One of the most valuable parts of the experience was interacting with the people of Appalachia and encountering their culture. The methodology utilized was an ongoing cultural encounter with the region, but the encounter with the family was mostly limited to the time spent working on their home. In most instances the families would interact with us while we worked on their home and almost always eat lunch with us. On one occasion the father and some of his children helped us make repairs, which allowed for maximum interaction and teamwork. Spending time with the families was always fun. We had the opportunity to make new friends, learn about their values, and way of life.
One family we worked for played horseshoes together every day. As you can probably imagine they were very good. I have essentially no experience playing horseshoes and I had a great time learning how to play the game from experts. Each week the group we were with had a picnic for the volunteers to invite the families to. This family brought their horseshoe set to the picnic and I will never forget the exciting camaraderie we had. Another man’s whose home we repaired was very involved in the competitive cock fighting circuit. I had never heard of cock fighting before, and I learned that it is essentially 2 roosters fighting each other in attempt to kill the other. One afternoon, this man displayed his valued roosters some of which had one him a significant purse. It is unlikely that I would come across similar experiences in other contexts, but they were both mind opening and fulfilling.
1 comment:
I chose your blog to write about because I like the fact how you reiterate the point of helping these people along with studying their everyday habits and habitat. I know that in my life, I do take a lot of things for granted whether it be five dollars that I waist on food that I didn’t really want, whether it be clothes I bought that I am only going to wear but once, or whether it be the people in my life who I know are always going to be there but never really appreciate them for it. Your study of the people who live in Appalachia caught my eye because when reading your entries, you portrayed that everything they have they appreciate it. When I watched the video I was first surprised and happy that you found it on YouTube, because a video like that shows exactly how these people live. The houses are not in the best conditions and it seems as if they sit somewhat off the ground to allow for heavy water flow. I am not sure if that is why but maybe you will cover the indepth structure and build of the houses in another blog entry. Also what caught my eye is the fact that you helped these people re-build the houses due to the unfitness of them and due to the fact that with the amount of people forced to live in these houses, it would not seem fit and stable. I also want to know what you got out of this experience, because if I were doing the project you did I would get a whole lot of fulfillment out of the fact that I helped these people better there lives and have more to appreciate. I really like your blog Celeste and hopefully in more blog entries I will be able to read more and enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed your first half. One thing that did confuse me though was when you said that your interaction with the families was limited to your time spent repairing the houses. I know that that must have been a bummer because I personally would have liked to spend more time interacting with the families and truly understanding where they are coming from but I guess that that is a factor that some anthropologists have to over come. But all together good job!
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