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Today is July 14, 2020. And here we have Ms. Helen Chou for the Houston Asian American Archive's special COVID-19 project.

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Welcome, Ms. Chou and thank you so much for agreeing to take this interview with us. Starting off, would you like to briefly introduce yourself? Sure. My name is Helen Chou, I was born and raised in Houston, I have lived in different parts of the

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world. I spent about seven years in Singapore prior to returning back to Houston in 2015. I work currently at the Houston Public Library. It's the City of Houston Library Department.

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And I'm an Administration Manager there and it's–it’s the Senior Manager of International Services at the Houston Public Library, so we oversee how the library serves international communities, immigrants and refugees

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from our 43 locations. Okay, that's so great. So my first question is, in what ways has the Coronavirus pandemic impacted you in your life?

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Sure, well I think as a City of Houston employee, it has been a bit of a different experience from maybe the average.

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All employees of the City of Houston are designated as essential workers. And so the majority of us have been going into work, you know, over 90, 95% of the time, to serve the City.

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So, we, at the library, have worked really hard to, I guess, transform our services to be more and more accessible.

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And that a lot of that has been putting, putting programs online and shifting a lot of our budget so that materials can be accessed online rather than just in person.

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But then we also in parallel worked hard to come up with a curbside pickup approach. And we launched that in the beginning of June. And we've since expanded curbside pickup to 15 locations across the City.

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But balancing the need to keep the public safe given that now Houston is growing in terms of the number of cases, so we had intended to expand more but we we scaled back.

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Um, I personally was involved in another area where we as a city responded at the around mid-April, to the rising number of cases where I was helping the City of Houston Health Department in their COVID-

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19 hotline, I'm sorry, there's a wasp, like in my area so I'm a little freaked out. Okay, so, so there we––so the City of Houston Health Department runs a COVID-19 call Call Center, City of Houston COVID-19

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Call Center. And we–to support our health colleagues who were were quite swamped at the beginning of, especially when the cases went up. We set up a satellite call Call Centerat the Central Library downtown.

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And we as library staff, we almost 80 staff in the first two weeks trained to stuff that that satellite Call Center and so we've continued to stuff that, through today, to

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present day, so it's been, I think 13 weeks. And, and we're very, very proud to to support our Health Department colleagues there. They are doing

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excellent work and they are constantly, you know, they're they're constantly changing their dynamic, their, their resources and their approach according to the needs of the City and the, the basically our residents.

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So, so that's been a lot of a lot––that was a lot back in––well, it's been a lot since but the starting that out was was a lot personally. Um, and then I have a lot of family in Houston.

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And so they're, you know, we have worked together in different ways to make sure that everybody's safe. And that we've been taking care of each other. We have some, some young kids and we have

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people from our older generation and so we're we're just taking care of each other. So yeah, that's a little bit of, of what's been going on. Yeah.

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That's so wonderful. You mentioned that you work as a Senior Manager at a Houston Public Library, I'm wondering could you tell us how the pandemics has a-affected your job specifically?

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Yes. We we are always trying to see what how the Citycan support international communities across across Houston. So we've been

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trying are trying to to transform our, again transform our services so that they can be more accessible. One of the things that we did was we have English classes that

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they’re called the Living English Lessons. And we worked to basically transform all those to be online to be available online. So they actually we actually launched that towards the

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middle of June. And so now our classes are all available online. We have two classes a week, which are done over over Zoom like this so that students

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can speak and, and interact dynamically with with two instructors. And then all of our lesson material is online as well. So we worked hard to get that material available to the public. And we it's been wonderful.

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I mean, we we've actually seen how it makes the lessons more accessible to Houstonians so so we used to have students who were from Mexico and from Russia, and they've now returned back to their home countries, but they're still able to access the class while

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they're away until they they can return. And we have people who, you know, used to not be able to come to our classes because they couldn't drive or they were raising young children.

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And now they're all able to attend the class. The other benefit that we're seeing is that now that the class materials are online, we also created videos for each lesson, there's 25 lessons, and those those are all available on our YouTube.

