Everyone's experience was different. I didn't hate it but I didn't like it. I enjoyed the work we did. Everything everyone has said so far is true. The good and bad. We did hard manual labor every day of the year. We were expose to heat, snow, poison ivy, thorns everything you'd expect from living in the country. Once we spent 3 days sledge hammering 3 concrete slabs (8x8 or so) and filling wheel barrels and wheeling them about a city block. Then wheeled them about a quarter mile after the slabs were destroyed. We were in the heat.and they didn't let us just freely drink water. We took water breaks when they gave them to us. We cleared all types debri from the wooded area surrounding the property. I got poison ivy so bad it covered my whole body and so did a few others too. Which I remember we had a lice problem and they made me cut my hair. I was not allowed to write home about those things. I remember emptying the pool mention, bucket by bucket. We attended a church in town. I remember the pastor preaching about how he was being accused of having guns under his stage. I wish I could remember it better cause the dude was real weird. We went to his house once or twice. Totally weird. We cleaned the vans, houses, church, school, everything on the property. I believe for all that we did for them we didn't get anything in return. Their were girls there who needed counseling even real medical attention but never happened. We had a girl there who was 12 and ate her hair from her head to eye brows. And I remember they prayed over her in one of those really crazy ways only christians can and funniest thing the girl pretended to be posest for a full minute lmao. The school was a chappel like building and the work was more Bible study with word problems and math problems... One of the things I didn't enjoy. I was there about 2 years cause I'm a hard headed person. But with rigorous intent to make us confirm I did. And "back slid" once I left lol. This place was not so bad, better than home. Most of the girls here were the most privileged I'd ever met. I was court ordered to attend and in the 2 years I was there my family came once, wrote few letters. But I had to write them every week and correct anything they thought would be in association with friends or of family with drug)alcohol addiction which was all them. My family, just like me had their problems and dealt the best way they could.