How jealous can I make you?

This is where I work:Granite Mountain

Kamikaze Falls, Mt. Tenerife

And this is what I look like doing it:

Soon I'll post a real update, I just wanted to share some of these beautiful sights we've been seeing the past few days!
love and mountains,
--Walker

Behind.. again.

Hey all! It's only been a few weeks since I last updated but I feel like I have so many exciting things to share! Our last weeks at Cedar Crest were so exciting, we had great weeks at work and jam packed weekends to boot. Our second to last weekend we spent the first day with some of the supervisors from different sites who brought out all of their rock climbing gear, set up ropes and said, "have at it". They spent the entire day showing us the ropes.. no pun intended.. and we climbed well into the evening. After rock climbing we took a bus to Hollywood and spent a day walking the Walk of Fame and seeing the sights.Here's quite a fantastic picture of me in front of Chuck Norris' star on the Walk of Fame (let the Walker Texas Ranger jokes ensue..)
A week after our Hollywood adventures we hiked San Gorgonio which, standing at 11,500 feet high, is the highest point in Southern California. It was a long, long day but the views were so worth it.


















After spending over ten hours hiking we got a few hours of sleep and woke up bright and early to head to Anaheim to visit DisneyLand! We spent 16, magical hours walking around riding every attraction in both DisneyLand and California Adventures. Some of my favorites were Space Mountain and Soaring over California. It was a great day and we had two absolutely fantastic tour guides who were fellow instructors and camp and who visit Disney frequently.













Even our last week was fantastic at Camp! On Thursday before we left, our last night there, the staff hosted and AmeriCorps commencement ceremony in which they even gave us a Certificate of Survival as well as some Inside the Outdoors gear so we can rep science camp every where we go!
Now, it hasn't been ALL fun and games since I last updated, we did finish working at Camp and then headed up to base in Sacramento for transition (which as a reminder consists of lots of meetings and we debrief our last project to staff members and then brief our upcoming one to staff members as well) Once we got to Sacramento we participated in several service projects one on memorial day at a retirement home in downtown Sac which was really memorable. We were present for the flag raising ceremony and got to speak with several veterans of early wars. We did some landscaping for the residents which was really great. The retirement home was actually a place we had worked the last time we were in Sacramento so it was neat to see the progress the area we worked on last time has made. While at transition we also worked at an elementary school carnival in south Sacramento, I got to run the bean bag toss table and hand out prizes to kids. The last project we did was at an Arts Fair which was a really great way to experience a different kind of Sacramento culture. I'm not sure if I've mentioned Independent Service Projects, or ISPs, yet but all Corps Members are required to complete 1700 hours of service in order to graduate from NCCC and qualify for the education award. 80 of those hours must be what NCCC terms ISPs or, projects/days of service which are not with a team's sponsoring organization. We've done some pretty fun things this year as ISPs as have other teams.
k
And now, finally, we're settled at our (insert drum roll) last project! Wowzers. I think i've posted enough for now but I'm going to go to watch Hercules (one of like 50 Disney movies at our housing here in Washington) with my team. I'll leave you, however, with some pictures of our beautiful location to hold you over until later this week when I can update you all on our current project. (Prepare yourself to be jealous

And one that just entertains me,

Take care all,
Walker

Last Project!

With our time at Camp Cedar crest drawing to a close we have just gotten news of our final project assignment! It is bizarre that this is the beginning of the end, but we're all VERY excited to be headed off to Seattle, Washington to work with Mountain to Sound Greenway doing trail restoration and rehabilitation as well as invasive species removal! We'll be working 4 days a week, 10 hours a day doing manual labor and Green 5 couldn't be more excited!!
For more information of the Mountain to Sound project visit http://www.mtsgreenway.org.
Our team is trying to fill our last few weeks here in the San Bernardino area with as much as we can, Disneyland is planned for the 17th, rock climbing/camping this weekend and hopefully visits to Joshua Tree National Park and West Hollywood are in the near future.
Take care all, enjoy beautiful May!!

News News News!

