Los Angeles: Graffiti and Hamburgers

Hey, a lot has happened since my last post! Plus, I'm including a lot of pictures for this one. My computer is fixed, for the most part. Thanks to my family for sending my XP disk and to Chris from Lafayette for offering his help.

First, I should inform everyone that Lindsey resigned from the program recently. She appreciated NCCC, she just had to leave. She's a very family oriented person and she had a lot of exciting events happening back home! Our team certainly doesn't blame her for leaving but we miss her dearly! Still, we've functioned surprisingly well since she left, in my opinion.

Here are some pictures from our project with Camp Coast Care in Mississippi:

Above: Me with my Bowser House crew from Kent State.

Above: Me with my Fournier House crew from Lafayette (and assorted other locations).

Above: Me with my city crew from Southwestern Minnesota and the Mayor of Pass Christian.

Above: Letter from the Lafayette kids. Nice, right?

Above: Letter continued.

And then here are some pictures of the Grand Canyon, which we visited on our trip back from Mississippi:

Above: Katie L. and Sarah walking.

Above: Ryan and Lawrence.

Once we got back to Sacramento, we had some days off and a few debriefings and such. Also, Life After AmeriCorps Day was nice. It's a day where our staff prepares speakers and presentations about our options for life after our term of service. It was a bit disorganized, which resulted in my inability to see in on some of the presentations that I wanted to see, but that's ok. My favorite presentation that I saw was probably by Bike and Build:

http://bikeandbuild.org/cms/

This is a really cool program that I'm seriously considering for the summer of 2010. I'd be biking across the entire country, stopping to help building homes (usually with Habitat for Humanity). It would require that I raise $4,000 beforehand, which pays for my bike and other expenses, and then the rest of it (most of it) gets donated to non-profits (which is where the main point of the program - to donate to non-profits, primarily ones that concentrate on affordable housing).

Right after LAA Day, I left for Lake Tahoe with nine friends. The trip was great. I went snowboarding, hiking and took a lot of pictures. Ryan (not to be confused with the Ryan on my team) found an amazing place for us to stay, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that. It was just a private loft that the owner rented out. It was really well-decorated, well-maintained and, especially when ten people are chipping in, it was inexpensive. Also, I stopped at a casino for about a half hour, got lucky and won enough to pay for my share of the car rental, gas and lodging for the whole trip! To the pictures...

Above: Lisa, Sarah and Jen jumping off of rocks.

Above: Me and Sarah. I know, I'm scruffy. I've since shaved. It took a while.

Above: Jen, Sarah and Lisa.

Above: Lisa, Jen and Sarah in front of the mountain and Lake Tahoe.

Above: Stuff.

Above: I think houses on extreme slopes are really cool.

Above: Lake Tahoe.

Now I'm in Los Angeles, which is obviously entirely different from everywhere else I've been in AmeriCorps! We arrived in the afternoon and found our house. It's kind of run down, but I'll take it. There's plenty of space and it's secure, so those are the most important things, right? We didn't have electricity for the first night, but by next day we had it up and running. We have a refrigerator, we brought a microwave and if we want a stove we can use the one in the church next door. There's a preschool that runs at the church, so during the day we get to look out of our windows and watch the kids run around and play! We were thinking about volunteering for them, but it won't fit into our schedule once we start work.

It's a bit of culture shock to be living here, but I definitely don't mind it at all. It's a common occurrence to see a car peel out in the supermarket parking lot with its bass blaring. There's a ton of graffiti all over the place, but it's actually really artistic and amazing stuff (LA is known for its graffiti). There are also probably at least two burger shops on every block. We're not talking McDonalds or Burger King (but those are around too), I mean really random ones with funny names, sketchy-looking buildings and C grades from the Department of Sanitation proudly displayed on their windows. On a side note, there are Vegan restaurants within driving distance (but definitely not in our neighborhood) and the one I went to so far was amazing.

It's also really interesting to see the differences in neighborhoods here. We've done quite a bit of driving around LA and I'm surprised to see how neighborhoods change from bad to good so quickly. I pay a lot of attention to the windows of buildings - it's the primary way that I can tell a good neighborhood from a bad one. In our neighborhood (which is bad, though it definitely isn't even close to being the worst), every home and business has cast iron bars of every single first-floor window, with almost zero exceptions. Drive several miles out in certain directions, and the bars are almost non-existent. So it seems like there is a lot of segregation here, which is typical of any very large city. Our sponsors were talking about how the LA Unified School District is one of largest (if not the largest) school district in the nation, with 168,915 students just in high school! They said that certain local school districts have very distinct advantages over others depending on their location and reputation, and I look forward to learning more about that while I'm here.

I guess we live in a bad neighborhood. It's hard to tell. It's called the "Blood Triangle" and we've been warned by AmeriCorps staff, our CYFC sponsors and even the Dorsey High School kids that we live in a very bad place. Yet, there are plenty of nice-looking houses and cars around, too. It's just confusing because it had some indicators of a "bad neighborhood" but not others. Still, I'll take the advice of the people who have lived here their whole lives and be careful.

