Day 16: "Hi, Ms. Spotted Bird..."

Hola Amigos and happy Tuesday!!


Today went by pretty fast at work!  I got an email from Max this morning saying the people I found who are against the oil rigs live too far away so he won't be able to meet with them.....sooooooo it was back to research.  I found some new contacts, so hopefully I can connect with them as soon as possible and get everything set up!  So that was a little hectic this morning and I concentrated mostly on that.


Oh right, about the title of my post...I found an Indian tribe closer to where Max is in North Dakota.  When I looked up the contact information there were a lot of "interesting" last names in the directory.  I understand it is an Indian tribe and personally, I think it would be AWESOME to have some of these last names.  A list of my favorites are:  Amber Black Dog, Elisha Gray Hawk, Catherine Spotted Bird, Luane Four Bear, Kathy Red Eagle, Sheila Spotted Bird, Kristie CrowBelt, Jean Bear Crane, Walter White Tail Feather, Leonard Bighorn, Myron Walking Eagle, Jennifer Yellow Hammer, Sarah Three Stars, Morris Tattoo, and Terry Rattling Thunder.  Personally, I think Shelby White Tail Feather or Shelby Three Stars or Shelby Rattling Thunder sound awesome!  Or disturbing...I haven't decided yet.  


This afternoon Lisa and I went to Rockville to the Charles E. Smith Living Community.  It took us about an hour to get there after we had to wait for the train and everything.  There, we met with the public relations directors to talk about doing a story.  The community has almost 1,100 residents and the average age is 90.  There are some people living there who are very independent and others need a lot of assistance.  They have 50 residents who survived the Holocaust, and that's what the focus of our meeting was.  If you recall from my post last week, there was an article about these survivors in the Washington Post a few weeks ago.  One of our correspondents had the idea to do a story about them so today we met with the directors to see if this was possible.


The ladies we met with are SUPER nice.  They gave us a few names of residents who would be willing to talk on camera about their experiences.  They told us the only hesitation they have is how we would portray the story, since we are a German Broadcaster and they are Holocaust survivors, which is completely understandable.  But we reassured them that we are just trying to tell their stories and share their experience before it's too late and we aren't able to talk to them again.  We talked to them for over an hour and we thought we had a good understanding of what we were going to do.  


Sooooo we went back and told the correspondent what we talked about and how there are people willing to share their story.  He asked "so what is the story?"  I said I think the story should be that there are 50 Holocaust survivors living in this community and how it is important to hear their stories before they pass away.  He said that wasn't concrete enough and we can't do it.  He said he needs a concrete story...we need to go and talk to the people ourselves to find out what their story is.  Unfortunately, the directors we talked to said it's hard to get them to start talking about it because it is so painful for them and it would be easier if we just sat down with them once, with cameras, and talked to them.  The correspondent also said it is expensive to do stories, so it really has to be a $1000 story...and he's not sure if it's worth it.  Sooo now I'm not sure what we are going to do.  It's frustrating because the ladies we met with today were super nice and very helpful and very excited to have us do this!  Hopefully we work something out tomorrow.


When Lisa and I were on the train today there was a part of the track that goes outside and is above roads and stuff.  She said "this always worries me because the train could just fall off the track!"  I was like gee....THANKS!  As if I'm not freaked out enough by the trains (thanks a lot tv and movies).  Taxis freak me out too.  She then said "don't worry, it probably won't happen."  THANKS!


On the way to the metro today I saw a store called "Bedazzled."  I'm not sure what kind of store it is....but I feel like I must check it out....


Also, I only saw 2 spies today...and they weren't on the bus.  One was dressed up like an old person at the community and the other was a guy walking on the street.  Definite spies.


Well that was today!  More tomorrow :)

Shelby*