President Obama Signs Landmark National Service Bill

Act Launches New Era of Service at Time of Great Need; National Service CEO Named

Washington D.C. – President Obama delivered an early victory for a central cause of his Administration by signing into law a sweeping expansion of national service that will engage millions of Americans in addressing local needs through volunteer service.

The President signed the landmark Edward M. Kennedy Act today at a Washington DC elementary school, joined by Vice President Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, Dr, Jill Biden, Members of Congress, former President Clinton, former First Lady Rosalyn Carter, and an audience of nonprofit leaders and national service volunteers. The President was introduced by the bill’s namesake and longtime service champion Senator Kennedy, who co-authored the legislation with Senator Orrin Hatch.

After signing the bill, the President, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, and former President Bill Clinton will plant trees and restore habitat in an environmental service project with AmeriCorps members and high school students at a local park.

The Serve America Act reauthorizes and expands national service programs administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency created in 1993. The Corporation engages four million Americans in result-driven service each year, including 75,000 AmeriCorps members, 492,000 Senior Corps volunteers, 1.1 million Learn and Serve America students, and 2.2 million additional community volunteers mobilized and managed through the agency’s programs.

This bill had a fast bipartisan sprint through Congress. The President called on Congress to send him the Kennedy-Hatch national service legislation in his joint address on February 25. The bill was introduced on March 8 and passed the House on a 321 to 105 vote on March 18. The Senate followed suit one week later with a 79-19 vote, with final passage in the House on March 31, just 22 days after it was introduced.

“The broad bipartisan support for this legislation, and its remarkably swift journey through Congress, reflect the growing national consensus that service is a powerful response to the economic and social challenges facing America today,” said Corporation Board Chair Alan Solomont. “Across the country, people are looking for ways to help their neighbors and their communities. This bill will help us channel more of that energy into meeting local and national needs.”

Earlier today, President Obama announced his intention to nominate Maria Eitel to be CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Eitel is the President of the Nike Foundation and a Vice President of NIKE, Inc. As president of the Nike Foundation, she has led the Foundation’s work to increase opportunities for the world’s most disadvantaged girls. Prior to becoming the Foundation’s first president, Ms. Eitel served as Nike Inc.’s first vice president for corporate responsibility, leading the development and implementation of the company’s first corporate responsibility agenda.

President Obama said, “Maria brings a unique blend of skills and management experience that will help her successfully lead the Corporation during our Administration’s bold expansion of national service programs. Maria is genuinely passionate about the role of national and community service as a vehicle for engaging and mobilizing citizens in social change, and will bring new, creative thinking to the growth and mission of the Corporation.”

The legislation comes at a time of growing social need caused by the economic downturn and a corresponding “compassion surge” of Americans wanting to help those left vulnerable by its impact. The Corporation reported today that AmeriCorps received 17,038 online applications in March, nearly triple the 6,770 received in March of 2008. In the past five months, the agency received 48,520 online applications, up 234% over the 14,532 applications it received during the same five month period a year ago. Many volunteer centers and nonprofits groups are also reporting a recent increase in volunteers.

“The President’s call to service at a time of great need is striking a responsive chord with the American public, especially millennials and baby boomers,” said Acting CEO Nicola Goren. “In this economic downturn, we need service and volunteering more than ever, and this legislation expresses the country’s support for service when it’s needed most.”

The Serve America Act, which goes into effect on October 1, would increase and enhance opportunities for Americans of all ages to serve by increasing AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000 positions over the next eight years, while increasing opportunities for students and older Americans to serve. It will strengthen America’s civic infrastructure through social innovation, volunteer mobilization, and building nonprofit capacity. The new law is also designed to strengthen the management, cost-effectiveness and accountability of national service programs by increasing flexibility, consolidating funding streams, and introducing more competition. For a bill summary, click here.

“This bill will help unleash a powerful new wave of service and civic action to help tackle our nation’s toughest challenges," said Solomont. “We are grateful to Representatives George Miller, Bud McKeon, Carolyn McCarthy, and Todd Platts and to Senator Kennedy, Senator Hatch, Senator Mikulski, and Senator Enzi and all those who worked on this historic bipartisan step for national service. We look forward to working with Congress and the White House to fund and implement this Act.”

