Working in the hot sun in 80-degree weather can be a difficult task. Combine this with a cemetery that’s filled with inch long thorns, tall grass, and the occasional deep hole in the ground, everyone needs to be mindful of their surroundings. Yet despite all this it was still enjoyable to go out into the cemetery every Friday with our cell phones to collect data. It was a change in sensory from the stuffy class room. While collecting data with our cell phones we soon found that this would be the hardest task of all. Using a phone application on our phone we were supposed to gather information from burial sites. This included collecting data such as name, head stone description, burial offerings, size of the head stone, the direction its was facing, and so on. While this task was not at all hard it did prove to be tedious. Collecting information from a head stone can take anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes, even with a partner advising you the best way to write this information down. However, not everything is perfect when doing data collection work out in the field. Sometimes our most important tools, our cell phones which rely on signal, don’t work properly. This can cause use a lot of anxiety as data can become lost or our cell phones will over heat in the 80 degrees weather, but being the stubborn group that we are we will most often go back and recollect the data again 3 maybe even four times in necessary.
I eagerly await the day when all our hard work can one day be viewed in 3D format. Each grave stone is not just a sight where a the departed was buried. It tells a story of what could have went on during that time. Weather it was a simple wooden cross or an elegant head stone with an empathy carved into it, it can show to the public their own past and remind people what life was like. Being able to explore a sight from a position of covenant’s at anywhere and time can be beneficial to everyone. Especially the elderly who may not be able to explore the sight on foot. This can possibly help them identify their loves one more easily. Now the only hard part would be to hoof down to the Cemetery and digitally collect everything.