Aside from those first impressions, people here are really friendly when you speak to them. The school systems here really need help and our sponsoring organization, The Child, Youth and Family Collaborative, has already done absolutely incredible work here. We've just met our staff and they are really funny and interesting. Our main assignment will be to work at Dorsey High School, providing assistance to teachers during the day and tutoring in and conducting their after-school program in the evening. The team that had this project last worked at Dorsey, and they said that they were really appreciated there.

So far, things have been going well. Dorsey High School isn't the high school for the area that we're living in, but its area has similar demographics. The graduation rate at the school is less than 50%. The area is called "The Jungle" and it's not considered a great neighborhood either. In fact, last week, before we got here, one of the students was stabbed and killed about five blocks from the school. She was apparently one of the stars of the girl's basketball team. It's definitely sad to hear.

The kids at Dorsey are obviously very different from what I'm used to, but they're not terrible at all. Most of them respect me and other staff a lot, they just have a lot of trouble keeping attention. They often say "I'm done with this for now, my head hurts." I, personally, find it difficult to believe that the incidence of headaches is so much higher with inner-city kids compared to kids from other areas! I supposed teachers just haven't dealt with excuses like that correctly in the past, so they're used more often... Anyway, the students I'm working with are really nice, especially when you get their undivided attention and I think things are only going to get better once they get used to having me around.

That's all I've got so far. I'd like to remind any new readers that if you e-mail me, I'll put you on my update list so that you'll always know when I make a new post. Additionally, if anyone wants off the list, please just let me know!

Thanks for reading,
Scott

Back To Base, Again

First thing's first. Shoutout to my friends from Kent State! A group of 65 of them came from Ohio. They were the only volunteers that week, so they got the whole place to themselves (aside from Silver One, of course). I know I always rant about the people who visit Camp Coast Care, so I'll try to restrain myself from doing it this time. I don't know what it is - maybe it's just that I tend to get along with the types of people who are willing to volunteer their spring break to help others?

And now I'm leaving Camp Coast Care. We got a lot done while we were there. My last week was spent co-supervising the work on the Bowser house with Ryan, which was an experience... It seemed like the volunteers who worked under us were really frustrated at first because they must have expected something else. Sometimes, the homeowners can't afford the materials and there is less work to do. Sometimes there aren't enough site supervisors to go around, so people like Ryan and I do it (even though we have little experience with the work). The volunteer work is different from typical construction. Once the volunteers got used to the idea, though, things became better. Toward the end of the week we started getting all of our materials, too. We ended up doing a lot of painting and we nearly floored the entire house (laminent wood and tile)! Our week was extremely productive and I can only imagine the Bowser family shocked at the progress next time they come to check up on their home.

Here's an article about the Kent State group. Be sure to watch the video. I'm in a picture on that front page and I also appear in the video a lot. Much of the video is of my crew working on the Bowser house! Also, if you see people painting, they're working on the Fournier house, which I did a lot of work on last week. I must admit - I never thought I'd show up on the news in Kent, Ohio.

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=110418&catid=45

So now I'm on my way back to Sacramento. It's obviously a good thing - how excited I am for Sacramento, Lake Tahoe and Los Angeles - but I think it's making this road trip seem uncharacteristically long. This is the last time (as far as we know...) that we'll have such a long trek. This time our stops along the way aren't very interesting: we're hitting up Tyler, Texas, Amarillo, Texas, Winslow, Arizona and Barstow, California.

Oh, and I know, I know... I haven't posted anything terribly interesting and I haven't posted pictures or video (aside from the link). Rest assured that once I get my computer back up, things will be better. On that note, if anyone has a Windows XP Home CD, please let me know! I have one lost somewhere at home, but I need it here so I can work on my computer (I don't want to pay lots of money for maneuvers I can do on my own...).

Thanks for reading. Maybe I'll give a couple of pictures/videos to people who keep in touch with me personally, as incentive. That's right, I'll use it as leverage...

-Scott

EDIT: I should have posted something ridiculous as an April Fools joke, but it didn't occur to me until now. Maybe just pretend that I did? Thanks.

CCC, LA and CYB

It's late for me (I have to wake up at 6 AM every day) but I'm going to update. I know I'll fall behind if I don't. However, my computer is broken yet again. This means no photos and videos. Yeah yeah, I know. The lack of these elements makes my blog boring. Good thing you're all just SO interested in my life that you'll read anyway! No, but really... I'm revealing some big news in this post!

But before the big news, I'll talk about CCC (Camp Coast Care). Last week we had the most people in the camp that I've seen. Many of them were from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and I want to say hi to them, if they're reading! The Lafayette kids were amazing. We got along really well and I got to know many of them. I'm going to miss them a lot and I wish I had more than a week to spend with them! Of everything, we probably spent the most time playing Spades (I won, of course). So yeah - hi, Lafayette! Come back. No, really.

