Jheeyae: We started the day with almost getting hit by the truck. It was one of those nearly killed incidents that happened in WV since the day Taylor almost plunged our van into the flooded water. However, we did arrive Iaeger elementary and high school safely.After spending the morning hours split into elementary and high school lovers, we got together to enjoy pizza party hosted by Iaeger HS. We thank Ms. McCoy and Iaeger HS for bringing the Welch pizza and sparing the library during the lunch time for us. It was our first time having a Welch pizza and it was a pleasant surprise to find pepperoni hidden underneath the cheese and the pizza sliced in rectangles. It struck us later that we forgot to ask whether the pizza was Welch style cheese pizza or pepperoni pizza.
In the virtual Spanish class, one of the boys told us that there's no point in studying intense spanish because he'll never use it anyway. That reminded me how difficult it is to provide them the purpose in furthering their education. If they think that they will never be in a situation where speaking spanish comes in handy, why would they study hard other than to get A's in the class or than to graduate HS, it may be more productive in their perspective to use that time to do other things.


Cara: I've been spending my days in Ms. Justice's Virtual Spanish II class which is quite a shock. The students complete online assignments and receive calls and very occasional visits from an actual Spanish speaker. To be honest, I was astonished and saddened to see students in this environment, yet impressed with their progress despite the considerable handicap of not having a Spanish teacher in the classroom.  Learning the grammar of Spanish (i.e. ALL OF SPANISH II) can be VERY dry, especially when nobody is actually there to teach. The students dealt with this incredible challenge of learning on their own in different ways, but it was difficult to blame those so frustrated that they gave up. However, some of the students approached the subject with a sense of humor and intellectual curiosity. The third block was especially lively, teasing me about West Virginia stereotypes. A sample:
Me: So what do you all do for fun around here?
Student: Have you ever dated kin?
These kids were so welcoming and open, sort of self-derogatory but still comfortable with their town. They definitely exaggerated their accents around us, playing "real West Virginia music" (that banjo music at the beginning of Car Talk)  and demonstrating the "flat-foot." Yesterday, they gave us a movie they made in drama class brilliantly entitled The Bloody Attack of the Evil Demonic Giraffe Puppet.

Yes. The Bloody Attack of the Evil Demonic Giraffe Puppet. It lived up to its title.

Then we headed over to the elementary school, which is always really fun. I miss first grade so much! Highlights include eating pears, sitting on those tiny chairs, and playing with those . . . . shape . . . things? . . . that you make pictures with. It's real. I promise. I definitely did it in elementary school, and I was proud to see that the Wildcats of Iaegar Elementary carried on the tradition. The kids were incredibly welcoming. I think most of us are going to have a really hard time leaving Iaeger tomorrow. I also caught a bit of Scooby Doo as the kids were leaving. Ah, childhood. . . .

After school, we made our triumphant return to Walmart, the place where everyone in these parts seems to do most of the shopping. We picked up some supplies for the schools and, of course, some "Rough and Rowdy: McDowell (MAC Dowell, to the locals) County" tee shirts. Which are awesum. Expect some matching shirt pictures from the cool kids soon.

With very little time to put away our purchase and grab a bagel to assuage our hunger, we headed out to the McDowell County Board of Education meeting. Iaeger High School is currently in the process of being consolidated with its rival school. I will be sad to see the quintessential movie-set-perfect high schooliness of Iaeger be demolished, but apparently the new school will have state of the art facilities. Since football is such a unifying force around here, the Board was concerned with the lack of communication involved in building their athletic facilities. If the football fields aren't prepared in time, the new school will have to miss a season, an inauspicious beginning to an already difficult process. It was absolutely amazing and completely frustrating how complicated the process of making a football field is. It involved contractors and subcontractors and fights over liability and sod. It was a pretty disillusioning experience. This scene of tangled governance and blame passing was so familiar. The idea that someone should do something was there, as were ideas to make changes. But the Board members seemed to think they had been talking about the same issue for months without result. It makes you wonder how any significant change can ever happen anywhere if it's nearly impossible to get a football field ready by the fall.

On the contrary to the first part of the meeting, the rest of the meeting ended with positive note. The teacher at Iaeger HS requested for Board approval to take the HS students out for a field trip. It's their second time providing students the opportunities to visit the symphony and museums of Charleston, the state capital. Of course, the Board approved the request with 100% support.
After the Board meeting, we could not resist the taste of Welch, the Drive-In. We had our eyes on that restaurant the moment we entered the town of Welch and finally, we had our chance. A lot of us expected to get our food and eat in the cramped van but we, obviously, shouldn't make them bring out the food for 12 people to the car. So we had our food inside the restaurant. We also could not hide our excitement over the Drive-In and had to show our "touristy" pride by taking pictures just outside of the restaurant. The food was great. We got to experience a piece of Welch culture.

We headed back to the creepy church to reflect on the day's activities,while trying not to venture into the dark hallways by ourselves. We watched the first part of the PBS documentary Declining by Degrees which provides insight into the failure of American higher education, and followed it up with an intense discussion away from the mysterious clanking noises in the kitchen.


If it seems like we're rambling and more than a little bit sleep deprived it's because we are. We have to leave by 7 in the morning (!!!!) and we're NEVER late. We've had to cope with Lien's blatant discrimination against the lovely ladies of the Pioneer Room (that's what it's called, don't let anyone tell you otherwise) and threats to our personal welfare should we fail to recycle. Between all the service, in-depth conversations and internet hijinx, we are simply exhausted. And of course, we have loads of stuff to do tomorrow, including: actually getting to Iaeger on time, taking a picture with their cub mascot, taking in some culture at the Cracker Barrel, and leaving Welch for Osage. We're all sad to be leaving Welch and its environs, but we're looking forward to the next chapter in our West Virginia epic. (It's really late, so I can use cheesy metaphors!)

Until tomorrow. . .

Jheeyae- the turtle flapper.
Cara Paul- the champion shower-er