my old Kentucky home
Posted on Jul 20th, 2008
by 
romanlily
romanlily
I'm just getting back in the swing of things after being out of town all week. The smell of clean sheets on my bed has never been more lovely.
I spent the weekend in southern Appalachia -- Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. I was there to shoot photos and do grip work on a video project for an organization (Appalachia Service Project) that does home repair for poor families in the area.
I saw some things this week that shocked me. The poverty in this part of the world is just unbelievable.
We met a woman in Evarts, Virginia who lived with seven children in a one-room home (shown above). That sounds like such a cliché. It sounds like a set-up for a joke on a Jay Leno monologue. But these were real people. And I saw that one room they had lived in (remarkably clean, I have to say). The home repair client was building a two-room addition for her family so they could have more space.
We met a couple in Harlan, Kentucky whose roof was falling in. Ray was jobless and suffered from emphysema (naturally, this didn't keep him from smoking incessantly. I shook my finger at him for that). Judy harvested green tomatoes and turnips from their garden and fried them up for the work crew who was putting a new roof on the house. They were absolutely wonderful. The photo I took of her in her kitchen with the fried green tomatoes is one of my favorites from the trip. Maybe I'll share that later.
We met another family in Harlan, Kentucky who lived in a tiny trailer. The mom and dad were in their early 20s and they had four children. The children rambled happily around the yard in bare feet, completely ignorant of the broken glass and random auto parts littering the ground, completely ignorant of the raw sewage draining into the yard from their home.
It was heartbreaking. I can't believe people in this country live this way. Our producer, who has traveled to many poor parts of the world in Albania, Cuba, Ukraine, etc., said he had never seen poverty like this.
The redemptive part about the week was meeting some of the individuals doing the home repairs for these families. More than half the volunteers for the organization are youth group members from churches in Alabama, Connecticut, Maryland, and North Carolina. Many of these kids come from very privileged families. To see poverty like this probably rattled them as deeply as it rattled me. Some of these kids have been coming to serve for 3 or 4 summers now, and they keep in touch with the families they've served in previous summers. It warmed me to see how much affection these children had for the families they served.
It may sound strange to say -- but it was one of the best weeks I've had in a long time. Using my camera to try to capture some of what I saw was incredibly challenging and rewarding. I also learned somethings along the way about the nuts and bolts of video work. I really hope that the photos I took and the video we captured will go a long way toward furthering the organization's work, and pull in lots of donations that will help the hundreds of families in this area who need assistance.
I spent the weekend in southern Appalachia -- Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. I was there to shoot photos and do grip work on a video project for an organization (Appalachia Service Project) that does home repair for poor families in the area.
I saw some things this week that shocked me. The poverty in this part of the world is just unbelievable.
We met a woman in Evarts, Virginia who lived with seven children in a one-room home (shown above). That sounds like such a cliché. It sounds like a set-up for a joke on a Jay Leno monologue. But these were real people. And I saw that one room they had lived in (remarkably clean, I have to say). The home repair client was building a two-room addition for her family so they could have more space.
We met a couple in Harlan, Kentucky whose roof was falling in. Ray was jobless and suffered from emphysema (naturally, this didn't keep him from smoking incessantly. I shook my finger at him for that). Judy harvested green tomatoes and turnips from their garden and fried them up for the work crew who was putting a new roof on the house. They were absolutely wonderful. The photo I took of her in her kitchen with the fried green tomatoes is one of my favorites from the trip. Maybe I'll share that later.
We met another family in Harlan, Kentucky who lived in a tiny trailer. The mom and dad were in their early 20s and they had four children. The children rambled happily around the yard in bare feet, completely ignorant of the broken glass and random auto parts littering the ground, completely ignorant of the raw sewage draining into the yard from their home.
It was heartbreaking. I can't believe people in this country live this way. Our producer, who has traveled to many poor parts of the world in Albania, Cuba, Ukraine, etc., said he had never seen poverty like this.
The redemptive part about the week was meeting some of the individuals doing the home repairs for these families. More than half the volunteers for the organization are youth group members from churches in Alabama, Connecticut, Maryland, and North Carolina. Many of these kids come from very privileged families. To see poverty like this probably rattled them as deeply as it rattled me. Some of these kids have been coming to serve for 3 or 4 summers now, and they keep in touch with the families they've served in previous summers. It warmed me to see how much affection these children had for the families they served.
It may sound strange to say -- but it was one of the best weeks I've had in a long time. Using my camera to try to capture some of what I saw was incredibly challenging and rewarding. I also learned somethings along the way about the nuts and bolts of video work. I really hope that the photos I took and the video we captured will go a long way toward furthering the organization's work, and pull in lots of donations that will help the hundreds of families in this area who need assistance.
Access: Public
blessings
September 2008 
I sat here stunned for a few moments after reading this. First of all, I'm going to check back a lot and look at the picture of the house. I complain a lot about what I don't have and consider myself poor. I'm surprised God hasn't reached down and smacked me by now.
Secondly, I am so glad you had the chance to put your talents to use by helping bring attention to this situation here in America. It made me especially happy to hear that many of the kids who help are from privileged families and have genuine love and respect for the people they serve. I don't see much of that in the wealthy neighborhood where I huddle, but maybe I'm not looking deeply enough.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Please post more pictures when you can. I'd love to see the final video project when you are done.
This reminds me of studying some of Rory Kennedy's work in American Hollow, both a documentary on HBO and a book. One link here. One thing I remember (I think clearly) is that despite the abject poverty, these folks stick together and stay close to home. Their sense of family and supporting one another is (including wildly obvious dysfunction) is remarkable.