Day 6: Sun's Out!

The sun is out! After all of the muggy and rainy weather in the past week, Friday finally gave us a break and it was a beautiful, sunny, cloudless day. Our morning started like it always did, with the morning song. Arleen then taught us all how to make fresh blackberry jam, using her own blackberries from the garden!

Arleen!

After our “cooking” for the day, we decided to finally get our hands dirty! Privet is an invasive species that slowly began to take over a region known as Happy Valley. If not taken out and maintained, the plant would cover miles and slowly choke out the rest of the local species. As Alternative Breakers, we were happy to take the Privet out:

And remember the fish game? Ed, being the handy-man he is, fashioned his own fish pole in a few days! We played in the open field in Happy Valley after pulling out the privet and to answer my earlier question… of course us Rutgers women won!

Girls score!

This is where the day turned a little for the worse… we had some car troubles, BUT nothing a little hootenanny can’t fix! At an old elementary school, the Rocky Branch Bluegrass community throws a jam session where there’s live bluegrass, mountain music performed by only the best!

On to the next day!

Day 5: Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Good morning Thursday! Unluckily, the weather still wasn’t looking up but that wasn’t going to put us down! There were a few changes in the schedule, but of course our one constant, the morning song was sung. Our day then got rolling with a trip to the Sequoyah Museum. Sequoyah was the man responsible for making the Cherokee language readable and writable.

We all drove back to Once Upon a Time where Archie Reynolds, the owner of a great collection of Cherokee and Native American artifacts, spoke to us. Archie is a member of the Cherokee Warrior Society and talked to us about the similarities and differences in Native American and American societies. We ended our day with helping Ed out by moving some lumber around (Ed made almost everything on his property with his own hands!) and painting some gourds. Thursday was a very relaxing day, because of the bad weather L but luckily Mother Nature was going to come around soon. On to the next day!

Day 4: Free Day!

We’re halfway there! J And halfway done with the trip! L Wednesday was our free day, and by suggestion of Ed and Arleen, the group of us decided to go to Bald River Falls and the Lost Sea Adventure. We sang the morning song and then were on our way off.  Little did we know, getting to Bald River Falls would be our getting “lost adventure.” Luckily, Tennessee is easily the most gorgeous place to get lost in

Is there anything like this in Jersey?

Fortunately, we finally reached our location!

And we even got to go on our Lost Sea Adventure, which is America’s largest underground lake!

We ended our free day with some city night wandering in Knoxville, home to the University of Tennessee. Some of us (mostly the girls…) did some shopping and then we went to Tomato Head Café for some delicious food! We walked around Knoxville a little longer and took some pictures of the city highlights:

On to the next day!

Day 3: Linguistics and Hiking!

We awoke Tuesday morning ready to begin our day. Of course, we began with the Cherokee morning song and after a lot of driving, arrived at Shirley Oswalt’s home. Shirley is one of the most amazing people, especially in the Cherokee community. She is pioneering the revival of the Cherokee language and explained how difficult it is to do.

After leaving Shirley’s home, we drove to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest for our first real hike of the trip! Because the beauty of the forest is too much to explain in words, here are pictures to document our hike:

Ed!

On to the next day!

Day 2: Snowbird!

All of us woke up excited to finally have our trip begin. Our day began with the beautiful morning song. With two Cherokee instruments, the morning song was a tradition done by the Cherokee people to greet each new day, facing all four directions. It was our first time learning the song, and we were all a little hesitant to sing in front of one another, but by the end, we were experts (at least to us)! We were in Tennessee for all of one day, but North Carolina was on our itinerary for the day. The Snowbird Cherokee community is in North Carolina and a part of the community is the Child Development Center. All of the children were great and we all relived our childhood playing with toys and chalk! Seeing the kids so happy to play with a few toys or a ball makes all of our common worries seem so trivial when something so simple can make someone so happy. Our trip was already starting on a positive note.

 Cutest baby!

Some fabulous kids working it!

Our next stop was the Junaluska Museum where we met TJ, the manager of the museum. We learned more about the Cherokee people and their traditions, such as the 7 clans, and the history behind certain individuals, such as Junaluska (the man who saved future President Andrew Jackson, who later was the man who caused the Trail of Tears).

 The 7 clans

On our way back from Junaluska, we went to the Snowbird Youth Recreation Center and helped other children with their homework on the way back from school. However, we didn’t need to help much since they nearly finished it by the time we got there! It was almost night by the time we got to our home for the night— Church of the Lamb.

Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side at all during this trip (but as Arleen said, who remembers anything when it goes flawlessly!) so the fish game, which I’ll get to later, had to be postponed. Luckily, we got to talk to another member of the Cherokee community, Shorty Kirkland. Although we didn’t get to play the fish game yet, he told us why it all began… as a marriage tradition to prove that men are gentlemen before they can marry the girl. Here’s the breakdown: the fish game involves two teams, split by gender and a pole with a fish on top of it. Using a little ball, the goal of the game is to hit the fish as many times as you can. Oh and quick side note, men must use sticks to pass the ball and hit the fish pole and must not hit any of the girls, BUT the girls are allowed to do anything to the guys (punch, bite, kick, etc.) and use their hands to throw the ball at the fish pole. There have been few instances that the men have won, and you’ll find out in the later blogs if we were one of those instances! J After a packed day of fun and exciting times, we all got together and talked, and then fell asleep. On to the next day!

Day 1: Welcome to Tennessee!

O SI YO (if you don’t know what that means, hello!)! Let me take you on a journey to Tennessee filled with Cherokee words and dance, majestic mountains concealed in fog, and to the most peaceful place in the world— Once Upon a Time in Appalachia. Our story begins with 10 people, all nervous, but excited to travel to a (semi) foreign land. For some it was their first flight, and for others their first time to Tennessee, but what was new to all of us was the journey we were about to embark on. I think I speak for all of us when I say that none of us knew what the trip was holding for us. But, before I get too ahead of myself, let’s begin with the first day!

It all began on a Sunday morning (insert catchy Maroon 5 song here) when we left on our connecting flight to Detroit, with the most beautiful walkway! 

 Oh, hey Kristen!

We rushed to our next flight with next destination— KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE! We were all ready to get out of cramped airplanes and airports and finally get our trip going!

We got to Once Upon a Time (tired, but excited!), and met our wonderful, gracious, and welcoming hosts, Ed and Arleen and we can’t forget their intern for the year Jon (aka “West Side”). We settled in and ate a wonderful dinner prepared for us by Ann. By the end of the night, we were exhausted from all of the traveling and so we slept to get a good night’s rest. On to the next day!