Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd

by Jennifer Bohlken
I heard plenty of warnings before I went to Harlan County, Kentucky. Things like: “It’s hard to believe that a completely different culture from ours exists within just a few hours.” I was told: “Be careful; stay in a group at all times.” “Don’t look them in the eye; they don’t like outsiders.” It was as if I preparing for an encounter with savage beasts. However, when I got there, I found that the warnings hadn’t prepared me appropriately for what I would actually see.

Yes, the culture is different. Yes, the people have less than I do. Yes, they are not as book-educated as most of my friends. The list goes on and on with characteristics that allowed me to think I was better than they were because our differences were so many. But these are just the things I notice when I drive through a place or watch a thirty-second news story. What I learned by staying and helping for five days is far more than I taught or accomplished. And, when I find out someone has put more tape on the lockers or trash has again accumulated on the playground, I will still appreciate the things I learned at Black Mountain Elementary School.

While I was in Harlan County, Kentucky, I learned that there are people everywhere who care deeply about their children. The mother who put eyeliner on her son’s face to transform him into The Incredible Hulk wouldn’t let her children out of her sight without having an adult “assigned” to them. (By the way, her girls wore the same dress two days in a row to come to our events; Hope Academy was a big deal to them and they dressed appropriately for a special occasion – it looked they might even have been Christmas dresses.) Mothers asked their children if they told me “Thank You” after taking them to the water fountain for a drink, because they considered raising polite children to be a necessity.

While I was in Harlan County, Kentucky, I learned that there are people everywhere who take pride in their appearance. Little girls, young ladies, and adult women of all ages had long, clean, well-brushed hair that hung to their waist in many cases. In an area desperate for lice kits, long hair is a sign that you have avoided the dreaded bug.

While I was in Harlan County, Kentucky, I learned that there are people everywhere who look after those who are less fortunate even when they are less fortunate themselves. Most of the family history stories told to me that week included the words “taken in” as a reference to an unofficial adoption when someone couldn’t care for their own children anymore. They were proud that someone loved them enough to take care of them even though they didn’t have to.

While I was in Harlan County, Kentucky, I learned that there are people everywhere who appreciate a piece of jewelry passed from mother to daughter regardless of how small the stones or the fact that they shared no blood but had been “taken in” as an infant.

While I was in Harlan County, Kentucky, I learned that there are people everywhere who make sacrifices to better their childrens’ lives. One mother moved an hour away because it was the only apartment open that she could afford with enough bedrooms for each child to have their own. (The kids will stay with grandma during the week so they can stay in the same school and spend weekends with their mother until she finds something closer. And, grandma used her big ticket item at the “store” to get a bedroom set for the granddaughter who had yet to ever have a bed of her own.)

While I was in Harlan County, Kentucky, I learned that there are people everywhere who like to be noticed. You can see the evidence of this in the smiles present in the pictures we took. If the camera was on, the kids typically dropped what they were doing to ham it up. We came home with over 900 photos in a 5-day period.

While I was in Harlan County, Kentucky, I learned that there are people everywhere who can love and be loved. When we said our goodbyes on Friday, kids cried as they hugged us with arms and legs wrapped around us tight. Parents looked us in the eyes and said “Thank You” with deep appreciation for the classes we taught, the time we spent with their kids and the donations we helped carry out to their car or truck.

And, I learned that there are people everywhere who make judgments based on a few stories heard on the news. People who think that Harlan County, Kentucky is occupied by people who are different from the people who live in Knoxville, Tennessee. Before our trip, I was one of those people. Hopefully, I will be slower to judge in the future.