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And people are able to watch that those lessons on the on their own time. So they're able to engage in that at their at their own pace, and then they can attend the class of the interactive classes and in

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addition to that. And then they’re also able to use our online language learning databases. So, again, those are those are all it's exciting that we're able to offer that. And we we also are trying

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to–we've done, we filmed a lot of videos to make our other resources accessible. So we have, for example, if people are looking for jobs, we have a lot of resources for people to

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either search for jobs or get help with a resumé or get help with with their, with looking for ways to to build up their skills so they can get training for example with becoming a looking–if they're trying to train to

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become a registered nurse, for example, we have resources for them to study for that certification and kind of upskill or they we have other types of resources such as learning Adobe, the Adobe Suite.

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And so you can learn all of that online for free. And so what we try to do is translate an introduction to some of those resources into various languages. So the Vietnamese, Urdu or Chinese.

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And so we've been trying to make those make those easier to navigate. Because we do have a lot of resources. So, so yeah, so even though we

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were not able to meet in person the way we love to, we're working hard, again to try and make people aware of what we have and then also make them more accessible. We do recognize that not everybody has access

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to the internet and we the library does have some resources resources for that. But it's we know that it's not it's not nearly enough, but we do have things like hotspots that you can check it

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out. And we were, we're still working hard to see how that can that can be expanded to more and more of Houston's residents. Yeah, that's so great.

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I'm wondering during this process or any difficulties or challenges you face? Can you be more specific? I mean to transform like, lots of materials to the online mode, I'm wondering are there any difficulties

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or challenges? Yes. The reason I asked for being more specific, I think this this period has been very difficult, personally for every single person, I think.

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You know, first of all, not knowing or being in a situation in a pandemic where we we are not certain of how to protect ourselves against this pandemic. And then we have all of our library staff being essential

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workers, so we're we’re coming into to work and we don't know what that means in terms of everybody's health and safety for our staff? And then on top of that, we're working,

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we're working really hard to to, transform these resources. So I think probably one of the hardest things is, is the, the care of for each other is that you know, a lot of people have, it's been very hard.

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Some people have had lost loved ones to the pandemic, other people are, are worried you know–legitimately so. And amidst all of that, we still want to serve Houston residents, we want to serve our our community and

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our neighbors. And so, I think balancing that that desire and that hard work with taking care of each other and ourselves has probably been one of the biggest challenges. And of course, the the

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very difficult situation that came in the middle of this with the-the-the just the the situations with Ahmaud Arbery and Brianna Taylor and Mr.

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Floyd and, and so many so many others on this this time, and that that personally is very difficult for every single, every single one of us to again––it's a new

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situation of how can we take care of each other in terms of doing that, along with all of the considerations for protecting health during COVID- 19. So I think that that has, that is

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really one of the greatest challenges. And then and then from a technical standpoint, yes, we we have had to do so many. We've had to come up with so many different scenarios.

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So scenario planning it–so it's how do we take care of our staff, but still have these services available to the public and so we we, you know, there's there's been a lot of shifting of resources and redesigning

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how teams are, like, how their time is managed, how much time people are doing curbside pickup versus trying to work on the the transformation of materials to be more accessible

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online. How do we redesign our libraries so that they, when we return to to being a more in-person state, we, we want to make sure that things are that people are able to use the

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resources but still be safe distance apart and make sure that we can clean those surfaces at a, at a in a timely way. And that's much more resources and in terms of staff and cleaning

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materials, and it's just a different completely different way to run a library. I think financially that's that's just a whole other component. You know, the mayor had to pass a budget in in the midst of this time.

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And, and there's—in that there’s there's a lot of needs, if you can imagine. Trying to to just just cleaning surfaces more alone that that investment is, is a large and new investment.

