A day to learn

Greek food in tiny Kimball, WV? Really good Greek food? In fact, there is, and we thoroughly enjoyed dinner at Ya'Sou last night. One of the things we've learned since coming here is that when mining took off in the mid-to-late 19th century, the majority of workers were either African Americans or immigrants. Italians are responsible for much of the stone work in the region - walls and facades created by true craftsmen who immigrated in the hopes of a better life. Greeks, as well, settled here, and Ya'Sou is a happy by-product of that!

We toured the Pocahontas (VA) Mine in the afternoon. I think we were all amazed at the back-breaking labor that goes into mining, especially in the early days when the digging and auguring and pick-axing was done by hand. We had a charming tour guide named Raymond Comer who worked in the mines for 40 years before retiring in 1995. His father before him started working in the mines at the tender age of 8! Interestingly, his grandson also works in the mines, although he wants to go to college to study...mining engineering! It must run in the blood. It's easy to see how all of these small unincorporated towns in southwestern West Virginia developed and then declined based on the proximity of an active mine. Once a mine was no longer productive, it was closed down and the town lost its primary economic support.

When we returned from dinner last night, we settled in to watch the movie "October Sky," about some high schoolers from nearby Coalwood who, inspired by Sputnik in 1957, decided to build a rocket themselves. It's an amazing story, made even more poignant by our having toured the mine and seen a bit of what that life was like. Familiar names of towns and roadways littered the film. Workgroup #4 - Bonita, Brad and me - passes through Coalwood every morning on our way to our work site. The welcome sign says "Home of the Rocket Boys."

Today is our final workday, and some of us are a bit anxious to complete our projects. We promised Patty and Chester that we'd have the dining room finished for them so they can get their kitchen back to normal. We laid 1/4 of the floor yesterday after having painted the walls, and laid the glue for the rest of the floor to cure overnight. We'll be able to get right to work to finish that this morning. Then we hope to get the toe-board trim installed so we can return the dining room table and hutch to their rightful place.

We are all so thankful for this opportunity to serve, and we adults are so proud of our young people at what they've been able to accomplish and the compassion they have demonstrated this week. We can't wait to tell the people of St. James all about it!