The Signs of West Virginia

I would like to put up a sign at SWAP work site #3 that says, "Girls Rule"! Our amazing all-female work crew accomplished great things this week, in the process growing closer to each other, and also to the homeowner where we were working. Our group--Emily Killough, Liddy Renner, Mary Wesolowski and me, along with our fearless SWAP supervisor, Jennifer Arnold--worked at the home of Peaches, just outiside of the town of Keystone. Framing in and installing lattice around porches, cutting and installing drywall, taping and mudding, and nailing in porch supports and railings all gave us great opportunities to learn new carpentry skills--which I'm sure we will carry with us for a lifetime! Chatting with Peaches was not only fun and rewarding, but also gave us valuable insight into the history of this area and the people who live here.

A sign I've noticed each day on the way to our work site is on a billboard for a local church: this one reads, "Sin has no minimum wages," an example of colorful and expressive religious language here that we've learned about in a variety of ways. Another sign warns of "The high cost of low living." Life is hard for many people, and clearly faith is a source of support and inspiration.

We have also had several chances to learn about the history of West Virginia, and McDowell County in particular. The poorest county in the state, West Virginia now suffers from the loss of coal mining jobs, as well as recurrng natural (or not so natural) disasters. But in the past, coal mining boomed, drawing many to the promise of income and a better life. Our tour of the Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine and Museum gave us an overview of coal's impact here. Our guide spent his life in the mines, and was able to give us a first-hand account of what a coal miner's life was like. Remember the Hatfields and the McCoys? A sign along the road between the SWAP house and work site #3, for the "Hatfield & McCoy Trailhead," refers to another piece of history in McDowell County--feuding families in isolated mountain "hollers." The modern day sign of isolation, for us, was the lack of cell phone coverage the whole week we were here!

The best "signs" we've seen? The smiles on the faces of "our" homeowners, welcoming us and skills (or lack of them :-)), happy that we've come to give a hand. We'll take those smiles with us as we leave tomorrow, signs of new friendships we hope to renew again, if we make it back to West Virginia ......

Deborah Fast