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And, and then again, the the approach for taking care of staff who have fallen ill or who are lost loved ones. That's that's just another entire

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you know it’s it has led us to need to manage things in a very different way. Um, and yeah, it's not all bad. You know, we, I think I, in some

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ways I what I've been telling people is I get to go to work. I-I genuinely, and I-I sincerely admire my co-workers and I enjoy working with

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them immensely. And it's been amazing to, to work alongside these people who, who care deeply about our staff and care deeply about the public and about our residents and

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our neighbors here in Houston. And so it's been, it's been a good experience in a lot of ways, but during a very difficult time, so yeah.

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Definitely, there are lots of challenges everyone's facing and dealing with during this time. So you mentioned that there is like many benefits regarding the increasing usage of internet.

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I'm wondering, do you think that will be like a trend in the following even years or even in the future after the pandemic has ended? Absolutely, absolutely. I think somebody said just last week that we've, we've

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done maybe 10 years of advancement and learning how to interact online and we've done that in a matter of three months. I think that's true. I think so many, so many people have

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become comfortable with conversations just like what you and I are having. And and being able to, to push forward, the things that need to be done and things that need to be discussed with and that we're, we're

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pretty resilient. Um, so I think that there's, there's a lot that we're learning that can can be done online and can be done from home. But I have to say that that there we

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are also learning that there are some things that still need to be done in person. Or there's it’s just so much there's so much more understanding and more synergy when we're working in the same physical place.

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You know I have to say that the when I'm working in the office and our my colleagues are kind of we're in a suite, and we each have our own office space, but to be able to tap into their, their wisdom and their, their

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advice, just by stepping out the door, rather than setting up a a conference call or video call. I think that that type of synergy is, is not to be replaced. It's not to be dismissed as a vital

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way that we should be working. Um, I think in terms of how they, you know, how all of us can access more resources online, I think that's, that's wonderful.

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I think I-I-I do hope that resources can be available for those who do not have internet access who don't who do not have access not just to the internet, but just the facility that, that they

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can learn and with, with the, with the, the space. For example, those who have had to raise their kids at home makes it almost impossible to both for the kids to

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learn and for them to to work. And so, I think that I think societies are looking a lot at care of children as well as our our older generation.

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So caregiving, I think that that does need significant attention. But then again, even with the with having access to resources online, I think all of us have seen that,

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you know, you can only look at a screen for so long. Um, and I think being in person, being able to build relationships is is

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vital and I think we're all learning that as well. And I hope I hope people don't get into a place where they, they, they stop reaching out for that type of interaction.

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So I think we believe that we have highly believe that being in a space together as a community is, is vital for us for for building understanding and becoming a stronger society.

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And that's what makes library so special, you know, to be a safe and trusted space for everyone in the community, no matter who you are, and then you get to meet each other and you get to hang out.

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So I, I do hope that, yes, we get, we get what needs to be online, we get that online. But then I hope then just as important, we come back to being together

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and, and being present when we are when we are together to to listen to each other and, and hear each other's stories and are in each other's shoes. That's so wonderful.

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I think you mentioned this a little bit before. You said there are some people there are still some people who don't have access to the internet. So I'm wondering in what specific ways has the

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library responded to that issue? It's been it's been difficult because we, for example, some people have started to use our parking lots and just sort of sitting there, but that can be dangerous because essentially

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you have people gathering and then gathering together and and that's that's not safe. And we do have a hotspot program so a wire-a wireless hotspot program and it's it's amazing

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program where you you literally can, you know, you can check out a little Wi-Fi hotspot for three weeks at a time. And so a lot of people have had the opportunity to use those. And but we we don't have enough, you know, we only have a

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few hundred for the entire City of Houston. So we are in need of resources for to to get more of those out there. Um, so I think there are there are there

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are some ideas that we've been exploring. We do have a mobile bus unit and that has been putting on summer camps. Even amidst the the the situation they've been basically giving out kids that people can

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access from home, or they can they can use at home. And then the bus itself is equipped with Wi-Fi. When, when there's an opportunity, again for people to be in the same space. But but yes, we, we wish we could

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do more and we're working on it. We we've applied for some grants, and we've been awarded some some opportunities, but yeah, we're, we're working on it. That's great. And during this public, do you think there's an increase in

