Due to the weather in the eastern part of the U.S. I arrived in Atlanta at noon. It has been a whirlwind, but I hit the ground running. Spent the beginning part of my day talking with people and learning about South Atlanta (Peoplestown and Pittsburgh). It was very educational; I met some inspiring people and was astounded with the number of boarded up houses (somewhere close to 100 that I counted). I then went to Buckhead, where I saw a very wealthy neighborhood and talked with two interesting residents of that area. I ended up eating dinner with the current Jesuit Volunteers in Atlanta and met some outstanding residents of South Atlanta (pictured above)
Thoughts of the day: Taking pictures of people is challenging and feels condescending at times. I was watched very carefully by the residents of South Atlanta (a young white girl hanging out of my car window with a video camera is strange, I agree). White people are much harder to convince to talk about race or be on camera.... to solve this problem I find the white people at their place, Starbucks.
There were 20 kids playing outside in the streets when I left dinner.. where are their mothers? They are making money in one of the only industries for a woman in the neighborhood...exotic dancing. In the picture above the little boy in the red shirt grabbed my hand and looked up at me with trusting eyes as I was starting to leave. He asked if I would come back again sometime soon... so much kindness and openness in the youth of America.
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