I’ve solidified my itinerary for the summer: Las Vegas (June 18-23), Atlanta (June 23-July 1) and Ambergris Caye, Belize (for the month of July). (I’ll return to San Salvador around August 1.) Let’s get drinks, play blackjack, practice Spanish, workshop over coffee or tea, do outreach in the drains, go on a run or hike, play team trivia, snorkel or something!

PS- When you live behind towering, razor wire-topped walls guarded by vigilantes with guns, posting information like this isn’t a concern.

I’d planned to edit the first two chapters of the first draft of Two Cops and a Cricket: Surviving the Las Vegas Storm Drains, then use them as the sample in a book proposal and to apply for grants and fellowships. However, the first two chapters aren’t really representative of the book and I’m in a groove, so I think I’m going to finish a solid second draft and go from there. I’m almost halfway through the draft, and it’s now under 100,000 words, and I should be able to finish it in the next month or so.

As always, I’ll keep you updated. #TwoCopsAndACricket #ShineALight

Voice of America followed Shine a Light’s Paul Vautrinot into the tunnels. This short video will give you some insight into what life is like in the drains and what Shine a Light does, while also touching on Paul’s remarkable story.

https://www.voanews.com/a/las-vegas-homeless-find-homes-citys-drainage-tunnels/4259123.html

As promised, an update on Two Cops and a Cricket: Surviving the Las Vegas Storm Drains. I’ve finished the first draft of the book. It’s 107,000 words. My task now, begun this morning, is to edit and streamline the first two chapters and make them more narrative and cohesive. I then plan to use them as the sample in a book proposal and to apply for grants and fellowships.

I will continue to keep you updated. Thanks again for your support of me, this book project and Shine a Light! #TwoCopsAndACricket #ShineALight

“I loved Las Vegas. I wouldn’t trade those years for the world. I was a big kid—still am—in an adult playground. The tunnels were just a resting place. I never felt weird or guilty when I stayed or hung out in them, because I didn’t have any responsibilities. I didn’t have anyone to take care of or to worry about. I stayed in them till I didn’t need to anymore. I was always in and out of places. When you’re doing drugs and gambling you’re a prince one day and a pauper the next.”—Zero, in the drains from 2009-2011 #ShineALight #TwoCopsAndACricket

You’re gone? Just like that? When I was preparing to send you another poem for your feedback? You slimy bastard!

Shaun, I learned so much about life and poetry from you, despite the fact that you were 20 years my junior. I wish I could’ve done more for you. Wish I would’ve been more persistent, more of an asshole. (At the time, I convinced myself that was not what you wanted or needed.) Wish I would’ve driven from Vegas to South Bend and dragged you to where you needed to be and stayed by your side.

I’m so confused. So many memories, but I assumed there’d be so many more.

The rainy season returned to San Salvador this morning. Miss you madly, mi amigo!

Con amor. Siempre …

PS- You would’ve fucking hated the poem, but provided positive, insightful and constructive criticism nonetheless.

Besides sharing several funny and morbid stories about being a musician in the South, stumbling on a mutilated body while “scrapping,” hustling the casinos, and being set on fire in the tunnels, Jamie provided perhaps the best short description I’ve heard of life in the drains. It was “casually intense,” he said. #TwoCopsAndACricket #ShineALight #CasuallyIntense

I’m predicting a bright future for this young man (and not just because he gave me and Shine a Light a shout-out). He visited Las Vegas with his family and took the time, along with his father Scottie Profitt, to cut a video on the people who live in the drains. Of all the media coverage dedicated to the tunnels, this one definitely ranks among my favorites.

One thing I’ve learned doing outreach in the drains is it’s difficult to predict who’s ready to get out. I used to assume that the clean-cut fella with a part-time job who uses drugs only occasionally was most prepared for a change—but it’s often the soiled, knit-capped heroin addict who’s nodding off in the shadows. This makes some sense, I guess, as the heroin addict (in this case) is closer to his “bottom.”

I say all this to make the point that I never thought “Gordon” would move out of the drains. In fact, I expected to stumble on his lifeless body at the mouth of the tunnel, surrounded by cans of whatever beer happens to be the cheapest at the nearby Terrible Herbst. (He’s an alcoholic who has lived underground for at least three years.)

Best of luck to Gordon, the second housed client in the Freedom House/Shine a Light partnership! We will keep you updated on his remarkable story.

A quick update on the tunnel-survivors book: I have 75,000 words of the first draft (it should top out around 100,000) and a new working title: Two Cops and a Cricket: Surviving the Las Vegas Storm Drains. (The title was borrowed from a line from Paul Vautrinot’s interview.) Also, Steve Fanell is shooting some photos for the book.

I’m as excited as ever about the project and hope to finish the first draft in the next few months. More-detailed updates to follow.