Divided #4 – Day 12

West Virginia is the poorest State in the US and we were on our way to McDowell, the poorest county in West Virginia. We didn’t go there ourselves, we met Sabrina, who had grown up in McDowell and who was the first member of her family who graduated from high school and even went to college. In 2016 she had run for a seat in the state parliament as a democrat. She didn’t get elected which was no surprise. The main industry in Appalachia is coal and ever since Obama started to implement stronger regulations for coal mining, the democrats are very unpopular in this part of the country. It didn’t help that Trump boasted that he would bring all coal miners back to work.

How hard it can be to position yourself as a democrat with an environmental consciousness we found out later that day. Sabrina brought us to the road in the holler where she had grown up and while she was singing a song for us, a local man approached her and started attacking her for her views. The argument went out of control and only ended when Sabrina started to cry.

But it was in plain view that McDowell county needed help. Welch, the county capital was seriously run down and it was obvious that the place didn’t only suffer from widespread poverty but also had a drug problem.  

That evening we visited Sabrina’s grandfather, a retired coal miner who loves Trump after he voted twice for the black guy as he said. He had worked for 26 years in the mines until his health wouldn’t allow it anymore. Now he lives in a simple house, tucked in between the railroad and the highway. One coal train after the other runs by the house. Inside, it feels like these heavy trains run through the middle of the living room.

From West Virginia we drove on to Kentucky. Not without making a small but crucial mistake:  We started filling our tank with regular fuel. But we drive a diesel car… In Switzerland green fuel hoses always stand for regular fuel and black for diesel. Here it is the other way around. And since there was an additional mix up with the selection, Mathias started pumping fuel in our diesel tank. Thank god he realized it before starting the engine. But that incident was proof that people in Appalachia might not have much but that they are open hearted, extremely nice and helpful. It seemed like half the town wanted to help us to siphon the diesel out of the tank (and at the end it was Monika who succeeded).

After a stop in Pikeville, KY, where we were able to shoot portraits of several people working for the local newspaper, we drove on to Whitley City, the capital of another very poor Appalachian county. The weather wasn’t favorable, so we decided to stay at the only hotel in this small town, only to find out it was already fully booked. Soon we found out that this turned out to be a fortunate turn.

We drove to the local campground, convinced we would be the only ones there on this rainy evening, only to find Brenda, DJ and his girlfriend, who had set up a full camp there. They invited us for dinner right away and recommended that we should park our van right next to their camp site. DJ showed us his 9 mm gun to assure us that we were completely safe with them. To further stress how safe we were, Brenda pulled her gun as well. We accepted their invitation and it didn’t take long until Brenda told us, that she was sure it was God himself who had sent Trump to save this country from evil.

We spent a day with them, shot their portraits and did interviews with them. They both had had a very hard life. DJ, 35 years old, had no more teeth and had a tough upbringing in a cabin in the woods. Brenda grew up moving constantly around in the country. Their world view was diametral the opposite from ours. But they were probably the nicest people we have met so far on this trip. They didn’t have much. but they made sure that we always had something to eat and drink. DJ was really kind to Elias and showed him some cowboy tricks and took him along for walks with his dogs. When we were leaving, Elias had found a friend in DJ and now there is no day without him asking “When can I see DJ again?”