Shuffle Round: West Generation Academy Week 1

So on the Southwest (Denver) AmeriCorps campus we do a little thing called shuffle round. We get the chance to have a break (sometimes much needed) from our teams and go to a project that we induvidually have ranked high. The original teams get split up and put on to new ones according to our rankings. Usually people get within their top three rankings. I got my first pick, which was West Generation Academy in Denver.

West Generation Academy is in it's first year of opening. The original West High School is being phased out and replaced with a new learning system, focused on building careers and getting student focused on college and jobs for the future. There is now 6th, 8th, and 9th grade classes at West Gen. Our role there is to assist in the classrooms and to help out wherever we can to make the school run a little more smoothly.

I won't go into details, but after the first week of being there, this has not been an easy task. I can say that when a student succeeds in something you instructed them to do, or so much as expected them to do, the feeling is incredible.

...and to Disaster we go!

We were told by Nathalie that we were being sent on disaster in  New York/New Jersey for hurricane Sandy recovery. We were to go back to Denver (which is a three-day journey in Ameri-travel), have a couple of days to recoup, get some more details, then fly out to the east coast! I had never been to the east coast, so this was very exciting, more exciting that it seemed to be to others. We packed our things up, had our goodbyes with Medina River Natural Area, and set out for Denver.

Of course, we had to make a roadtrip out of the ride back, so we stopped in Roswell for kicks.

When we got back to Denver, we had to have a few meetings, carefully pack our things, and get prepared for what we had been told disaster will be like. I had an easier time packing, knowing that I would not have many chances to go out and would not need very many additional clothes. Uniform, PPE, PJ's, etc... my wardrobe was bleak, but it's not exactly large these days. I managed to pack all my things into my backpack and my issued red bag (including sleeping bag and pillow!). So proud of myself!

I was part of the advanced driver group that were sent to Baltimore to be picked up by NCCC from the Atlantic Region Campus to get vans for our teams. We left very early, which made it extremely easy to sleep on the plane. We got picked up by a TL from the campus, and went to Perry Point to get our vans. 

We picked up our teammates the next day, so we stayed the night in Abilene (sp?) Maryland. I had a nice time with the people that came with the advanced team, it was a good atmosphere with everyone excited for our disaster mission. Once we had everyone in the original teams, we headed to our housing for disaster. We were only to spend 8 days in New York, and the rest in New Jersey. On the way to another team's housing, we discovered that our housing had fallen through. Our unit leader set us up in an apartment in Brooklyn, on Fulton street. Coming from a small small town, this view was pretty hard to get used to, but amazing all the same:

We lived on the 4th floor, had access to the roof. I loved it.

We were working with New York Cares, a organization that provides materials and ways for volunteers to get out to areas to help. We were able to muck, gut, and do mold remediation. We were working mostly in the Rockaways, where the neighborhoods had been hit really hard. We spent the first few days working on the same house, starting right at the beginning, tearing everything out. It was odd seeing what once was a beautiful home, a place where someone planned on raising a family, torn apart for something they had no control over. It was fun to do demo, but also hard emotionally and physically.

I am now going to bed, but I will write more about the disaster experience later!

Well, Second Round flew by...

This may always start out the same, but I have forgotten to write again! I'm absolutely terrible with this, so this'll be a long one (not that anyone really reads it ;) ) So we started out the Second Round of our term after a short break home for Christmas. It was really nice being around family and seeing everyone at home. Once we got back, we had a transition week, which is the time that we have more classes, discussion, debriefs with our unit leaders, and prepare for our upcoming projects. We had a little issue starting at the beginning of transition week; our team leader (along with another team leader) dipped out and decided to leave together without telling anyone. So the staff was faced with the task of finding not one, but TWO new team leaders for our upcoming projects. This had recently happened (though through different circumstances) to a team from a different unit, and they had raised a corps member to the position of team leader. This seemed like the best option, so there were two corps members promoted to team leaders, and sent through the FEMAcorps TLT (team leader training) for the first month of our deployment.

