks, my team searched for and excavated over 3,500 headstones that were buried beneath inches (sometimes over a foot) of dirt and grass, and remodeled the outdoor chapel used for funeral services at the cemetery. We filled in sunken graves with new dirt, realigned any headstones that had gone astray, and raked and cleared off unearthed dirt and dead brush around the headstones. For the chapel, we re-shingled the roof, removed and installed new railings, removed old siding and nailed in new siding, and caulked and primed everything for painting.

Blogger's note: While digging, favorite songs to listen to included: Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and Dave Matthew's "Grave Digger" (not to be confused with Kanye's "Gold Digger"). It's strange to think that less than five years ago, I was still toting around a clunky portable CD player and buying CDs at a music store.

We also learned about the hospital and the different types of treatments it provides for its psychiatric patients. Some of my teammates shadowed staff in the forensics and chemical dependency units, and all of us attended sessions on music and art therapy. We also visited the hospital museum which is located in the original building where treatments such as electric shock and hydrotherapy were given to the patients.

We learned that a prominent artist named Walter Anderson whose art exhibit is currently at the Mississippi Museum of Art was once a patient at MSH (they seemed quite proud of that fact). The woman who gave us a tour of the campus was also proud to tell us that several movies have been filmed at campus including "A Time to Kill" (starring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, and Morgan Freeman).

Blogger's note: According to Wikipedia, Walter Anderson often plotted elaborate escapes from the various mental hospitals at which he was a patient. "During one of several escapes from the Mississippi State Hospital, he lowered himself on bedsheets from a second-story window, leaving the brick walls festooned with drawings of birds in flight, done in soap."

While we didn't have much opportunity to work with living patients, we did interact with a few patients in the dining hall where we ate our meals. One patient took a particular liking to our group and he often spoke to us during lunch. I didn't know that he was a patient at first because he often ate in the dining hall designated for hospital employees.

Blogger's note: I'll admit it, I thought this dude was sketchy from the very beginning. But it being my first foray into the Deep South, I tried to keep an open mind. Still, it was difficult for me not to take offense when he said, "No, where are you really from?" after I had replied, "New York," the first time he asked the question. I also tried not to feel uncomfortable by his open disdain of the "Northern aggression" (in referring to the Civil War). What probably should have tipped us off was his conviction of the existence of buried treasure on the hospital grounds.

After our second interaction with him, I finally noticed the green bracelet on his wrist. The color green meant that the patient had reached the highest level of privileges, allowing him to walk around campus without supervision. This e-mail would get too long if I went on to talk about all the kinds of advice he tried to give the women on our team.

Blogger's note: One of the relationship tips he dispensed was how to gauge a potential suitor's worthiness. We should only marry a man if he expresses concern for our spiritual well-being, and to find out if he does, we must ask him, "Do you care about my spiritual well-being?" So readers, don't forget to include that little criteria in your quest for true love.

The city of Jackson does not offer much for its tourists. Save a few museums and the governor's mansion, there wasn't a whole lot to see or do downtown. So instead of hanging out in Jackson on the weekends, we took off for Vicksburg one weekend for a driving tour of a civil war park consisting of monuments dedicated to all the battalions that fought in the war. The 16-mile tour only reminded us of our cemetery back at MSH so we quickly found a short cut out of the park and went exploring elsewhere. We spent the second weekend in New Orleans and stayed at a teammate's house in Slidell. After a raucous night of partying on Bourbon Street on Saturday, we did an independent service project at a local convenant house the next day, washing windows and sanding down railings to prepare for a new coat of paint.

On our way back to Charleston at the end of last week, we made a stop in Atlanta, GA for half a day. I visited the High Folk Art and Photography gallery for a photo exhibit of Aperture at 50: Past Forward. I also took a CNN studio tour at their headquarters which, quite frankly, sucked.

Blogger's note: In the original e-mail, I had written a more detailed description of the CNN tour but after reading it now, I decided that "sucked" would suffice.

Tomorrow, we'll begin our second project at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, SC, home to Trappist monks. The project is short - only 6 working days. We'll be helping out in their library and botanical garden. I hear the abbey is beautiful and am excited to take a break from digging.

Blogger's note: Mepkin Abbey, as recently as 2007, stirred some controversy when PETA released a video showing the abbey's egg farming operations that involved de-beaking hens and forced molting practices.

And more news! We recently were told about our third project, which is to begin right after Thanksgiving weekend and to continue after our winter break until near the end of February. My team will be heading down to Miami, Florida to help the Hispanic and Creole communities of the city file their taxes. For about two weeks (Dec. 1-12) we will receive training on how exactly to do someone's taxes (good practical skill to learn for the future) and then when we come back after winter break, we'll begin the actual work. We'll be living in a hotel (we're going to be so spoiled!) and my team will be working in pairs in different communities/neighborhoods in the city.

I want to start learning some Spanish, so if any of you have recommendations for specific teach-yourself-Spanish books/CDs please let me know, or if you want to email me some essential Spanish vocab/phrases, feel free to do so.

Blogger's note: I purchased one of those teach-yourself-Spanish book and CD sets only to learn that the community to which I was assigned (Model City, aka Liberty City) was predominantly African American. The only Spanish I've picked up between 2003 and now was when my family took a vacation to Mexico in 2004 and I learned to say, "Por favor, donde esta el bano? Gracias!" ("Please, where is the bathroom? Thank you!")

Stayed tuned for Part 3.