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public demand for the resources in the library, like whether online or? Can you repeat it sorry, you were coming in and out. During the pandemic, do you think there's an increase in public demands for the

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resources in the library? We, we know that we know that our customers have been asking us to open throughout this time. And so we know that there is a, there is a desire

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for those resources. And again, that's why we've been try- pushing so hard to get them at least online. And so I do think yes, people have been they need they need

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the right library’s resources, and there's so many wonderful resources again that are free, good for all ages. So yes, on our on our comments and the the comments that come in from customers that everybody is

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asking, but I think a lot of but everybody understands that this is a different difficult situation. So we appreciate everybody's patience. Um, but, you know, again, we're just trying to do

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do as much as we can but, but keep people safe and keep Houston safe. We just, you know, even with curbside pickup you can imagine like, it's, um we have our staff going

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inside in and out into the parking lot with cars driving around and so that's just another layer of safety that that needs to be managed and it's so hot outside and so people are needing to, but they're needing to still wear

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extra layers of protection to protect against COVID but then at the same time, they need to protect against dehydration and heat exhaustion. So, so we're doing our best, yeah. Absolutely.

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And going back to the Call Center you mentioned at the beginning of the interview, I'm wondering, could you tell us more about what specifically you you've done like during that period? Mm hm. So, so yes, the call Call Centeris

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a way for Houstonians to to get tested for COVID-19 regardless of your symptoms and your health profile, so the mayor opened that up mid-April, I believe it

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was April 12. And the City operates two testing sites at at Del Mar and Butler Stadium. And then there each week there are mobile stations that also offer that and

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up to a few hundred tests a day and then after they reach that capacity then, then the close for the day. The call Call Centergives out the identification number that you need in order to get the test.

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And on top of that the call Call Centerexists to field any questions that you may have about the disease or for employers that have questions about how they might reopen and take

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care of their staff. Um, there's also questions from or or there's, you know, it's it's a line that some some doctors and medical professionals call in to to report what they're what they're experiencing.

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So, so, our staff who, you know, the library I don't I don't know if people a lot of people are aware of this, the library staff on a regular basis take calls from the public.

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We we get on in a normal year, I think over over a million calls a year, calls or whether it's sometimes we do things through email or chat, but as well as telephone calls. And so and so our staff we’re very, very resilient,

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very versatile to be trained on on the specific information that the call Call Centerrequires. And then we have had the benefit of having our Health Department staff really, you know, be

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on site to, to support any questions that that may came up come up that that, that we don't have the background for and so it's, it's every day, there's new information. And so we we've also set things up so that there's,

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there's regular, there's regular briefings each day but then there's a way for you know, new information, whatever comes up, hour to hour, is then quickly communicated to all of the Call Center staff.

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So, so you can imagine that that requires a lot of coordination. I mean, even getting the phones set up in our Central Library was a, was a process, because those are

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specific types of phones and they're specifically configured. So yeah, I mean, I think the library has been happy to try and learn new things. And but again, to do what is really vital for for

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our city and getting getting the right information out there. Yeah, I think so the library has also been doing research for about COVID-19 in in partnership with the Health Department as well. So so we're, we're there's several staff who are

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doing that type of work. Yeah. Yeah. That's great to hear. We really appreciate your efforts in helping the Houston community.

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Is that process initiative still going on right now or? Which one? The Call Center. Mm hm. The Call Center is continuing. I think as long as, as COVID-19 as an issue, I think the

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COVID-19 Call Center will continue. And we, the Health Department is really though they're manning the bulk of the phones. And they, they have hired some, a lot of staff recently,

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that we're continuing to hire in order to staff those, those phones, at actually at the George Brown Convention Center, so they've set up a center there. And then the library just hosts the satellite, satellite

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center actually and in the Parks Department also hosts a small satellite center. So we know the City has tried to come together. Yeah. Or, yeah, it's been it's been an honor honestly, it's

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been really, really a good experience to work together. And how do you feel about being part of the Call Center initiative? I, I'm very thankful. It's good work. It's meaningful work.

