Can I Use Use Fulbright Essay Again

Editor's note: In April 2017, twelve Fulbrighters engaged in a calendar week-long service learning project in Williamson, West Virginia, an Appalachian community with valuable lessons to share about sustainability, perseverance and revitalization. This is i in a serial of web log posts from the Fulbrighters who visited Williamson. This mail by Fulbright Strange Student from Colombia, Jorge Caraballo, who accompanied the group as a photojournalist, captures the Fulbrighters' experiences in Williamson, too as their engagement with local American community leaders. Visit the Fulbright Amizade 2017 Storify for more details on their journey.

Last year I had to interrupt my commencement visit to Williamson considering of a family unit emergency. I remember flying over the Appalachians on my way dorsum to Boston feeling a soft window-seat nostalgia: This small city in southern West Virginia reminded me a lot of Colombia, my domicile land. I also grew upward surrounded by mountains and immersed in a culture with a strong sense of belonging. Three days were plenty for me to create a stiff connection with Williamson and its people.

Past Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Republic of colombia

Cheers to Fulbright I was lucky plenty to render to Williamson this year and have a full experience. I felt privileged to see the effort and changes of a community that is adapting their civilisation and economy to a reality where coal tin't be the only resources on which they rely.

Williamson is fascinating because information technology portrays a cultural identity in transformation, with all the difficulties, contradictions, tensions and excitement of that process. As a journalist and lensman, I tried to capture that change in images.

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

At the height of its coal production, Williamson had a population of ten,000, but later on the big mines closed, the population decreased to less than iii,000. Even if you walk on Williamson's Chief Street during a weekday, you will hear the echo of your steps equally if you were exploring a alone pic gear up. Still, I didn't let that impression misguide me: I knew people who were dedicating their lives to improving this community.

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

In the by couple of years, 26 coal mine companies have gone bankrupt and virtually 300 mines have closed. The Washington Mail reported that more than 50,000 jobs had been lost in the industry between 2008 and 2012.

A report published past the U.South. Energy Information Administration terminal Nov presented recent data indicating that but in the menstruation between 2014 and2015, more than than 6,000 coal miners lost their jobs in the United States, a dramatic reduction of 12 per centum in the coal mining labor force. West Virginia, the second largest coal-producing state–later Wyoming–, lost ii,840 jobs.

Thousands of families and many communities who relied solely on coal are now feeling the effects of this downturn and are facing significant challenges such as unemployment, chronic diseases, opioid addiction, and a stagnant economy.

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

An bogus mountain is being made with the excess soil and rock extracted from a nearby coal mine. Information technology looks unrealistic to grow something there, just a grouping of one-time miners decided to take a gamble and are trying to recover this type of country in a process called mine reclamation.

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

Joe was an underground miner before becoming a farmer. He used to go deep down in the mines looking for coal. "The salaries were good, merely the risks were high. I almost died once when an hush-hush mine flooded while I was within." Now, after many years in the coal industry, Joe works in a mining site restoration plan; he'south trying to recover eroded lands and brand them farmable over again in an endeavour to diversify the economic system. Seeing what he and his squad –all former miners– are doing was one of the nigh inspiring moments of my Fulbright Amizade trip to Appalachia.

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

Sustainable Williamson is a city-wide initiative in which federally funded researchers are planning the shift from coal mining to an agriculture-based economy. One of its goals is to make utilize of the flat mountain-tiptop areas that mines left and increase the food production of the city, which is formally located in a nutrient desert. Goats, hens, pigs and horses are collaborating with that mission.

Past Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Republic of colombia

Williamson from above. The Tug Fork River –famous for its floodings– divides Kentucky (left) and West Virginia (right.)

Past Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

Allison and Nate Siggers married one year agone. They alive in Williamson: She is a middle schoolhouse teacher and he'due south the community engagement coordinator for Sustainable Williamson. Even though they both have important roles in the community, they've suffered some discrimination considering of their marriage. Racism and prejudice can brand it difficult to work on projects that demand the participation of all members of the Williamson community, but to overcome this Nate created a popular TV show called "Relate with Nate" where he promotes diversity and discusses the positive transformations that have occurred in Williamson thank you to a committed group of people who decided to stay and work for the community.

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

We had the take chances to go to a political debate while nosotros were in Williamson. Around fifty members of the community met to hear from the candidates for mayor and urban center quango. I was astonished by the distance between the candidates and the people they were looking forrard to representing. Somehow, it illustrates the challenge of political detachment. Three years agone, in a campaign stained by cases of corruption, less than 90 people went to the polls to vote for the mayor. In other words, less than 0.5% of the population decided the political hereafter of the city.

On June 13th, 2017, Williamson voted once again. This fourth dimension 250 voters showed upward.

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

Brad Davis, 20, hadn't had a stable job afterwards high school, and he was, in his words, smoking "also much weed." One of his relatives told him that if he quit marijuana, he would help Brad get a job in the mines. And he did. Iii months ago, Brad started working on a coal mine spreading grass seeds to recover the state that had already been mined. He likes the job, fifty-fifty though they pay him no more than $12 or $thirteen per hour. He expects to get a position as a truck commuter and afterward that to go his "blood-red hat" a symbol of an apprentice miner. But after working equally a scarlet chapeau miner for 180 days, will he get his "blackness hat": An experienced miner that works secret and on some occasions can make more than $50 per hour.

He says that he feels lucky. Many of his friends quit using marijuana, merely not to get a job: A lot of them are now using opioids and are part of the U.Due south. opioid crisis. According to an investigation that won this yr'south Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, Mingo County, where Williamson is located, has the fourth-highest prescription opioid expiry rate of any county in the U.s.a..

Past Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Republic of colombia

Sunset on Williamson's chief street.

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

Paul and Arlene Starr have lived in Williamson for decades. They almost lost their dwelling house in the famous 1977 flood, when the Tug Fork River covered the business concern district in downtown Williamson. In the 1980s, some other overflowing hit the town and many people left, depressing the economy in a manner that many telephone call the tipping bespeak for Williamson's downturn. In spite of the floods and the economic crisis, the Starrs decided to stay and created a beekeeping business organisation. Now they're famous in the region for the honey they produce.

By Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

A slide at Williamson's elementary school. In the background a flood wall to keep the Tug Fork River abroad from the metropolis.

Past Jorge Caraballo, 2015-2017, Colombia

This twelvemonth, I left Williamson with the same nostalgia as the first fourth dimension I visited. As with cities in Colombia, this urban center is facing many bug at the same time (a bad economy, massive opioid addiction, loftier unemployment rates, political disengagement, etc.) However, I was amazed to see how kind people were to us, how open they were to share their stories, to invite us to swallow, to proudly show us their favorite places in the urban center and the work they're doing to make it better. I was nostalgic, only likewise very inspired to meet how people can build upon hope. This last picture represents that to me: The soil seems to be eroded, but cheers to the work of committed citizens something is starting to grow over again.

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Source: https://blog.fulbrightonline.org/photo-essay-williamson-west-virginia-revisited/