Day 1 - Off to West Virginia!

Rutgers ASB West Virginia 2012 !

Hi, my name is Nina and I am the designated West Virginia blogger (woooo)!
Hi, my name is Yumiko and I am the fantastic photog for WV !!

We began our journey on Sunday March 11, 2012 - the first day of Daylights Savings. Our team was piled into two huge SUVs in front of the Rutgers Student Center. After some minor delays, we hit the road headed for Beards Fork, West Virginia @ 6:40 (felt like 5:40 haha) AM!

 We spent most of the day driving. I sat in the middle seat of the middle row (colloquially known as something I cannot write here), dozing in and out of consciousness. Whenever I was awake, though, I would take part in super fun car games (alphabet game!) or just shoot the breeze with my teammates. It was really nice because we had never hung out outside of our pre-trip meetings and it felt we were starting to really get to know each other.

At one point, I distinctly remember looking up and seeing a stripped down mountain through the front windshield! It was so shocking because it had not hit me that mountaintop removal (MTR), this terrible but seemingly far-off practice we learned about in our pre-trip meetings, was REAL! It made me sad to look at this mountain, that had taken years to form, completely flattened and robbed for its coal. At that moment, I became really excited to help the West Virginia communities affected by coalmining.

But on a happier note, we stopped for lunch at DJ’s 50s and 60s Diner, a cute little retro joint. It was complete with checkered walls, Elvis Presley cutouts, and old Coca-Cola posters advertising soda for 5 cents. Everyone was excited to order southern sweet tea and to eavesdrop on the Southern-accented conversations of the diner regulars.

After our meal, we stayed to chitchat with these friendly folks. Once they found out we were from Rutgers, they chuckled because we were known to be sports rivals with West Virginia University. They had no idea where Beards Fork was but was happy to hear that we were there to help the area.

“Good luck!” yelled one particularly hearty sounding man, as we headed out.

After a few more hours of driving, we went to Walmart and picked up groceries. After even more driving, we drove up to a wooden post that said “Southern Appalachian Labor School.” We were finally there!

The town of Beards Fork ran along one main road that curves up. The place we were staying was further down the holler (slang for road, as we found out). It was a renovated church designed for volunteers. A Vista (Americorps volunteer) was already living there and we met her friendly dog, Baby!

After settling down, we went down for orientation. We were introduced to the hardworking staff that ran the nonprofit. We learned that SALS had several projects, like early childhood education, house rehabilitation, and education. The whole mission of the program was to empower the people of the surrounding area, which were mostly unincorporated, former coal mining towns.

After orientation, we went back home and got a well-deserved sleep