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And I—it came out of an existing partnership that we had with the Health Department. So International Services group specifically had been working with a group in the Health Department.

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And this, this conversation came from that relationship. So, it it I feel very fortunate that, that we that the department's had that relationship and it

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wasn't the first idea actually that we tried. We had—there were other ideas that, that the Health Department, you know, you can imagine Health Department had so many things that suddenly happened at the, you know, when when this pandemic arose, and so there were other

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ideas that they approached the library for, to ask for help. And it was just an open conversation. And it was, I am, you know, I think

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everybody in the library is glad that, that we have that kind of collaborative and open, open relationship to be able to to to develop what's needed kind of quickly and so,

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to call on each other when-when-when help is needed. And so again, I feel very fortunate to be part of that to be part of being able to do something that that helps helps sort of the helps people helps

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the community. Yeah. Okay, and let's switch gears a little bit. So, during this pandemic what do you learn about yourself? Learn about myself?

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Or your life or your family? So many things…You know, I think when when you're in a situation that has suddenly such

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a like all the routines are are gone all the all the structure is gone and you are kind of given space to just sort of naturally bring forth,

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whatever it is that you, you are feeling or you you think is best for the situation, you know, it's like you you had like a way to do things and suddenly it opens up. So I've learned a lot about

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my motivations for what I used to think were, were natural in my routine. And, and I think being able to

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reflect on why I tend, I guess had a tendency to stop certain routines and to continue others. I think that that's one.

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I think I'm somebody who who is, is quite okay with a lot of time to myself. I’m introverted but I'm

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also very social. And what's been very special during this time is the opportunity to connect with people from all over the world that we were

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we wouldn't have we weren't connecting prior to this. But but now we we are and, and we're connecting regularly and we're, we're supporting each other and we're learning

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from each other. And I think I learned the value of having time and space and having and building that regularly into my life so that I'm

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adequately processing you know, what's going on in my life, adequately giving time to reflect on on serious issues, in our in, in my life, but also in society.

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I personally think that the world would have reacted very differently to George Floyd's death, if we had not been in this in this situation. I think that the world

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kind of was, was forced to a stop, forced to take time to reflect on things. And when, when maybe in the past, it could have been possible that many people would have just kept on

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going. But I think, you know, situations like Mr. Arbery and Mr. Floyd and Brianna Taylor, you know,

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when there's no way that you can stop and reflect on those without it deeply, deeply impacting you. Whereas before, I think maybe we were just, we just kept running and we weren't really letting ourselves

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be human and connecting in a human way. So those have been, I think, some some personal experiences and reflections during this time. I really appreciated seeing how neighbors are connecting.

00:37:23.410 - 00:37:39.650

I don't know if that's a learning lesson, but in at least in my neighborhood, families are spending great time together without looking at devices. I mean I'm seeing kids just play

00:37:40.730 - 00:37:55.370

cards on the street, like, like, I never thought that would happen again. They don't need and then neighbors connecting with each other, you know, in on my street, we, and we get together a couple times a week, just naturally just out.

00:37:55.920 - 00:38:08.060

We're talking and I think that's been very beautiful. And I'm very thankful for for that. So, yeah, those are just a few thoughts. Yeah, that’s great.

00:38:08.060 - 00:38:20.910

You mentioned that definitely there are many people like–this pandemic give us an opportunity to get reunited together. But we also see that there are some racism against Asians and also

00:38:21.380 - 00:38:48.520

even hate crimes against Asians during this time, so I'm wondering like what do you think of this? What do I think of the sentiment towards Asian specifically? Yes. Um, I think people

00:38:51.470 - 00:39:08.090

should should take seriously little insults that they think are not a big deal, but really indicates something much deeper.

00:39:11.320 - 00:39:27.420

Saying things like "kung flu" may seem like just a joke. But if you really ask that person if that person asks him or herself what is really going on underneath that

00:39:27.420 - 00:39:50.130

comment? You know, there's there's a need to, to want to understand people do we need we need to value each and every person and not

00:39:50.630 - 00:40:08.240

move into a men-mentality where we're categorizing and we're we're glazing over people's lives based on our own opinion and our own experience.