This week has been good. The one and only group here is a huge group from Kent State in Ohio. I was a site supervisor today and once we got all of our materials together, I think we did good work. We've been priming the walls and putting in hardwood flooring (we'll be tiling on Wednesday, most likely). This work is being done at the "Bowser House", the location that I worked on for my first day with Camp Coast Care. The house has come a long was since then and it's been amazing to see! The family has suffered a lot of misfortune, so I really care about doing a good job and getting a lot of work done before I leave.

Aside from Camp Coast Care, we found out our next project!!! I'm REALLY pumped about this one. We're going to Los Angeles to do education work! I'm so excited to be living in the midst of a real city and doing education. Most of the team seems decently enthusiastic about it too. From what I've heard, we're working with an organization that provides educational support to children who need it and has a special concentration on foster children. I think this project will be perfect for me.

So we'll be leaving Camp Coast Care one week from today and we'll be driving to Sacramento for transition. There we'll also have our spring break. I plan on going to Lake Tahoe with a bunch of friends, which should be a blast. We head down to LA once our transition is over.

And then I have even bigger news. I officially know what I'm doing next year! I applied to a program called City Year Boston and got accepted! City Year is an educational program that has branches all over the United States. I applied to the Boston one because they have a large corps there and the City Year headquarters is located there. Also, I hear great things about Boston and I love the prospect of moving to a city that I've never been to before.

Most of the City Year members do mentoring and tutoring work for substandard school systems. They work on lesson plans and things like that and are quite similar to teachers. I would definitely enjoy a job like that, but I'm hoping for something a little different. City Year Boston has a special program call City Heroes, where they take students and they provide community service programs for them to participate in. I really believe in the effects community service can have on both the community and on the people who perform the service, so I think this is a brilliant program. Ideally, City Heroes is where I'll be placed. However, I don't find out until I've started the program.

On that note, City Year Boston starts in early September. AmeriCorps NCCC ends July 22. That means I'll have a little over a month to hang out at home in Chicago. I'll probably be studying for a test or two, but otherwise I'll be free.

Well, those are my main news items. If anyone has any questions about City Year or AmeriCorps (of course), please let me know. I'm really excited about all of the things in my future and it feels great to have things planned so far ahead.

If you made it all the way through without pictures, thank you!

-Scott

Monomedia! Think you can handle it?

That's right, no pictures in this one. So for those of you who just scroll down looking for eye candy, you may just have to fire some synapses this time (you know who you are)!

I had a very good week, despite the fact that I made an emergency trip to Chicago that lasted most of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Actually, the trip to Chicago was rewarding, considering its circumstances. I got to see a lot of family and some good friends as well.

Camp Coast Care has been a lot of fun. I've been doing a lot of drywall, mudding and sanding recently. Basically, I've making the walls of a home and preparing them to be primed and painted. On Friday, I was even the supervisor of my site (technically). People knew what to do by then, however, so I wasn't asked many questions and it wasn't a big deal.

We had two main groups of volunteers this week: a group of nearly 40 came from Virginia Tech and a group of nearly 20 came from Penn College. These groups were amazing to have around! While we weren't working, we played football or sat around the campfire.

Every week I look forward to the new volunteers coming in. Last week we had about 90 of them and this upcoming week it looks like we'll have around 120! So far, most of the people who have moved in are older and are extremely friendly. Then, at about 1 AM last night (err... this morning...) a group got in from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. I was the only volunteer awake, so I helped show them around and such. They seem like a good group of people, so I'm excited to get to know them more.

We have one more week after this one (which should have more volunteers coming in than any other). Following that, Silver One heads back to Sacramento for Life After AmeriCorps Day and our "spring break", which is a couple of days attached to a weekend. I'm thinking that I'll go to Lake Tahoe with some friends for the break, which should be a lot of fun. At that time, I will also know where my next project will be! I'm especially excited because it will almost definitely be on the west coast.

Last piece of information - some of you know that my computer was totally screwed by a virus recently. Well I spent many long hours working on it and finally got rid of that. Peace of mind ensues. Also, if you ever have a virus problem, I'd be a good person to come to!

La fin.

-Scott

NCCC + CCC = Awesome

Alright, so I haven't updated in a while. Notice my last post, which explained that I didn't have internet where I lived (I didn't send an e-mail update for it because it was a short post). Also, I have recently gotten a very bad virus on my laptop, so that complicated things even more. Nevertheless, I've managed to update tonight compliments of Sarah and her laptop (thanks Sarah)!

AmeriCorps has been EXCELLENT. Where to start... Maynor Creek in Waynesboro was great. We worked on environmental projects the whole time; we did a lot of trail-building, painting and raking up leaf litter (to prevent wildfires). We worked a four-day work week (ten hours per day). Each day was spent outside, which was really refreshing. In our leisure, we were able to just leave our cabins and take hikes or go for nature runs.

