Week 3

The gigantic bag I had to carry for a simple overnight trip.

This week was quite an adventure. By 6:30 Monday morning, my team was already loaded in our van and on our way to a YMCA campground, which was about a 40 minute drive from campus. When we got there, the camp director gave a brief orientation, after which my entire unit set off for work at rotating stations. My team started off the day with trail building, which was similar to what I had done the previous Saturday with my chainsaw group, only this time we didn’t have chainsaws, only hand held trail weapons. We spent two hours creating a trail head for a bike path at the camp and we got a lot done before we headed to our next station.

My team after some serious trail building.

There was a broken down old pool house at the camp, so our goal was to fix it up while learning building and maintenance skills at the same time. So in shifts of two hours per team, we were involved in using power tools, painting, and roofing. It was incredibly hot work, the heat index being well over 110F, so for things like roofing, we would work in groups of two for 10 minute spans before trying to find some shade to cool down in. When painting, we had to wear coveralls, which made it seem another 10 degrees hotter. Luckily there was some rain that fell during the day, so that provided some relief.

The camp’s water supply comes from a well, and I’ve never experienced having to drink anything quite so repulsive before. It had such a strong sulfurous taste, it made me gag every time I took a sip for the first couple hours of drinking it, and my stomach ached pretty much all day. I tried plugging my nose, but that didn’t really help at all. We set up tents and camped overnight, and by the second day it wasn’t making me quite as sick to drink, and it even started to taste a little sweet, though by no means did it taste good.

Fortunately there was a shower house, though there was no power, so it was a little icky and creepy to step into a dark stall with all kinds of little unknown creatures. Some girls made the mistake of going back the next day to look around and see the setting they had been blindly standing in, but not me. I’d rather not think about it.

On the second day, my team did a high and low ropes course, which was fun, but also made me realize that I’m terrified of heights. It was a great team building day, and I think we bonded a lot.

My team misjudged how much food we would need for the two day period, so by lunch on day two, we didn’t have enough for everyone to eat. Not a great scenario, but luckily some of the other teams were nice enough to share their extras, so we didn’t starve.

The one big problem with working outside when it’s so hot is that no matter how much bug spray I put on, I sweat it off almost immediately. My legs are completely bit up, even though I sprayed twice a day, and wore long pants tucked into wool socks in steel toed boots. I guess it’s just one of those things you can’t really do anything about, so you just live with it.

Since we didn’t do any PT during our camping trip, we had to do it the next three mornings in a row. On Wednesday it was so hot that even though it was steadily raining while we did our outdoor exercises, it did not provide relief, it just made it feel like a stuffy rainforest. Also, for whatever reason, a few people showed up late, so they made us start earlier the following day. Needless to say, we now check to make sure everyone in our building is awake when we get up.

First Aid training.

We also did Red Cross training this week, along with First Aid, CPR, and AED training. Not the most interesting lectures I’ve ever sat through, but necessary none the less.

I discovered that at least 4 of my teammates have Kindles, so we’ve been having book swaps and literary discussions. I geek among geeks isn’t a geek at all, but a contributor to common interests. I love this place and these people!

On every team, there are 6 specialty roles that we divide up at the beginning of the year, and then whatever job your team leader assigns you, you carry out on every single project you do. This week I found out my specialty roles (I received two), which are Project Outreach Liaison (POL) and Media Specialist. As a POL, I’ll be working with non-profits in the areas my team will be serving in to set up service projects within that community for community volunteers. As a Media Specialist, I’ll be writing articles and press releases concerning the work my team will be doing and the mission of AmeriCorps NCCC. I’m really excited about both jobs, and I’ll be working with one other person from my team for each task, so it should be manageable.

This Thursday I’ll be leaving for New Orleans for the 5^th anniversary of Katrina. NCCC has done a lot of work to help rebuild the city, so we’re celebrating the progress that has been made. They haven’t told us yet what kind of work we’ll be doing, so I’ll let you know when I get back. My next blog might be a day or two late, since I don’t think I’m getting back from this trip until Sunday.

This evening, a local United Methodist church is giving a big fish fry dinner in our honor, to tell us thank you for all the work we do in the community. All corps members were invited and I think pretty much everyone is going, so I’m really looking forward to that. I went to the church’s service this morning, and the people were super nice and a lot of people made a point to talk to us.

After the dinner, we’re having a campus wide talent show in the chapeltorium. I assembled some people that have come for jam sessions, and we’re going to perform an Ingrid Michaelson/Jason Mraz duet called You and I. We have two ukuleles, a keyboard, a broken down drum set, and a set of chains. We practiced on Friday night and then again yesterday afternoon, and our song sounds sooo good! I have a feeling it’s going to be a hit, and I’m really excited to perform it.

I was very sorry to be informed that John Semones, my former Hotwork co-worker, unexpectedly died last week. All you guys at Hotwork, know that I’m thinking about you, and that my heart is right there with you. John was a great guy, and I’m sure none of us will ever forget his good natured sense of humor, or his contagious smile.

I love all you guys, and miss you.

k

Expanding my horizons by putting pretzels on a PB&J sandwich.