Safe in NC

So I left Virginia. My final visit was to a place called Petersburg. Kat really enjoyed the battle field tour. Which makes me suspect that she may have been replaced by an alien or is currently on drugs. There isn't much in Petersburg, other than severe economic depression. There is a "Siege" musuem in downtown Petersburg. It wasn't a bad musuem, but it was one of those msueums that doesn't get visited very often so they were really excited to see us--or they thought we were trying to steal something--because we were followed closley throughout our visit.

Ten years ago I was a LDS missionary in Durham, North Carolina. When people ask "Jake, why are you so shockingly brave?" I reply with one single word ... Durham. Then I usually gaze into the distance to add the approprate level of dramatic effect. Today I returned to Downtown, and to my suprise someone cleaned it all up. The decaying tobacco factories are no longer ruins of a dying age but "fashionable" shopping center and high end condos. The bums are drinking lattes from cups made of recycled material instead of cheap liqour in brown paper bags. I didn't see a single person yelling creative and new curse words. People said "Hello" to me on the street instead of threatening to "cut" me. No one offered to sell me crack. Really, no one. It was really shocking. It like your long-haired cousin gets a hair cut and you don't reconize him.

To be honest the reason my Durham experience was, well let's say rough, has less to do with Durham and more to do with the missionaries I served with. Still Durham taught me that life can be total crap. Crap that has been put into a bag placed on someones porch and lit on fire. Still if Durham can change, then anything is possible.