What was probably most memorable about Maynor Creek, however, was the support we recieved from our sponsor and the community. Pat Harrison Waterway District was kind enough to allow us to stay in their guest cabins which were very nice! Here's a video tour of one of them:

Also, our site supervisor, Stuart, was a really fantastic guy. He was really laid-back and wanted to make sure we enjoyed our time there. We also got to meet his family. Additionally, the Waynesboro community was incredibly hospitable! I'd say about every other day we were treated to dinner or lunch. These came from various organizations in Wayne County such as the Lions Club or the fire department. Some even came from individual households who simply were inspired by our work there. It was amazing to meet everyone!

Here are several pictures of Maynor Creek:

Above: The Ampitheatre and a pavilion in the background. We worked on both of these.

Above: A controlled burn. Burning the leaf litter prevents wildfires in the long run.

Above: Ryan using the fireplace in our cabin!

Above: Lindsey working hard in a pavilion.

Above: More working.

Above: Picture of the sky during a controlled burn.

Silver One was sad to leave Maynor Creek, but it's become clear that things are going to continue to be great! From Maynor Creek we moved to the Pearlington Recovery Center on the Mississippi coast where we lived with four other Sacramento NCCC teams and a Denver NCCC team. These were teams already working in the Mississippi area. We gathered to help out with the Great American Cleanup, a national day of service run by Keep America Beautiful.

So we worked side-by-side with hundreds of volunteers from around the country. We worked in Waveland, Misssissippi where we cleaned up and improved five different parks and a cemetary in one day. There I met some non-AmeriCorps people, including a group of students from Loyola College in Maryland. Also, I know I say this every time it happens, but it was again great to meet up with friends from Sacramento. The PRC was NOT the ideal place to live, but it was fun to live in close quarters with so many AmeriCorps kids (we slept in one large room together where everyone socialized and had fun). The Denver team, Sun Two, was also really incredible and I'm so glad I got to meet them! The only negative thing was that at the PRC we were back to port-o-potties and sulfur-water showers. There were also gnats all over and I got bitten up really badly. My arms and legs are still covered with bites of various sizes.

We lived at the PRC for five days and then moved to my current home, Camp Coast Care in Long Beach, Mississippi. We expected something reminiscent of Camp Orange, but what we found was infinitely better. We live in close quarters like in the PRC, but aside from that, it's really nice. We have beautiful, clean bathrooms along with other facilities. We have a nice volunteer room with a TV, computer and games.

Camp Coast Care has an interesting history. It went up right after Hurricane Katrina and began by handing out immediate goods like food and water. Back then, all of the volunteers only lived in a huge warehouse. Since then, Camp Coast Care went to case management, home rehabilitation and construction. I've only worked a day with Camp Coast Care so far, but it's been very good. I put up sheet rock in a home all day, which kept me interested.

However, my favorite part of Camp Coast Care has been meeting people. Volunteers move in on Sundays and leave on Saturdays, almost all of them staying for just a week. Since we're going to be here for a few weeks, we'll be the veterans at the end of it, able to supervise volunteers. Everyone here is from all over the country, and it's so much fun to just talk to them and exchange stories. The groups from College of Charleston and Lock Haven University have been great to have around this week. I hung out at the bonfire with the Charleston kids and Silver One challenged the LHU kids to an intense game of soccer tonight. Also, there are some people from Connecticut who are really nice.

Tonight Silver One and the LHU kids went to a great cafe called Mockingbird Cafe in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. They have live music there every Thursday. We met up with Green One, who's staying at the PRC permanently. It actually turned out to be a huge AmeriCorps hangout. A bunch of AmeriCorps Direct people were also there, so we got to see a bunch of them and meet some new ones. It's amazing to discover the AmeriCorps community down here. Everyone is doing their unique work, and it all adds up to a huge effect here on the coast!

So that's where I am right now. I'm meeting new interesting people, old and young, every single day. I can only hope that my later projects are as amazing as these have been. Shout out to the Sacramento kids, Sun Two, Loyola College in Maryland, College of Charleston and Lock Haven University. Due to my lack of internet and power for my phone, I haven't really been able to keep up with people as much as I would like to. I'll try harder.

Sorry about the huge delay and hopefully I'll post more frequently from now on (though my computer is still down). Good night!

-Scott

How I Miss You, Dear Internet...

That's correct - I don't have the internet here in Mississippi. I'm currently at the Waynesboro Public Library, but they block certain sites and other functions, so I can't make a proper update. I have lots to say about my spike in Mississippi so far and I have plenty of media to share with you too, but I guess that will have to wait!