The bill follows quickly on the heels of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided $200 million to support up to 13,000 AmeriCorps members serving in distressed communities. Acting CEO Goren will swear in the first 200 Recovery Act AmeriCorps members at a VISTA training this Friday in Albuquerque, putting “boots on the ground” to help citizens affected by the economic downturn.

The President signed the bill before an audience that included current participants in AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and Learn and Serve America, Members of Congress who worked on the Act, and leaders of national service and nonprofit organizations. The event took place at the SEED School, an innovative public boarding school that caters to underserved students who face challenges in school and at home. In addition to offering an academically rigorous, college prep education, the SEED School incorporates service-learning into the curriculum of all its students, supported by the Corporation’s Learn and Serve America program.

****

Yes, we can.

Letting nature be the classroom

Yesterday 11 6th grade girls from Anaheim, CA asked me if they could stop and touch the small patch of snow left on the side of one of the trails. "It doesn't feel like it does in the movies!" one girl exclaimed. "It's so COLD," another yelled.

"Are those ALL stars, or are they airplanes?!" A shocked student exclaimed upon looking up during the night hike.

Let me just say that those comments alone are making the next 5 weeks here completely and totally worth every effort I could possibly put into this project.(Picture thanks to Katie Liberty)

To be able to share something as simple as nature, something that, luckily, has always been my backyard, with kids who have never spent a single night under the stars, never hugged a tree, never tripped over a rock or touched snow is a gift. I'm so honored to be able to spend the next 5 weeks here at Outdoor Science School. I know that we will have long days, I'll get exhausted and frustrated. But when I start feeling those ways, I'll just have to look at the stars and remind myself, they're not airplanes.

It's Earth day today, what can you do to preserve the few places left that look like where I live right now? How can you inspire someone from a younger generation to care for the planet we share and will continue to share for centuries to come? How can you reduce your carbon footprint and help others do the same?

Shutterfly!

Hey guys, I'm not sure if I've given you all this link before but, our team has a website where we upload our pictures to share with friends and family.. you can even print off of our Shutterfly if you really feel so inclined. Check it out, Katie just uploaded some beautiful pictures from a hike we went on on Friday!

And here's some musical genius to keep you entertained,


love from the mountains,
--Walker

Road Trip adventures, new project joys!

Greetings from 6,500 feet up! Yep, my team is now at Camp Cedar Crest in the San Bernardino mountains. We arrived on Wednesday evening and were immediately welcomed by a fantastic sign and warm smiles from the entire staff. Everyone has been incredibly helpful, welcoming and incredible since we've been here and I, for one, am absolutely psyched to work with these people for the next 5 weeks. But wait-- what took us so long to get here, you ask? Last time I wrote I was somewhere on the road from Baton Rouge to Sacramento and once we got to 'ole Sac-town we had some AmeriCorps business to take care of before we could head out.
We arrived at McClellan on a Friday night and had the whole weekend free, we then had our debrief for our Baton Rouge project. My teammate Sam is great with a video camera and so for both of our debriefs thus far he has made great movies capturing fantastic moments on our projects. I'm trying to figure out how I can share these videos with you-- they're really great! However due to their length and my lack of computer skills that might not happen so.. use your imaginations!
The last day of our transition before our spring break was 'Life After AmeriCorps Day' which consisted of several workshops on things like resume writing, interviewing tips as well as informational sessions on several organizations that our staff thought would spark our interest. One of the organizations I heard about was Bike and Build, something I'm seriously considering taking part in summer 2010, check it out, it seems like a really great way to support Habitat For Humanity, an organization that I obviously think is pretty great.
For my break (a.k.a-- long weekend) I headed south to San Francisco to check out some of my own 'Life After AmeriCorps' plans.. more on that later though, this update would last forever if I tried to explain my future plans at this moment. It was great, however, to get away from Ameri-life for a few days and get to see some family as well as friends. Sometimes I feel as though NCCC is this bubble in which I eat, sleep, breathe AmeriCorps. This life is such a strange way of living that it is nice to get out every once and a while and realize that people do still lead somewhat average lives outside of our 15 passenger van. I must say though, I do find myself excited to be back every time I return.
After break we had our briefing in which we were told that our project is great, basically. And then on Wednesday, we realized that it really, truly is. This week (Weds-Friday) we jumped in and helped out where we could but mostly just got to know the facilities as well as the staff and observed some of the really cool parts of the week. We spent two hours dancing to songs like YMCA, The Cupid Shuffle and Car Wash with the kids and staff on Thursday and I kept turning to my team mate Katie unable to say anything but, "This is our job". Next week we are shadowing an experienced counselor so that we can see them in action and learn on the job. The week after we'll be given our own group of 10-15 5th or 6th graders to lead and instruct for the week! I'll update more on our work next week when I'm more familiar with the program, right now we're just trying to get acclimated to the elevation!!
Since I haven't had time to upload pictures of the camp or the fantastic views yet I'll leave you with some pictures from the road trip we took from Baton Rouge to Sacramento. Just as a reminder our route was Baton Rouge,LA- San Antonio, TX- El Paso, TX- Flagstaff, AZ- Henderson, NV- Sacramento, CA.








