For the past two weeks we have been working on writing our stories. Making story boards and pouring over photographs while scratching our heads in the heat. The stories and photographs - this part, putting it all together signals a transition. We are coming to an end. No-one wants to stop. How to continue, she wonders to herself, late at night... Ideally we would have a solid base for our projects so that the work would not start and stop. So much is lost each time in terms of energy and education and critical mass. But there are gains with each project. Each time there is a shift and a learning, a teaching that is taken into the larger social system.
"Is it time for a smoke break, Nancy?" asks Bruce in his soft voice as he heads out the door with Ron and Jim and Kevin and everyone else. It is time for a smoke break. Bruce has been telling his story of how he came to be where he is, drawing simple blue lines to tell a story that is not simple. Though it is is a bit blue. Not wholly. I have been going through photographs with Jim, choosing multiple images that we will animate. On the other side of me Jean Guy speaks to the importance of the mental health system as it relates to staying in shelters. He tries to get me to take the pictures but I say no and we laugh. He will take the last shots that he needs. The process of drawing out the story boards is working well. We are recognizing the gaps in the photographs that we have, what we need to go out and take. We are all learning. And no, this is not a typical Photovoice process. There are many more iterations than you would normally have.
One of the guys is not feeling so well. His medication may have to be increased. There are so many delicate balances. He is glad that we are staying in today to work. Being outside with people would provide too much sensory stimulation. The subject of teeth arises at some point. It usually does. One of the guys has come in with a new smile. Another is desperate for teeth and he and his worker are fighting with the system to get him a set of teeth, to have proper dental care. He has lost weight that he can ill afford to lose. I worry. He is not the only person I see on a daily basis without teeth, suffering. He has had infections and has been trying to save the teeth he has, knowing that these are a basis for his health.
And on a another track dissemination has become a key word. It means that we keep going even when we are not in the field taking pictures, even after the people that Joe called the "provisional army of photographers" have dispersed. We (Erika, Jim, and me and Fred) submitted a paper about our last project to a journal today! After hours of fussing with an on-line manuscript submission system. It's done. And so am I, at least for tonight.