I'm simply posting to reassure anyone who may be distressed; I will be thoroughly describing this spike once I am again securely connected to the rest of the universe! Nevertheless, here's a summary... This project has been amazing. We work 10-hour days, four days per week, which can be pretty tiring. Still, our living situation is incredible. We live in a beautiful state park and we were given amazing cabins that they typically rent out for over $100 per night. Basically, the staff has done all that they can to make sure that we enjoy ourselves during our month-long stay here.

The community is also incredible. People continuously offer us free meals, groceries and any other opportunities they can think of. We were also featured front and center in this week's issue of The Wayne County News! There are a couple of pictures of us accompanied by a description of our program and the work we're doing here. I've been on the lookout for the paparazzi, but luckily it seems I've managed to evade them so far. I'm sneaky - what else can I say?


That's all for now. I've got limited time and resources when it comes to the internet. Hopefully my next spike (which will begin in early March) will allow me to access the internet more reliably, at which point I will go into greater detail about this spike and provide pictures and videos.


That's all, folks. Hopefully I'll post again soon!


-Scott

Lafayette H4H and Round III Reveal

Working with Habitat for Humanity was excellent! Every day I got to work with my hands, which is what I've really been looking forward to doing. Most of my work days involve moving large pieces of lumber, painting, cleaning and hammering lots and lots of nails.

On our second-to-last night we had dinner with our sponsors and the other volunteers. They made some incredible food for us and we had good conversation around the campfire. I believe that this was when our team completely realized how great of a project we had.

My favorite thing about Habitat for Humanity is that they have the future homeowners work side-by-side with the volunteers and staff. This means we get to see the people who will own the homes that we're working on. As I'm hammering or putting up trusses, I think about how a family's entire life will be contained within the house that I'm building and that's a really great thing to be a part of. Here are a bunch of pictures of Silver One working:

Above: Ryan, Katie and Rebecca up in the trusses.

Above: Katie enjoying painting.

Above: Erin painting. I really like this picture.

Above: Ryan working in a cabinet; apparently, this kid is like a ferret. The bandana is for dust.

Above: Sarah painting.

Above: Rebecca and Lindsey with Dayna waving in the background.

Above: Erin holding Katie's ladder.

Above: Katie up on the trusses with our site supervisor, Bob.

Above: Katie and the rest of the team hammering.

The staff and volunteers at our site are very kind and interesting people as well. Most of them are older (in their 50's or 60's) and they are all a part of a network of people who simply enjoy travelling around building together. It's a really incredible lifestyle, and I'm glad that I got to experience it first-hand.

Above: Silver One with Doris, Bob, Ron, Sue, Bill and Al.

In other news, my living situation has been interesting, to say the least. Let's see... First of all, our roof leaks. The cold of the night makes water condensate on the metal beams of the roof and causes them to drip on us while we sleep... So that's awesome. Also, there are a bunch of community basketball practices and games that get played. For example, on Tuesday we came home from a long day of work to a basketball game - loud fans, refs and all. Actually, it turned out that they were holding four basketball games that night. So we dealt with very loud noise in our home from the second we got back to past when we typically go to sleep. I personally didn't mind much; I only wish that they warned us that something like that would happen. They felt really bad about it though, and since then there have only been minor incidents.

Still, the Lafayette area was really cool. We were basically in the heart of cajun country, which was interesting. Here's a video of some of us at a really great hostel/saloon in Lafayette. They're playing and dancing to zydeco music. I had particular difficulty trying to understand the creole lyrics that they used from time to time...



Oh, so a story about our living situation... I was shooting some hoops the other day when we heard an urgent knocking on our doors. I opened up and there was Green 3! Apparently they were told to move in with us? No one on our team (even the team leader) was aware of this... That's AmeriCorps for you, I guess. Well I'm glad they're here anyway - it's more fun with more people around. So lots of unexpected things happened to us back at the community center, but we just had to deal with them, I guess!

And in more important news, I got my next project assignment! The first thing to note is that this is a four-week project. We were expecting an eight-week project (which most other teams got) but we were an exception. Personally, I like this a lot. With the news, I now have a six-round year, which is amazing! This means I get to see and live in six places as opposed to the four places that I was expecting.

The year is probably going to be split in half, with Gold and Blue units at the region projects for the first half and Green and Silver (I'm Silver) units on the gulf for the first half. Then we'll all switch. This switch was going to happen at the end of my eight-week project, but now I'll have two four-week projects in there instead. My team leader knows what our second four-week project will be, but she's not allowed to tell us yet. So now that I've bored you, I guess it's time to tell you where I'll be headed:

I'm going to Waynesboro, Mississippi! We'll be on the southern part of the state but not along the coast, and we'll be quite close to Alabama. My team will be living and working with The Pat Harrison Waterway District, which is basically the managing agency for a variety of Mississippi state parks. Our work will be environmental, but it looks like we may be doing some construction-related work as well.

