Ragade
Registered: 06/29/08
Posts: 1
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Reply with quote | #1 |
During my trip to Appalachia, I had experienced an entirely different part of the country that I otherwise would have never known outside of books and the news. West Virginia opened my eyes to some of the underlying problems of other states. The first issue we came across was mining. Now, i've read and learned a lot about the detrimental effects of mining on communities, but to see the sort of destruction that open pit mining does has dramatically changed my outlook on net benefit of coal when it clearly hurts the land so much. My behavior and beliefs have changed quite a bit after the trip. I always used to believe that mining, with all of its negative aspects, was a necessary evil in order to create jobs for people, but after seeing the economic situation of the region, I realize that with mechanization that argument is moot. All of these numbers and statistics, however, are second to what I learned about the people of West Virginia and myself. One of my greatest fears going into the immersion was hostility from the people of West Virginia, probably just based upon socially conditioned stereotypes I carry.
My first experience in service at Loyola was HSPT tutoring, and so it was appropriate that the first form of service I did was participating in Freedom School. My first day was reading with younger grade students, mostly elementary school kids. I got to know a few, learn their interest, and all the while have fun. I even learned more about the persistence of flooding near the area, and an apparent stratification between those who lived “on the island,” those who didn't, and those who were outside of Wheeling. The day following, I read with middle schoolers, kids whom I could relate more with because of the small age gap, and even more so because I can relate to being within similar socioeconomic conditions. On the plus side, a good amount of the students in the middle school group were percussionists or interested in music in general, so we had a lot to talk about in between reading and on days that I did other services. I learned lot from getting to know them than my other services.
My low point on my trip, was humorously eating a milkshake and remembering after the fact that I am lactose intolerant. My high point was playing the Super Mario Brother Theme at hurambai, a musical cheer that Freedom School does in the morning. I shared the experiences with my friends and even made some new ones, some of whom I still now stay in contact with. My only regret was that we didn't stay longer and do more service. The final two day of our immersion felt too much like we became tourists for my liking. In the end, however, I feel that I learned a lot and learned a great deal more about the “Grad at Grad” than from any class. I learned very quickly to see the injustices going on, I felt the stronger spirituality there than within our own impersonal communities here, and I learned a great deal more about how to be a good leader. I would definitely recommend immersion trips to other people on the grounds of just having an excellent, introspective experience.
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“The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions..but by iron and blood.”
~Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) |
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