My second round project started in San Antonio, Texas, working at the Medina River Natural Area removing invasive chinaberry trees and assisting in other tasks needing to be done in the Natural Area. We sprayed herbicide on the chinaberry trees, young and older, to try to reduce the numbers that were harmful to the area. This was a pretty difficult task for a girl from Michigan, where the forests don't grow together like jungles. We were there in January, so the riparian (area between the river and the forest) wasn't as lush as it is in the spring and summer, but still, it was pretty difficult moving through the briar patches and vines that seemed to grab you in places you didn't even know about. We would find a group of chinaberries, spray them, call out the number of ones you sprayed with or without berries, and move on. I found myself sometimes stuck in the briar patches, not knowing where to grab the vines to remove them from my skin because it hurt to touch them. I also developed a nasty allergic reaction to everything growing in the area. That was easily (or not so much, i came to discover) with antibiotics and hydrocortizone cream. 

All of  it was totally worth it due to the teaching and knowledge that Peggy, our sponsor, passed down to us. I feel that I have never learned so much about environmental stewardship that when I was there, spraying chinaberry trees with a "ghostbuster's" pack on my back. We also did other things while we were there--putting up a border fence, taking fences from the farming days down, painting the bathroom building/staining the ramp to the office, removing trash from a dump site of 30 years. All of it was worthwhile work, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Also, we were camping, and by "we" I don't mean "we". By "we" I mean the rest of my team camped while I slept on a cot in the kitchen. After that first night of 30 degree weather, I thought I would never be warm again. I enjoyed my sweet luxury and accept the fact that I'm a wimp.

For the time we were in Texas, our team leader was Nathalie, she was on a team with me last year and she was the best person to be with us for those three weeks we were in San Antonio, just what we needed. 

We also did some fun stuff-went to the MLK Day March (one of the largest in the country), went to the gigantic flea market, also went to the missions, which were of course beautiful. 

The second part of our project was supposed to be at Land Heritage Institute, again in San Antonio. I had seen on a facebook friend's wall that her team's project had gotten cancelled in Denver, and now they were coming to San Antonio to do trail building and hog-trap set up. That seemed odd-that's exactly what we were supposed to be doing! How funny, we were doing the same thing. We actually never got a confirmation that we weren't going to LHI, until they moved in. We were kept in the dark for about a week, wondering what was going to happen to us, poor Nathalie not being able to tell us what was in the works... 

We finally found out we were going on disaster! And on to the next project...

Oh jeez...

So, this is a little ridiculous but I COMPLETELY forgot Bout keeping a blog about NCCC. So we start again:

I completed the month of Corps member Training Institute or CTI. Where we learn basic skills, like tool safety, rules, living with people, etc. it can be pretty hard to sit through meetings, though it seemed a lot easier this time around because I expected it to be boring. CTI is also a very good time to meet people who will potentially be on your team, make new friends, and knock some ISP (independent service projects) out of the way. ISP a required 80 hours ( in addition to our other work hours) that we need to work with other non profit organizations other than the one we are currently serving with. One of the most memorable ISP's I did last year was The Color Run in Denver, CO. So much fun. So towards the end of CTI we found out what our team were and what projects we were assigned to. The process of finding this was similar to that of hazing/Al Qaida. Don't ask. Once the blindfolds were off, I looked around and saw some familiar faces, none of which were my "close friends" in the corps. This is the beauty of AmeriCorps. The only constant is change. Our project is working at Milford State Park renovating cabins in Milford, KS. And that's where I am now, on Thanksgiving, remembering that I have a blog. I'll try to keep up, I promise. ;)

Under One Week!

Well, the days are counting down to leaving for Denver. And I'm so excited! I can't remember the feelings I had lat year before leaving, but I'm realizing now that I was probably a hell of a lot more scared than I am now. I feel prepared, and not anxious at all. Just excited. I can't wait to see my friends in Denver as well as my soon-to-be friends! :D

Football!!!!

I don't especially like football, but I do have to say that one of the pluses of being home for 2 months waiting for AmeriCorps is watching my little brother's football games. I was in Marching Band in high school, so I was at every game during high school. But I never really enjoyed it because from my perspective, people should be enjoying the band. But, the times are a changing and I am enjoying them now. 24 days until I head to Denver!
~Megan

I guess I'm a hippy tree hugger now...

I never thought I would be crying over the loss of trees. My grandmother is having the trees around her house (which have been there since the 1920's) cut down because they're dying, and also the roots will split the foundation of house. It still makes me sad though. I have sentimental feelings for these trees, plus, we're losing shade...

~Megan