East Kentucky Is A 3rd World Country And No One Cares

When I started research for my book I never realized what I would find here. We attempted to do missionary work to help those in need here but to our surprise, it wasn't welcome. The hardship here is not viewed that way by much of the locals. It was just another day in the Appalachian mountains. It quickly became clear that they prefer to be helped by their own and I now understand we were imposing ourselves on them. It was hard to watch but in these parts you cannot simply knock on your neighbors door to check on them. You'll often end up staring down the barrel of a gun as they shout "Get the f@ck off of my property!" We also learned that those who are helping them are also taking advantage of them. These small towns have controlling families that have rigged the economy against them. We stopped our charity work because it wasn't worth the risk to our own safety.