This past week has been a very long, stressful and wonderful week all rolled together in one. Last Sunday was a long day for me. Due to team stuff to prepare for our first project, I was not able to go to church. We spent most all of the day together as a team trying to prepare for meetings on Monday and Tuesday before heading out on Wednesday.
Monday was induction--so now I am officially an AmeriCorps NCCC member. The speeches were good and somewhat moving. The rest of the day was spent in meetings. Tuesday was an insane busy day for me--we had cleaning like crazy to do and I needed to also pick up the tools for our project, then had a meeting in the afternoon and room inspections in the evening. If we (even one member of the team) did not pass the room inspections (including the bathrooms, lounges, and kitchen) we were not allowed to leave until it was corrected and reinspected. We also had our presentation in the morning, which went decently well. The room inspections passed with only a few minor issues to be corrected. But that night around 10 p.m. the water main broke in our building. It made for a very long and busy night right before leaving early in the morning on an eight hour drive. Wednesday was the travel day--a very long travel day. We had two vans to drive, the passenger van and a cargo van. Three times during the day the vans got separated from each other and one of them (the cargo van each time) got lost. The last two times we got lost, I was in the cargo van with Dave--the worst part was that my cell phone had died right as we got lost and Dave didn't have a cell phone at the time--so no way to really contact the other van. Thankfully we were able to find the other van without too much trouble.
Thursday was our first day on our project site. We are working and living at a state park with waterfalls similar to Ithaca, NY! Most of the day was spent in orientation and seeing different parts of the park. We came back to the ranger house that we are living in and worked in the afternoon clearing the yard and chopping some trees. We raked the leaves into a pile and burned them, the ranger working with us (Stuart) also told us that we could have campfires whenever we wanted. I smelled like wood smoke when we were finished working! It was so much fun!
But I think Friday, Saturday and so far today have been my favorite days this week. Friday we traveled to Cummins Falls, a newly acquired state park that we are building trails for. In the morning we were able to see the falls and climb down to them the old-fashion way--climbing down the rocks with a rope tied to the trees. I could and would do it every day! Then after lunch and a short-ish rain shower, we were trained on the basics of trail clearing. We spent the rest of the afternoon clearing part of the trail. A lot of hard work, but so rewarding. Saturday was a nice relaxing day for me. I was the first person up, so I decided to explore some of the trails around our cabin. Ended up going on over an hour long hike, came back, relaxed for a while, then did PT as a team. We did a caterpillar run (where the person on the end sprints to the front and sets the pace until the next person reaches the front). I was pretty happy that I almost made it to the end without slowing down---right before the last corner I needed to walk for a little bit, but I was hanging in there with some of the guys (Max, Kevin and Alex). I really enjoyed the challenge of PT. After supper, we played hide and seek in the dark. Our cabin is right next to the woods and most of the girls and some of the guys were scared with how dark and creepy it looked. That and I hid too good, we played it twice and they couldn't find me either time. It was so much FUN!! Today has been nice and relaxing as well. I have been enjoying being able to relax, not sure how often we will get weekends with nothing planned on them.
Looking forward to this next week, it will be hard work but also a lot of fun! Next time I hope to put some pictures up as well.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Week 3
3-17-12 (Saturday)
Saturday was interesting. We had "tool" training all day. Basically we went back to the two houses that we had worked on gutting the week before and worked on some rebuilding of those houses. Mostly it was prep work for making the houses livable again. Most of what my team and I were working on was pulling nails off the studs so that drywall could be hung. Also, we worked on supporting some of the studs with L-braces. After lunch we were able to hang some insulation and a 4x12 sheet of drywall. It was nice to be doing construction again.
3-18-12 (Sunday)
This morning a group of us went to an African Methodist Episcopal Church. It was interesting and the members of the church were very welcoming. The church was very glad to see us there as visitors. I really enjoyed the sermon. It was about Josiah and how he repented and turned toward God. The pastor kept making the point that there is nothing new under the sun and that God has a special plan for each one of our lives if only we will dig deep enough to find it.
3-19-12 (Monday)
We had classes in the morning, then headed out for a camping trip in the afternoon. We went to Holly Springs National Forest. Even though we got lost on the way to the park, we were still able to get a good campsite. It was next to the lake with a dock at the site. By the time that our supplies came--they were packed in a cargo van for the whole group, not just our team)--it was dark. It made for a very long day by the time we finally ate supper and set up our tents.
3-20-12 (Tuesday)
We worked most of the day digging up campsites that were rarely used. It involved smashing concrete and taking apart picnic tables. A fun day, but physically intense. As we went to make supper, we found out that the main part of supper somehow had never been packed to take camping. Therefore most of the team went shopping for supper, I was too tired to go shopping and stayed at the campsite. By the time they got back with food, it was pretty late. Again, a very long day. We decided to sleep on the dock instead of in the tents that night. It was nice to look up at the stars, but it was a bad night sleep wise.