00:40:11.880 - 00:40:30.270

I think there's many reasons why people treat others badly. I think there's many reasons that people don't want to understand,

00:40:30.530 - 00:40:57.370

people don't want to think differently and people try to put others down and raise themselves up. I would– yeah, it starts with each person being humble enough to or

00:40:57.610 - 00:41:17.560

just whether they want to look at themselves with some with humility, rather than just charging forth assuming that they're right, and not taking the

00:41:17.620 - 00:41:38.530

time each day or after each decision to, to reflect on whether that they're, they're really opening themselves up at all to to being wrong. Um, so when we when

00:41:38.530 - 00:41:55.820

we get into situations where there's a lot of uncertainty I think we we do things to make us feel strong, you know, and and that sometimes means pushing other people down or it

00:41:55.820 - 00:42:11.370

means walling ourselves up to not listen to not listen to criticism or listen to other people's opinions. And and that's, that's a dangerous thing. And but I will say, we all do it I do it.

00:42:12.120 - 00:42:28.020

And I think people—it just comes down to each each person. At the end of the day, they're responsible for their own actions and their own. Yeah, their own the ways

00:42:28.100 - 00:42:41.260

the way that they handle each situation. That being said, yes, there are plenty of things that we can do on a systemic level, which educates others and

00:42:46.820 - 00:43:02.940

builds accountability and justice. When when there are when things are wrong, things are done wrong. There are a lot of what we do in International Services at the library is about building understanding in the

00:43:02.940 - 00:43:15.490

community. So Houston is the most diverse city in the United States. And what we believe is that then one of the greatest opportunities to learn is actually from each other.

00:43:16.440 - 00:43:31.390

Um, so a lot of what we do is try to build a way for us to learn from each other. So for examples, just in our English lessons, the majority of our classes, if you have eight people, you will most likely have

00:43:31.390 - 00:43:44.080

eight different countries represented. But on average, yeah, I mean, over there, we'll have just such a beautiful range of countries and backgrounds and cultures and every single class. And so we created our

00:43:44.080 - 00:44:05.500

classes to have people really talk and share with each other and not just have the instructor talking to a class of people. And that's been beautiful, you know, so when we when we talk about our

00:44:05.500 - 00:44:18.730

food, for example, or some of the lessons are is about, about cooking and baking, and so people share about their different dishes and family traditions. But we also have a lesson on Law and your Rights.

00:44:19.860 - 00:44:35.130

And so having people share–one of the well, this, this really happened––I mean, in our Central Library, it was a class where there are people from from Mexico and from Russia, and from Iran and Afghanistan and China.

00:44:36.140 - 00:44:51.570

And you can just imagine how the law is, how the law impacts people, people's lives from those different countries, and they were all sharing with each other, you know, what are the consequences in China if you

00:44:51.570 - 00:45:06.290

don't follow the law? What are the consequences in Afghanistan if you don't follow the law, and how does that you know, how is that different and what does that how does that impact the culture? So all of that to

00:45:06.290 - 00:45:23.660

say I think, I think having people have the opportunity to learn from one another, to talk and and just interact as as human beings, sit in and have some some coffee and tea together, I think that's maybe one

00:45:23.660 - 00:45:40.770

of the best things that people can can do just voluntarily engage in a conversation with somebody that you might not you don't normally talk to. So yeah, I, I've said a

00:45:40.770 - 00:45:52.600

lot. I will, I'll stop there. That's great. My last question is, what do you think the future of Houston community looks like in terms of social interactions or returning back to normal?

00:45:57.340 - 00:46:14.000

That’s hard to say I would you know, one thing I've been very aware of when you're when you're basically staying at home––your, your knowledge base of what's going on is based on the people you

00:46:14.000 - 00:46:27.980

normally connect with, right? And so normally those people are people that you agree with. So in my circle the majority of people believe that wearing masks is a given.