The Alamo in San Antonio, Tx! (A Texan friend of mine referred to it as, "his Texan pride
" okay..)














Some really cool trees somewhere between San Antonio and El Paso.


















A shot out the window in Arizona, which I've decided is one of the most beautiful states I've been to.













Highway 10.. we saw a lot of this on our road trip.





















More Arizona.. beautiful, wouldn't you agree?
















5 days in a van with 10 people and we go a little nuts sometimes.. poor Sarah fell asleep and just wanted to stretch out.. and poor Katie was sitting in front of her!












Here's my team mate Abe standing at the Grand Canyon.. he looks so small!
















And here I am at the Grand Canyon! And how excited I look to be there! Really though, this was such a breathtaking place to see.(155)








The Vegas Strip! We found it interesting that in the morning we stopped at one of the most incredible natural features on the continent and then spend the night in the biggest environmental freak show, the city that shouldn't exist, Las Vegas!(251)










Who knew the Hoover Dam was so small?!










That's all for now, take care and wish me luck on my first week working directly with kids all week!
--Walker

Photo update!

Hey everyone.. sorry for the incredibly long delay! I'm currently writing this from a hotel in Henderson, Nevada because, that's right, we're finished in Baton Rouge! Our last day of work was this past Saturday and left for California on Monday morning. The next few weeks are a bit crazy, our schedule looks like this:
March 30th- April 3rd: road trip back to Sacramento from Baton Rouge (with overnights in San Antonio, TX, El Paso, TX, Flagstaff, AZ and Henderson, NV)
April 6th-9th: Transition in Sacramento (including a day of Life After AmeriCorps workshops on things like resume building and job fairs)
April 10th- 13th: AmeriCorps NCCC Spring break! We get Friday and Monday off and I'll be spending my break in San Francisco visiting family, friends and a prospective school for next year. I'll also try and get some Independent Service Project hours out of the way on Monday.
April 14th: One last day of transition, consisting of briefings. Briefings are the meetings in which we, as a team, present what we know about our project and the community we'll be serving to some AmeriCorps NCCC staff members. This is so that they can see that we have prepared ourselves well and also so that they can answer any questions we might have.
And, finally, on April 15th Green 5 will depart from McClellan Air Force Base and head to southern California for our third project!
What are we doing in So-Cal, you ask? Well, we'll be working at camp Cedar Crest, an environmental education camp run by the Orange County school district. We'll be working with 5th and 6th graders as counselor/instructors. Our job will be to act as camp counselors to groups of students while, at the same time, teaching them a set science curriculum based on their age. A typical week's schedule will include several hikes (both day and night), skits and presentations on topics from astronomy to forest ecology. But more on that later, I have so much to update you about!



Here are myself and my teammate Katie working on siding at the Women's' Build. In Baton Rouge every measure is taken to ensure the safety of volunteers on the work site.












From back to front we have Abe, myself, Katie and Bailey on our first day at the Restore! We organized approximately a million (okay, maybe not) windows by size and then priced them by the square foot. It was really neat to see a section of the store that was so disorganized become so neat and easy to navigate after our hard work was complete. We also were able to help several customers find what they needed by pointing out our newly updated organization system.






