A 3-hour tour

Taylor and I have been working on the east side at our respective jobs for several months now. Ironically, we live on the complete opposite side of town, so we know very little about the Eastern area and the people we serve who live there. After finding ourselves off of work and school this afternoon, we decided to remedy this with a road trip into Clermont and Brown Counties.

Our first stop was New Richmond, Ohio. It's a pretty quaint little village nestled right on the Ohio River. We stopped at an overlook for a picnic and a little barge-watching. Here are a few pictures:

As we finished eating, we noticed a very interesting sign. If you're looking for an exotic vacation destination, but don't want to bother with the long drive to Florida, then this is the place for you!

But we weren't looking for an exotic getaway, so before long it was time to head out. We packed up the picnic basket and set off to our next destination: Moscow, Ohio--famous for its big power plant.

But Moscow came and went quite quickly, and if Taylor hadn't said, "We're in Moscow!" I would have probably missed it. Next we programmed the GPS for Mt. Orab in Brown County so we could check out the new Mercy ER recently built there (yes, this was Taylor's idea). It was so new that the GPS couldn't locate the hospital, so we just decided to wing it and see if we could find it once we got into town. If we could ever get there! The drive there took about twice as long as it normally would for a couple of reasons. One, in many places, the road was only one lane wide and twisted and turned alongside a little creek. The hills, sharp curves and resultant poor visibility definitely slowed us down. And two:

Yes, that is a tractor. And to the left of the tractor you can see the double line that ran for many many many miles. We chugged along behind, and eventually we arrived at a clearing where we could safely pass and continue on our way. As we arrived in Mt. Orab, though, we didn't see any signs for the ER. We drove aimlessly through the town, and even pulled over to Google the address, but had no luck. Feeling a little dejected, we set out on Rt. 32 heading west back to Cincinnati. And what do you know, we passed right by the new ER on the way back! Victory was ours.

Unfortunately due to the summer drought, the leaves were pretty much one crunchy shade of brown, so I didn't get any good pictures of fall foliage. But all in all it was a good day. We were able to get a much better sense of where many of our patients/clients come from, and we now have a better understanding of some of their needs. Transportation, jobs, housing, schools; you name it, Taylor and I both saw the need.

When you think of 'poverty,' you probably associate with images of inner-city, slum-like housing, crime, and other "urban" scenes. There certainly is poverty in these areas, but there is also a wide range of services available to people in cities. Poverty also affects the less-populated towns and villages of rural areas. It's these communities that often are neglected by social and medical services. I don't think it's anything personal; it's just that there are way fewer people per square mile and it's difficult to concentrate resources in such a far-reaching area. The House of Peace serves women in the Eastern area of Greater Cincinnati, which encompasses Clermont, Brown, and Adams County. That's a huge region for one 16-bed shelter to serve. And Taylor has seen patients who have driven to Mercy Anderson in Cincinnati all the way from Brown County for quality medical care!

As beautiful as it is, Appalachia has high rates of unemployment and generational poverty, with few resources available to meet the need. It is important to be mindful and aware of the needs of all people, not just the ones living in highly-populated areas. We all have a long way to go to effectively meet the needs of people from all regions of our state.