JCG 390, Appalachian Culture and Spirituality, is a seven-week course with a Service Learning component taught by Dr. Elijah Prewitt-Davis.
During those seven weeks, we learned everything about Appalachian history. Little did we know those weeks would not fully prepare us for what we would see once we got there.
Each spring break, a group of Mount students participate in Workfest at the Christian Appalachian Project for five days. Usually, during the Workfest, students will be repairing and rebuilding someone’s home, but because of recent flooding, we would instead be tearing their homes apart.
Most of the 17 students were already acquainted with each other. There I was for the time away from home by myself, getting ready to take off on an adventure I never thought was in the cards for me.
We were put into work groups; I would be on Team Pink with my Graphic Novel classmate Jon Scherff along with several girls from Michigan colleges. We were to tackle about three or four worksites. Our first work site was a man named Larry, who had a good-sized trailer that was hit so badly by the floods that we tore out most of the insulation, walls, and some flooring, leaving the house a skeleton.
I kept a written log in my white Writer’s Block notebook of how I felt for the first two days, and the rest of the week I was too overcome with emotion or too busy trying to soak up moments I knew I would eventually forget. We focus so much on ourselves and not on issues greatly beyond ourselves. During these five days, my eyes were opened to a whole new world beyond myself while making lifelong connections with my classmates. During the nights after working, we cried together, laughed together, shared stories, and acted like kids. We’d stay up into the wee morning hours even though we had to wake up at 6 for breakfast.
I had thought the biggest challenge would be the potential racial tension. In our societal climate, this concern is highly plausible. The Friday before our trip, I was walking out to the parking lot on campus, and a white man in a small white car slowed down, rolled down his window and yelled to me “Bow down N*****R”, and drove off. Such ignorance had no bearing on the work I would do for the Appalachian residents. Honestly, no one would have time to focus on the color of my skin, since we were too busy trying to rebuild lives the best way we could after a great disaster. I could have been purple, and the CAP crew would’ve treated me all the same with open arms and hearts.
A big mystery to me was how close I was to Martin, Ky., yet I had not even the slightest clue of any flood. I was ignorantly content in my own little world in my little apartment, having never been away from home, and having never seen the aftermath of a flood-damaged home.
If you were to have asked me, “What is Appalachia?” nine weeks and two months ago, I would have shaken my head and shrugged my shoulders.
Ask me now and I'll reply, “How much time do you have?”
Photo: Mount students Jon Scherff, far left, and Avione DeVond, second from right.