I'm really quite pumped for this one. Again, I get to be outside, which is a huge plus. Also, I've seen some pictures of the place and it looks pretty amazing! We'll have plenty of space outdoors to go hiking, play games and have campfires (of course, this if weather permits those things...). Also, I've seen some pictures of the cabins they have there and they look REALLY nice. It hasn't been verified that those are the ones we'll be staying but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Right now I'm sitting in Camp Hope, the nation's largest volunteer housing complex. It's a converted elementary school in St. Bernard, LA, which is near New Orleans. Obviously, it's not elegant by any means, but it's fun to be here. I've gotten to see tons of my friends from CTI that I've missed so much! Both the Silver and Green units are here, so that's half of the entire corps!

In a way, I wish that I had a project where I would get to stay at Camp Hope. It becomes such a lively and bustling place during the upcoming season because of all of the collegiate volunteer groups that come down for alternative spring breaks. I feel like it would be an amazing experience to be around here. Also, I'm obviously not looking forward to saying goodbye to my friends all over again.

Still, leaving won't be so bad. If our place in Mississippi has warm showers, it's already got something over Camp Hope! So yes, I am very excited to leave as well. I leave tomorrow morning. I've never been in Mississippi, so it should be interesting!

That's all I've got for you, I think... Again, thanks for reading! I miss everyone from home and UW and I hope you're all doing very well! Lastly, here is the video that I presented at my debriefing. You'll see lots of the photos that I already posted above, but there are some other things too.




-Scott

All Over The Place

One might say "Scott, you have really been slacking with your blog." Well in response, I would say "Yeah, you're completely correct." I want to thank those of you who have, nevertheless, checked back to see if I've updated. Feel free to badger me about updating more frequently because I really, really want to.

A lot has happened since I last posted. Camp OJ seems like a very long time ago. The last week there was pretty typical. We finished up our work with Catholic Charities, which was nice. We also did an excellent ISP at the Firefighter Museum in Beaumont. I got to play with kids and make fun of Ryan (no one knew one of us would have to dress up as Santa).

Above: Ryan as Santa. This is where little kids would crawl on him and get their pictures taken.

Above: Ryan as Santa, Dayna as Mrs. Claus and Katie J. as an AmeriElf.

Above: Me rescuing the AmeriElf from immense danger.

Above: Kristina (from Gold Six) in a fake/retired fire truck.

Above: Santa needs to work on his pedestrian skills.

Then we took our long roadtrip up to Sacramento for transition. The final day of driving was about twelve hours long but it was worth it. It was unconventionally cold in the west on our way up so the mountains of northern Arizona were covered in snow and had fog rolling down their sides.

Above: Northern Arizona. Too bad I didn't have my camera for the best parts.

Once in Sacramento, my team and I debriefed with staff. We gave a presentation summing up our entire experience in southeast Texas, from our work to our living conditions. I also made this short video for the debriefing (you may recognize some photos that have already been uploaded to this blog):



After a few days in Sacramento I flew home to Chicago for winter break! It was really good. Most importantly, I got to see tons of friends and family. I also got to play a lot of hockey and eat a lot of good food. New Year's Eve was excellent as well. I saw some college friends early in the night, I saw AmeriCorps friends while the ball dropped and in the early morning and then I went back to see my high school friends and ended up watching Are You Afraid Of The Dark? at 5 AM. The two-week break actually seemed pretty long, but in retrospect it was very short. I returned to Sacramento, did a briefing for my next project and hopped back on the road with my team.

So here I am at my destination - Abbeville, Louisiana. Our road trip took us through Needles, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City and Beaumont. Again, northern Arizona and New Mexico were really pretty and I took a few pictures...

Above: New Mexico with snow.

Above: More New Mexico.

Above: All of my possessions for the next three-ish months. This includes all of my uniform components, my laptop and my sleeping bag. I have learned to pack very lightly.

At the moment, I'm sitting in my new home in Abbeville, Louisiana. We'll only be here for two weeks, as this is a short project. Our sponsor seems really nice. We'll be first training for our work this Monday. We'll be working with Habitat For Humanity doing finishing work (siding, painting, etc.) on houses for displaced victims of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina (yes, people are still displaced from Katrina - many of them). I'll put up a quick video of our living arrangements:



As you can see, we've got it made here. There's a whole room full of balls, roller skates, hockey sticks (score!) and anything else we may desire. What else do we need? Abbeville is a pretty cute little town with a decent amount of shops and restaurants and such. The weather is very warm and humid. It's definitely a much better living situation than Camp Orange was. Also, it's only a half-hour drive from Lafayette, Louisiana, which has even more options for food and entertainment. Overall, our team's spirit is very high. We're really excited to be working outside and living in a fun and convenient place!

So I think that's all for now... I should be updating again soon, once I get a feel for my new job. Also, we should be finding out our next project very soon! This next one is most likely going to be eight weeks long so it's much more substantial news. Stay tuned for this information! Again, I really want to thank everyone who has kept up with me despite my lack of updates. I'll try to be better! Well I should get to sleep. Tomorrow morning we're going to take advantage of our nice neighborhood and go for a run. I'll leave you with a wipeout video:



-Scott

NOLA, Ike Relief, Camp Orange, Round Two Reveal and More!

