Wisdom from West Virginia

Greetings from those of us volunteering in the Wild & Wonderful state of West Virginia!  A day in the life of our Destination: Rural Poverty experience has included many new experiences that have exposed us to a culture often unknown by those of us in the Midwest.  Today we met Bert, owner of the house we are helping fix up.  He turned out to be more knowledgable than we had anticipacted.  He told us incredible stories and offered us many life-tips that we hope to implement in our own lives.  One of the pieces of advice Bert shared with us was that literacy/education is a gold nugget.  Also among his stories were those of his time as a sale's clerk when he met famous people such as Eisenhower! 

Again our day consisted of waking up early to battle for the bathroom.  Then we drive forty minutes to our work site.  The majority of us worked hard sanding dry-wall mud, smoothing it out and "antiquing" ourselves.  Elise, Joe, and Kelsey certainly won the award for that!  Then we were able to spend our lunch hour in Bert's company.  After lunch it was back to work for another three hours in which many primed the walls, Robbie and John finally got that garage door fixed, and we spent more time soaking up information from Bert.  At four we headed back to SALS to play kickball with the children.  Then we get to compose our blog and head back to "The Church" for down time, supper, and reflections.

We are also able to spend time with people from other schools.  Last night, after a deep reflection, our group headed to the school building for a dance.  However, upon arrival, we found that it was cancelled.  But no worries!  We started our own!  With the group from Maine, we played Catch Phrase, Knights and Dragons, and had a Red Wagon dance off.  Overall, we have learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and hope to continue that streak in our remaining two days here!  :)