These beautiful buildings are the University Presbyterian Church which was our home for eight fantastic weeks! We lived on the top floor of the building on the left, the one on the right was home to a day school for pre-school aged children.






For many people Tuesday, February 24th passed uneventfully, but not in the state of Louisiana, that's for sure! The 24th was Fat Tuesday, more commonly known as Mardi Gras. A few of my friends and I were able to make it down to New Orleans for the festivities, to the right is a photo of just one of the incredible floats we saw! I had always heard that Mardi Gras was a huge deal in the southern part of our country but I could have never understood just how huge without having been a part of it. Schools closed, buses run on different schedules and just about everyone walks around in a state of celebratory euphoria (be it alcohol or excitement
induced varies from person to person).



NCCC gives every member 3 personal days which can be taken at any point in the year as long as an absence won't drastically impact the work of the team. I took advantage of my days to fly home for a weekend in mid-March to see Anything Goes, the musical at my old high school in which my younger brother had a role and my younger sister stage managed. The afternoon before I left was a fantastic way to say goodbye to Louisiana for a few days! My team spent it at Alligator Bayou Tours in Baton Rouge. We were shown all sorts of gators as well as other native Bayou wildlife. Our tour guides were fantastic and told us all about how the levee system changed the natural landscape and environmental cycles in Louisiana as well as about how important it is to preserve the existing Bayou lands. Our team was also informed that they day after our tour the men who liquidated their million dollar roofing company to save the lands that they now give educational tours on were due in court to fight for the rights to continue to use their land for educational purposes. The history is quite complicated but, information about the case can be found here. And please, excuse the strange look on my face but.... give me some credit, will you? When was the last time you held a gator?


Whew. That was about the fastest recap of the past month and a half that I could have possibly done. Over the next few days I'll try to expand on a few of the subjects I touched on, including a reflection on the close of our second project which signifies the half-way point in my term of service as well as my last few days serving on the Gulf Coast. I also have lots of updating to do about our road trip! We were able to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk in San Antonio, the US-Mexico border in El Paso, the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam on the way to Nevada and, finally, the Vegas Strip and, on top of all that, some of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen.

gators, mountains and love
--Walker

Just a typical week in the capital city

I’m almost positive that if asked, every one of my team mates would agree that the best thing about living and working in Baton Rouge is the variety of things we get to do. Sure, we love going to the Mardi Gras parades, running around the lakes and seeing live music but we also love the work variety that HFH GBR (Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge) provides for us. Our week this past week looked like this:

Monday- Off! We work a Tuesday-Saturday work week here in the capital! We spent Monday grocery shopping and getting ready for our first full week with HFH GBR.

Tuesday- Our supervisor Ryan asked the girls on my team to help get the Women’s Build house moving along, Women’s build volunteers come on Wednesdays and Saturdays but they had us to some jobs that would help the house get ready for the next stages of building. Three of us were assigned to hang dead wood, which are pieces of wood that are nailed on top of the top plates on all of the walls running parallel to the roof trusses. This wood hangs off by just an inch or so to allow the drywall hangers to have something to screw the ceiling drywall into.

Wednesday- Women’s build! Although it was a frigid morning (say.. mid 30’s.. brrr…) there were about a dozen local women that came out to help install siding on the home they’ve been responsible for since it’s beginning. My female team mates and myself jumped right in to help siding, a skill we practiced many a times in Bay St. Louis.

Thursday- We spent Thursday in Rosewood, which I think I mentioned before—it is the Habitat neighborhood in which we’re helping HFH GBR prepare to blitz 5 more homes in March. In Bay St. Louis all the houses we built were on stilts due to their proximity to the Gulf here, however, the Habitat homes are all built on concrete slabs. We worked all day staking out where the ground needs to be cleared and leveled before the concrete can be poured. It was quite mathematical and we learned a lot about building lines and how far (due to city regulations) the houses have to be from the curb, power lines, water lines etc.