A long title for a long entry. I haven't written for a while, so I have a lot to talk about. Oh yeah, and I've gotten my assignment for my second round! However, I'm saving that for the end. Don't you cheat and scroll to the bottom - I'll find out.

So... Camp Orange... It's less than ideal. I think I can speak for everyone on my team when I say that we're pretty tired of tents, port-o-potties and shower trailers. There have also been some harassment issues with some of the non-AmeriCorps guys who live here. Not to mention, it's pretty obvious that security targets me and my teammates in a disciminatory manner when they enforce their policies. I don't know if it's because we're young or because we're not from around here, but they do it.

Still, things aren't terrible. We've got a (plastic) roof over our heads and food on our table, which is much more than I can say about most of the people that we're trying to help down here. As for work, sometimes it's boring and sometimes it's exciting. It's a lot of office work (phone calls and such), but when we get to actually meet the residents of southeast Texas, it's totally worth it. Even though we're not giving them tons of aid or anything, most people are extremely grateful, which eludes to the fact that they are in a lot of need. Here are some pictures of my teammates at work:

Above: Ryan, lethargic from too much telephone-ness.

Above: Lindsey, who couldn't be lethargic if she tried!

Above: Lawrence attempting to be Model-Lawrence.

But regardless of my job or my living situation, we only have one week left here in Orange, TX! Next weekend we are driving back up to Sacramento and that will be the end of Round One! I will be flying home to Chicago on December 21st and I will report back to Sacramento on January 3rd.

I'm definitely looking forward to being home for a bit. It'll be nice to eat some good food and see everyone whom I've missed so much. It's funny though - once I get back to Sacramento, it's going to feel like I've been away from Silver One for ages. That's how it felt when I went to New Orleans for Thanksgiving (hey, what a convenient transition...).

I went to New Orleans, LA (or NOLA) for Thanksgiving break! It was a great time. I went with Sarah and Katie L. from my team and Ryan and the two Kristens from Silver Two. We rented a van to get there and stayed at the Olivier House, which was incredible. The Olivier is an old house that's located in the French Quarter of NOLA about a half-block from Bourbon Street. It was very pretty and we got a great discount for being in AmeriCorps (actually, I've gotten quite a few discounts and free things for "wearing the A").

The room was really interesting and definitely had a lot more character than other hotels that I've seen. I've never seen a loft in a hotel before, that's for sure! I stayed with Sarah and Katie up in the lofted bed and the Silver-Two-ers pulled out the couch downstairs. Here - I'll post a video and a picture from the hotel:

Above: The view from the outdoor hallway. We tried the pool but it was way too cold that night.

Above: A short video tour of our room.

Since it was such an ideal place, it turned out that tons of AmeriCorps members were staying there for break! We even met some people from the Denver and Iowa campuses. It was a lot of fun to reconnect with a bunch of my friends from CTI and explore NOLA with them.

So while plenty of people did the Bourbon Street thing, I decided to explore on my own for most of the break. Obviously, I met up with them later at night, but I spent the vast majority of the weekend simply walking around New Orleans. I found some really incredible neighborhoods and architecture around the city, so I'm really glad I got away from the whole touristy thing.

Also, on our way back from NOLA, we stopped in Baton Rouge to meet up with my friend, Arrielle. She brought us to this great Latin restaurant. It was really nice to see Arrielle again, since the last time I saw her was up in Madison. We also got to drive through the LSU campus, which was interesting to see. Overall, it was an excellent trip!

And lastly, my new assignment for Round Two. I'll preface this by saying that this is only going to be for three weeks. You see, this first project in Texas was a disaster project and it ended up being shorter than the other non-disaster projects that teams have. Thus, they are giving many of the disaster teams short, three-week projects in order to allow the other teams to catch up to the schedule. This means that I am going to have a five-project year, which is atypical and pretty much awesome! I like it because it means I get to see more of the country and live in more places throughout my year of service.

So my next project... Erin, my TL, made us go on a scavenger hunt around camp to find out. We found a clue in the Christmas tree, which led us to a clue taped onto the side of a port-o-potty, which led us to a clue taped onto the towel lockers, which led us to the final envelope in the driver's seat of our van. Each envelope also hinted about our project. We figured out that we would not be going to California or Texas (which I was very thankful for), that we would be doing construction and that we would be working with Habitat for Humanity. Then, we completed our hunt and the reveal was complete:

My next project is in Lafayette, LA! We're working with Habitat for Humanity building houses. This project isn't perfect, but it's excellent and I'm happy with it. It should be better than my current project in a variety of ways (not to say my current one is horrible, or anything):

First of all, we're be living in a building (a church, to be precise). That's a good start. We'll have more space to ourselves, indoor plumbing (ooooh, aaaah), a full kitchen and other goodies like that. Here at Camp Orange we have a cooking staff that usually prepares the type of food you'd expect construction contractors to want (tonight we're having hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, etc.), so I am really looking forward to being able to eat healthily without spending my own cash at the grocery store.

