Oxford, Day 6

Sorry for the blog delay; as you will see, we have been going at a hectic pace.

Since our last blog, we have been to Fort Fisher near Wilmington, had a tour of Wilmington sites related to the Civil War, Restoration, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights. We have traveled to a restoration of Somerset Plantation in Creswell, and followed the trail of slave woman Harriet Jacobs in Edenton. We have seen a presentation on living conditions of farm workers in present-day eastern North Carolina, and gleaned peas and corn with the St. Andrews Society in a field next to two crews of Latino farm workers in other fields. We toured the capitol building in Raleigh as well as several sites at St. Augustine's College, after which we celebrated a jazz Eucharist where one of our leaders, Kim Lucas, presided, and Bishop Curry preached. This morning, we reflected on some slave narratives on the site of what was once the largest plantation in North Carolina--Stagville. Now we are enjoying some much needed down time, with a cool swim at a beautiful pool in Oxford.

Pete

It's hot... that's definitely been a factor this week, for many of us. But I think that through the 'suffering' of the heat and the work and the hard-to-deal-with "stuff" it's really bringing this rag-tag group from across the state closer and closer together. The youth held a meeting all together, and during the meeting I noticed that the "clumping" (subconscious grouping of black and white people) we were experiencing most of the trip had been totally dissolved, in many ways. We were in a room built for 10, all 32 of us, and I noticed that instead of the splotches of black and white had become one big group, black and white and every color in between.
As my good friend Chris Sime said "Guys, guys! We have achieved Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's dream, black and white siting in the same room, not arguing, not discriminating, but discussing how we, as a community, can break down the barriers." A short moment of silence followed, by great enthusiasm.
We have come many, many miles already, and have many more ahead of us, and as Bishop Curry said last night in his A-W-E-S-O-M-E sermon, quoting Harriet Tubman "...If you want to taste freedom, Just Keep Going!" I have high hopes for the next leg of our trip, and I especially look forward to having my own room and my own shower where I don't have to remember the "5 rules". Haha!

Parker Bailes

As a teenage girl, I can confidently say that a single shower can turn my whole day around, and nothing has made this more evident than the past few days. I've felt gross, disgusting, really, and yet, while sometimes I feel I'd give my soul to wash my hair, I know that this is all worth it. This is mostly because this trip is turning my whole life around. I may be without my comfort here at times, but so many others have never had it. From gleaning peas in a field to enduring the sweltering slave cabins at several plantations, I've come to know the discomfort of those that don't have the freedom to know anything else. Simply put, I'm learning. This learning is uncomfortable, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Elyse Head

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