Diversity Tour

Finally I was able to get to the Internet again. It felt really bad to miss the daily blog, but it felt good to know that I was able (well, kind of) to live without the Internet for a while. Anyway, my tour de South went well, I had a great time, and I came back safely and thankful.

I would describe my short break as a "diversity tour." It was because in Mobile (AL), Biloxi (MS), New Orleans (LA), and Pensacola (FL) I saw diversity at work -something that I did not encounter as much in Wyoming. Everywhere I went in these four towns, I saw and talked with people from many different backgrounds. The diversity tour also meant that I sometimes saw separation, grouping, and distance among people with different backgrounds. For example, in New Orleans, I saw people from many different backgrounds mixed together in French Quarters. At the same time, I also saw that most people who worked as waitresses in Cafe du Monde were Chinese people. I also saw different neighborhoods in New Orleans. There were beaten-up neighborhoods, tourist neighborhoods, historic neighborhoods (nice homes), and business neighborhoods (TALL buildings, people with suits, etc.)

In Mobile, there were many international markets/stores, each selling unique food from, for example, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Different kinds of people visited the store showing the meeting of diverse backgrounds. But when we traveled to one side of town, I only saw white people. Asking my friend Katie why we only saw white people, Katie said people with different backgrounds often lived in different parts of the city, making separate neighborhoods. So there were neighborhood for African Americans, the Asian people, etc.

I didn't know what those separate neighborhoods might mean, whether it meant inequality, separation, or something else. I hadn't had time to look closely. For now I would stick with an understanding that after all, we love finding people who are "like us." In the US, I love finding people from Indonesia or people who have lived in Indonesia long enough that they understand my thoughts -like Katie (my friend and my host) for example, who even speaks Bahasa Indonesia really well. The challenge would be exposing ourselves with people who are really different from us, who think differently, speak differently, act differently. I'm in that journey.