Excursion

For anyone who has been following my blogs, you would know that our trip to the Whitney Plantation was the thing that I was most excited to do on the trip. One might think that being a nursing student and being around healthcare I would have been excited for the Hansen's disease museum, but I really wasn't all that excited. I couldn't tell you why I wasn't excited, it just didn't interest me as much. However, after visiting the Hansen's disease museum I was really glad this was part of the trip. I learned a lot about the disease itself that I didn't know before. I honestly never really knew what the disease was at all until we went to the museum. I think it's incredible that this facility was a place for people from all over the country to go to and they could stay as long as they wished. The museum itself wasn't all that interesting, but the grounds were really spectacular. The property is huge. I was so glad the tour guide was able to drive us around the property and explain in detail what each building was because this really gave a more clear picture as to what it was like to be a patient there or a staff member. I would recommend this tour to anybody, even though I didn't like the museum as much as I did the actual tour of the grounds.
Now, the Whitney Plantation was next on our agenda. I had been excited for this since before we left Illinois. When I saw that this was on our itinerary I immediately looked it up online and read some background information. I knew ahead of time that this particular plantation was directed more towards depicting the life of the slaves than it was a tour of the plantation and owners. I've never been on a tour of any plantation, but was glad this particular tour was going to show us a side most people don't get to see. The plantation tour far exceeded any expectation that I had. I felt that I really got to better understand the types of slaves that had been there and their daily lives. We all know about slave owners and the lavish lives they typically lived, but we don't always hear the other side. We don't hear the cold, hard truth about what it was like to be a slave every single day. In school I was fortunate enough to learn a lot of history so I wasn't necessarily shocked at the things we learned at the plantation. All I can think is that I am thankful that we live in a free world today, but going on this tour made me even more thankful. I can't imagine what that life truly would have been like, but I'm glad our world has changed since those times. I would highly recommend this tour to anybody, even if you're not on a class trip.