3-21-12 (Wednesday)
Ropes course day--we were kinda robbed though, a rain storm came in well we were still at the course. I enjoyed doing all of the low elements, and pushed myself through my fear of heights and climbed a 30 foot wall and zip-lined to the bottom. It was really scary, but I had fun doing it and would do it again!
3-22-12 (Thursday)
We went to Jackson because the state congress wanted to give us an award. My team was not one of the teams chosen to be presented with the award. Instead, we went to the old Capitol building, which had been converted into a museum. I really enjoyed touring the museum. In the afternoon we had some more classes for specialty role training. Dave and I are what is called VST (vehicle, safety, tools), basically, we are in charge of the van, safety wherever we are, and taking care of the tools. Heidi and I are Peer Helpers, which is basically like a counselor only without all the training--we are there for the members of the team and if need be refer them to a team leader or the counselor. It was also one of my team-mates (Alex) birthday. His parents had arraigned to get him a cake for his birthday and Max (our team leader) let me in on the secret and picked it up from the office and hid it. It was a fun night.
3-23-12 (Friday)
In the morning we had our last PT as a Corps. Afterwards we worked on a presentation that we needed to present that day. Max also asked me (spur of the moment) to be his assistant team leader for this project. It wasn't really a shock that he asked me, it was more of the short notice and the added sense of responsibility that threw me for a loop for a little bit. The rest of the day was spent in meeting aver meeting. After the meetings, I fell asleep until supper time, then went straight to bed after supper.
Saturday was interesting. We had "tool" training all day. Basically we went back to the two houses that we had worked on gutting the week before and worked on some rebuilding of those houses. Mostly it was prep work for making the houses livable again. Most of what my team and I were working on was pulling nails off the studs so that drywall could be hung. Also, we worked on supporting some of the studs with L-braces. After lunch we were able to hang some insulation and a 4x12 sheet of drywall. It was nice to be doing construction again.
3-18-12 (Sunday)
This morning a group of us went to an African Methodist Episcopal Church. It was interesting and the members of the church were very welcoming. The church was very glad to see us there as visitors. I really enjoyed the sermon. It was about Josiah and how he repented and turned toward God. The pastor kept making the point that there is nothing new under the sun and that God has a special plan for each one of our lives if only we will dig deep enough to find it.
3-19-12 (Monday)
We had classes in the morning, then headed out for a camping trip in the afternoon. We went to Holly Springs National Forest. Even though we got lost on the way to the park, we were still able to get a good campsite. It was next to the lake with a dock at the site. By the time that our supplies came--they were packed in a cargo van for the whole group, not just our team)--it was dark. It made for a very long day by the time we finally ate supper and set up our tents.
3-20-12 (Tuesday)
We worked most of the day digging up campsites that were rarely used. It involved smashing concrete and taking apart picnic tables. A fun day, but physically intense. As we went to make supper, we found out that the main part of supper somehow had never been packed to take camping. Therefore most of the team went shopping for supper, I was too tired to go shopping and stayed at the campsite. By the time they got back with food, it was pretty late. Again, a very long day. We decided to sleep on the dock instead of in the tents that night. It was nice to look up at the stars, but it was a bad night sleep wise.
3-21-12 (Wednesday)
Ropes course day--we were kinda robbed though, a rain storm came in well we were still at the course. I enjoyed doing all of the low elements, and pushed myself through my fear of heights and climbed a 30 foot wall and zip-lined to the bottom. It was really scary, but I had fun doing it and would do it again!
3-22-12 (Thursday)
We went to Jackson because the state congress wanted to give us an award. My team was not one of the teams chosen to be presented with the award. Instead, we went to the old Capitol building, which had been converted into a museum. I really enjoyed touring the museum. In the afternoon we had some more classes for specialty role training. Dave and I are what is called VST (vehicle, safety, tools), basically, we are in charge of the van, safety wherever we are, and taking care of the tools. Heidi and I are Peer Helpers, which is basically like a counselor only without all the training--we are there for the members of the team and if need be refer them to a team leader or the counselor. It was also one of my team-mates (Alex) birthday. His parents had arraigned to get him a cake for his birthday and Max (our team leader) let me in on the secret and picked it up from the office and hid it. It was a fun night.
3-23-12 (Friday)
In the morning we had our last PT as a Corps. Afterwards we worked on a presentation that we needed to present that day. Max also asked me (spur of the moment) to be his assistant team leader for this project. It wasn't really a shock that he asked me, it was more of the short notice and the added sense of responsibility that threw me for a loop for a little bit. The rest of the day was spent in meeting aver meeting. After the meetings, I fell asleep until supper time, then went straight to bed after supper.
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