The next project should also be better because I'll be able to get outside and do some work with my hands, for once. I spend too much time indoors here - I can even notice my skin getting lighter. I'm glad that I'll be able to get back outside and do something more tangible. Also, I really can't wait to learn about construction since I'm sure one of my remaining three projects will be construction oriented.

Lastly, I hear Habitat for Humanity is great to work with. Obviously, it depends on your specific sponsor, but a Habitat project is essentially the standard AmeriCorps project that all other projects are measured against. I do admit, however, that my current sponsors at Catholic Charities are super-nice and I think my whole team will miss them once we're gone.

I'm pretty sure that sums it all up. NOLA trip, new assignment, but currently just more Orange. I know I threw a lot at ya this time, so if you have any questions or comments PLEASE let me know. I may be horrible at keeping in touch with people at the moment, but that doesn't mean I don't want to!

Thank you so much for reading. I'm not sure if I'll be posting over the holidays (I'm considering a special in-depth team info post, though), so if I don't speak to you until I get back to Sacramento, have a good holiday season!

-Scott

Hurricane Ike

Alright, I've been on the job for a week now. Before I get to that, however, I'm going to talk about my team's trip to Oak Island, TX (which is not an island...). We drove over there with our project sponsor so that we could fill out some intake forms in person as well as see some hurricane devastation first-hand. It was really crazy to see what the hurricane did to this small town... There were tons of homes that were completely destroyed. Often you'd simply see a FEMA trailer sitting at the end of a driveway. At first you don't make the connection... Usually when you see that, it means the entire house was ripped up and taken elsewhere by either wind or water.

So yeah, it was pretty sad to see the scattered remnants of an entire zip code... Here are some pictures of Oak Island and (finally) a movie for you as well. Don't expect premium entertainment though. It's 45 seconds of wreckage. I let it go that long simply to try to capture the amount of debris that used to be "house" and is now "stuff". Of course this is just one short stretch of road among many...


Above: Here is the video.

Above: Not really comfortable anymore.

Above: Not really livable anymore.

Above: Not really there anymore. Yes, that was a house.

Above: That's pretty straightforward.

Above: My TL Erin getting mobbed by dogs. There are tons of pets and stray dogs just roaming around the gulf.

According to Wikipedia, 90% of Oak Island's homes were left inhabitable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island,_Texas). Here is an article about Oak Island too: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/092108dntexoakislandike.187ff9a.html

Needless to say, there is a lot to be done down here. My team, Silver One, is working with Catholic Charities of Southeast Texas. I mentioned this before, but keep in mind that we don't do religious work and we aren't allowed to fundraise or anything. Basically, we're providing the administrative work needed to run the hurricane aid programs that they provide. They work with thousands of people, assessing their needs and giving them money to keep them going. We don't just serve Oak Island - we serve several counties!

We get tons of calls every day (and about 30-40 voicemails overnight) and we have to call each household back and fill out forms about those families. I've also been doing a lot of database work to keep all of the information organized. The work is definitely not the outdoor, physical work that I had hoped for, but it's worth it. It's really interesting to hear the families' stories about what happened to them and it makes the monotonous work worthwhile. Also, our sponsors are very nice people and they are definitely grateful for our work. Considering many teams work 60 hours per week, we're lucky that we're only working a simple 8-5. So yeah, this is my job until December 15 (I think). As we progress through the project, however, we'll probably get more and more opportunities to actually go out to the communities and talk with people, which should be more interesting. Here are some teamies "in action", if you can call it that:

Above: Katie making the phones look a lot more fun than they really are.

Above: Sarah making databasing look a lot more fun than it really is.

Oh and lastly, I have a fun story. We're in eastern Texas, which is not the Texas that you Yankees are probably imagining. There are no Tumbleweeds (though we did see plenty on the way here). I'm basically right on the border of Louisiana so the climate here is more like that. It's been raining a lot. In fact, it rained so much that we got stuck in the mud on our way out of the parking lot the other day. We tried all sorts of techniques but could not move. Finally we got help from a truck full of other Camp Orange residents. We tethered onto their truck and their back wheels sprayed mud all over the front of our treasured 15P as it pulled it out. This is what it looked like after a bit of cleaning:

Above: Our beloved 15P. At least it's intimidating now. If you see this baby on the road, you're probably going to get out of the way.

Alright, time for sleep. It's super late for me already. I don't have work tomorrow, but most of my team is planning to do an Independent Service Project (ISP) at a charity concert in Beaumont (the "bigger city" nearby).

Good night and thanks for reading!

-Scott