What I did over Spring Break

You know what they say about a picture being worth a thousand words?

Well. . . yeah.

Heading for the hills, then. . . home

Cathy and Richard on the Square in Oxford. (Can you tell which Witt prof has just returned
from an intense week-long service immersion trip in a remote area?)

The statue of the Confederate Soldier on the Square gets a visit from Ezra.

Oge and Moses, outside the Lyceum (with Moses helpfully indicating
the origins of the Ole Miss logo).

The Lyceum.

This afternoon we found ourselves worlds away from Cary, in Oxford, Mississippi with Witt biology prof and native Mississippian Richard Philips as our tour guide. We took in some of the sights in town, then headed to Taylor Grocery for a farewell dinner of catfish and hushpuppies.

Outside Taylor Grocery, waiting to go in and eat.

Mont Helena

The Wittenberg vans head down the driveway toward Mont Helena to get a closer look.

"Chins in hands, everybody!" Group shot on the front stoop.

View from the front porch: a tractor preparing the field for some spring planting.

Before leaving the Delta, we stopped a few miles outside of Rolling Fork at Mont Helena, a Colonial revival style home built atop a ceremonial Indian mound.

Built in 1896 (the first time. The house burned right after it was built, but its owners immediately began rebuilding), the house is not an antebellum home, though it is still representative of the gorgeous old mansions the South is famous for.

Nobody was home, so we peeked in the windows and took in the view from the front porch — the highest point for miles around before piling back into the vans to head home.

Onward, Mississippi

Michelle poses with a rather large teddy bear on the porch of the Onward Store.

We've seen lots of firsts on our trip — including this armadillo basket.
Just the thing to add some, uh, life to a dull dinner table.

No, it's not a motivational cheer or command: Onward, Mississippi is a tiny little bend in the road a few miles south of Cary — a bend with history. We stopped by today to learn more.

President Teddy Roosevelt came to this part of Mississippi to hunt for bears in 1902. The story has it that the president's hunting guide  had arranged for a bear to be captured and tied so that Roosevelt would be sure to get a bear — and that Roosevelt refused to shoot the tied-up bear, leading to the manufacture of stuffed toy bears by companies like Cracker Jack. Teddy bears. 

That's the story, anyway.

Hard to believe

Sun coming up on the tiny little town of Cary.

Team Witt and the gang from Northwestern College gather out in front of the admin building
after devotions  for one last photo.

Somehow it's Friday morning — already time to leave. . .

Brighten the corner where you are

Leigh, Kate, and Tyler teamed up to conceptualize a mural for the hallway in the Children's Village — then spent several hours bringing it to fruition. The result: a lively spot of colorful inspiration for passersby.

There's just something about the Mississippi

. . . that makes people feel reflective. Or epic. Or awed. (Or in the mood for skipping stones!)

We got a treat this afternoon when Robert Jackson, taking a break from his usual schedule at the Center, took us on a quick trip to see this legendary river. The Mighty Mississippi. Father of Waters.* The largest and longest river in North America. Huck Finn's playground. . . Big water, indeed.

*In a letter dated August 27, 1863, Abraham Lincoln wrote, "the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea," referring to General Grant's capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi — though, officially, the word Mississippi comes from an Ojibwa word meaning "big water."

Photos (from top): 1) Michelle, 2) Tyler, 3) Sarah and Kate, 4) Team Witt plus Robert, and 5) NOT the splash made by the rock thrown by a certain young woman from Wittenberg (who may or may not have narrowly missed hitting a Witt faculty adviser while attempting to skip a stone, later confessing, somewhat horrified: "Nobody's going to let me forget that. I threw a rock and missed the biggest river in the United States.")