00:46:28.510 - 00:46:44.350

That's a—it's the best protection and it's good for our community. And but as we've seen, there's lots of people who don't agree, and they, they believe there's other ways

00:46:45.160 - 00:47:01.430

to, to move forward as a community. And so, so I don't I'm just saying that I don't have a good gauge on what does the majority think and that's it, you know, and I guess we'll see I

00:47:01.430 - 00:47:18.230

mean, I, I voted today, I hope that I hope that everybody went out and voted and that they will go and vote so that we can better understand how each of us feels. I think another thing that I would put a plug for is people should fill out the your Census.

00:47:19.390 - 00:47:32.330

If you haven't filled out the your Census, go and fill out the your Census and go tell your friends and your family to go fill out the your Census if you live in, in America. Um, I I think that

00:47:32.930 - 00:47:48.150

I've always so I'm, I'm a Houston native, right. So I was I, I was born here. I was gone for 15 years, but I came back like I still genuinely love Houston. And I think our diversity is one of

00:47:48.150 - 00:48:06.480

the greatest things that we have. You know, Steven Klineberg at Rice has been telling us for over 20 years that we that Houston is the future of America, like Houston is currently, our demographics are, what the

00:48:06.480 - 00:48:19.470

U. S. will be in 20 years. And so I think Houston stands to be a beautiful model for and an example for the rest of the country that we can

00:48:20.390 - 00:48:36.270

have differences, but we are, we live in harmony, and we respect one another, we work together. And I think, I don't think that's going to change after this pandemic.

00:48:36.690 - 00:48:55.070

And I hope that it grows stronger. And part of the reason I think it won't change is that are the industries in Houston are a lot of them are very heavily weighted towards fact and science

00:48:56.050 - 00:49:08.880

and math and skill. You know, it's it's a oil and gas and energy, the Medical Center, NASA, no, these are things these are areas where you can't really fudge around

00:49:08.880 - 00:49:24.050

too much in order to build those industries and yeah, build those, build those well and build them into strong industries. And so Houston is built on industries

00:49:26.050 - 00:49:45.650

that rely on on being being the best in your field and, and basing that on fact and science and work. And honestly, I think that's one of the main reasons that Houston

00:49:45.650 - 00:50:03.120

is so diverse, is that it has brought people from all over the world regardless of any, anything related to background. I think those industries just require you to be the best in your field and so we're used to working with one another in those industries.

00:50:03.240 - 00:50:16.690

And so I think Houston has something of a of an advantage in terms of experience. We're, we're, we have always worked together and we've lived together. And it's

00:50:16.740 - 00:50:32.740

been. It's part of who we are. And it's part of our strength, and we know it. And so yeah, again, I believe that that's why I hope, I hope that's not going to

00:50:32.740 - 00:50:46.740

change, and I don't believe it will. And so I still think that Houston stands to be a model for the nation in a lot of ways. And I, yeah I'm glad to be here.

00:50:46.990 - 00:50:59.600

Glad to be part of this community. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That's wonderful. And yeah, I think these are my questions for today. Is there anything else you'd like to add at the end?

00:51:01.780 - 00:51:16.850

Um, I do think that I mean, I commend you all for for collecting stories. I think telling people's stories is one of the most powerful tools that that we

00:51:17.470 - 00:51:34.640

have and I hope that many people will be open to, to listening again listening to other people's stories so not just what happened in this pandemic, but you know what, what brought you here to Houston and tell me about your family and

00:51:36.560 - 00:51:52.400

what are your favorite things to do here and why and, and, and I hope that the people will, that we will, we will come back together and we'll continue––that we will want to build relationships,

00:51:53.460 - 00:52:10.120

you know, with each other after all of this, even though some of us have become very comfortable at home. But I think I hope that that we reconnect. Yeah. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing today and thank you so much

00:52:10.120 - 00:52:18.270

for your time. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. And yeah, that's it. Thank you. Okay. Oh, thank you.

00:52:18.610 - 00:52:21.200

Oh, okay. Okay. Take care. Bye.