Ft. Campbell - Military/Children

(From Monday)

      It wasn't what we were expecting from a military base. We passed schools, pools, Burger Kings and Starbucks, and the further we drove into the base, the more we realized that what we were in was not much unlike any other town in America. There were a few small differences—a barbed wire fence surrounding the perimeter, armed military men posted throughout and large parking lots filled with stationary military vehicles—but the thing that struck me the most was how familiar everything felt, how the neighborhoods, supermarkets and parks were laid out in precisely the arrangement we're used to them being. Entering Fort Campbell for the first time was an interesting experience.

    Once finally getting settled into our cozy sterile cabin we enjoyed a cookout in the rain and icebreaker games. Yesterday we had a fun time on our free day visiting Nashville. We were able to check off McDougall's fried chicken, Country Music Hall of Fame, RCA Studio B, Loveless Café, and a night of line dancing at Wildhorse Saloon.

From Wynn:

    Today working with the kids seemed like any experience working with children. However, there were those instances where you realized how much these children were going through. One little boy in my group was an absolute doll. At lunch, he ate through three tacos and rice (a lot of food for a four year old). I told the teacher that I was impressed and she informed me that he usually comes in starving each day and will eat anything you put in front of him. It didn't really hit me until then that with five children and a father on a small military salary, putting food on the table everyday can sometimes be impossible.

From Omar:

I had a similar experience today. Without paying attention to what I was saying, I mentioned to one of the children I was working with that he should take his craft to his cubby so that later he could show it to his mom. The child, a shy Latino boy who had hardly spoken a full sentence the entire day, responded that he could not do so because his mother was not home. In that moment, the harsh reality of what this child is going through having just been articulated directly to me, I couldn't help but feel moved. And I'm still moved just remembering the situation. Over the last couple of days, I've heard a lot about how what's going on in the military constitutes a political issue and usually I don't know how to feel about that. But what I am sure about is that I'm glad that I'm here so that I can, hopefully, connect with and make a small difference in the lives of some of these children. If I'm so lucky.

  

We also got to ask Shirley, our coordinator some questions about military pay structures and that related to our trip. We found out that the kids that are at our camp are children of soliders who are E-5's (private) and below. They often aren't paid anymore than $25,000 a year. We got to visit the Backdoor Boutique (a thrift shop especially for these soldiers). It was incredibly eye-opening when Shirley said, "it's amazing that there are soldiers giving their lives for us who are on food stamps." You really don't think of poverty in the military, but it exists. Tomorrow we will working there and learning even more about the issue.

Until tomorrow,
ASB FT. CAMPBELL