Are We Missing Someone?

Saturday, March 14th

We are all on the bus by about 9:00am. I look around and ask, "are we missing someone?" Our group is small and the bus, well, it's big. There are seven of us total. Farid, our student crew leader and driver is at the wheel. We don't speak much from the outset, instead we doze. Eventually we find ourselves somewhere in Virginia. The buildings seem to become increasingly ramshackle the closer we get to our destination. I'm expecting the worst from what I read in the trip description, something like a third world country with broken, destitute people. We finally arrive at the Big Creek People in Action (BCPiA) schoolhouse which will serve as our lodging for the trip. We are greeted "Fluffy" Ray who immediately shatters my expectations of the locals. He is friendly and accomadating - you could even go so far as to say he is goofy. Even goofier is Scottie, who would later sport a shirt that said something along the lines of "If you wanna have fun ride hogs and chase women - WV". They get us settled in and disappear to go take care of other work.

After unpacking and choosing our bunks we decide to go explore the area. Ellen stays behind to rest and organize the details for the rest of our week. We come along an abandoned coal mine. In a way it serves as a metaphor for the entire area and the trip ahead of us. Industrial decay created as a result of the bust following the coal boom. Farid explains the difference between Bituminious and Anthracitic coal to us and explains what some of the abandoned equipment does. I'm fascinated with the abanoned mammoth structure, I take lots of pictures. We head back and have some of Ellen's famous chilli for dinner and prepare ourselves for the rest of the week.

- Andrew