Friday- Whew. What a day. Many Habitat affiliates have a store in which they sell used and donated building materials at a low cost to the public as a way to help the community but also to fund some projects. The Restore became our work site this past Friday and will, theoretically, continue to be our work site every Friday until the end of March. I spent the day, along with 3 team mates, sorting windows by width and type. My goodness. We moved, measured, sorted and priced approximately 500 windows. It was an incredibly exhausting and tiring day but, it was incredibly rewarding at the end of the day to be able to look at how much better the area we were working in looked. I'm excited to get to do more organizing for the Restore staff, they have SO much stuff in the store and I think ten of us working can accomplish a whole lot for them.

Saturday- Normally, Saturdays are Women's Build days however, this past Saturday two of our team members were asked to accompany Erin, a HFH GBR staff member who works with family services, on home visits. We got to visit three prospective home owners who applied for a Habitat home and passed their financial review (homeowners have to make enough to be able to afford the mortgage paymets on a house but also can't make TOO much to not be eligible for a Habitat home). Once a family passes the financial review Habitat staff visits them at their home to discuss with them the ins and outs of being a Habitat homeowner from sweat equity to mortgage payments. They also do assessments of the family's current living situation to see if a housing need is really there. Maria and I were able to visit three families and to fill out assessments and get to know their stories. It was really great to see such a different side of this organization that we've invested so much time working with. I definately see this side of the orgaization as being something that interests me more than the construction side and I'm really glad that I got the opportunity to see it first hand!

I hope that this gives you all a much better picture of what we're doing here in Baton Rouge and that, in general, our NCCC team is used for quite a variety of tasks here at HFH GBR! We enjoyed some 75 degree weather, complete with Louisiana humidity today, hope you're all doing well,
--Walker

ps.. I have pictures from all sorts of fun things like moving windows and Mardi Gras parades which I'll hopefully post sometime in the next week or so. But in the meantime, I can't believe that I've never given our this link. Our team has a Shutterfly account on which we can post pictures, all the ones on the website are from my team mates as I have been posting most my good pictures here and.. I'm far too lazy to upload them to the website:). But feel free to browse, they're all from Sacramento or Mississippi at this point.

Top 25 things!

Two updates in one week.. what has happened to me?! I thought of something cool to update about, that's what! Every month the Sacramento campus puts out a newsletter called the Common Ground with updates from each team so that we can all keep up to speed on what everyone else is doing even though we're spread from Miami (I know.. jealous..) to Idaho. My team last round made a list of the top 25 pieces of advice that we would give to the team coming to take over our project in Hancock County, MS. I think it gives a nice snapshot of what Green 5 life was like in Mississippi and will also, hopefully, be a supporting piece of evidence to prove that, although I might rave about the fantastic things I get to do in Baton Rouge (like see concerts on Wednesday nights and grocery shop at Whole Foods..) I DID love Mississippi. Note that some pieces of evidence are accompanied by pictures to help emphasize their meaning :)
Top 25 Pieces of Advice for The Next AmeriCorps NCCC team in Pearlington Mississippi:
Get in the shower quickly, or the mosquito swarm will notice you
When it rains, the front yard turns into a lake
Take advantage of Beth's and Larry's kindness. They will become your saviors in no time.
Be prepared to have 2-6 dogs follow you along any run.
Las Palmas restaurant = a diamond in the rough
Complaining about the water won't change it, shower with your mouth closed*
The dock has lovely photo opportunities
Vans get stuck in mud and fresh sod
Rent free movies at the library
Watch for the sand fleas, they burrow in leg hair
Hard hats make good leak catchers
Befriend the directs.. they have cars
Bleach kills mold, FYI
Learn to love scaffolding, splinters, and no-see-ums
Week night staples include: Beth and Larry's house, Clydes on Wednesday nights, and the mocking-bird Cafe on Thursday nights
PT on the beach is absolutely worthwhile
Slidell, LA has more to offer than you might imagine
New Orleans is 40 minutes away, take advantage of that fact
Sunflower seeds are the perfect on-site snack at any time of the day
Tan lines will happen, accept them, love them
Appreciate the relatively young, strangely attractive, and amazing habitat for humanity staff
"What Would Dan Reynold's Do?" may soon become your life motto.**
Gas station pizza... give it a chance
Stephen Scott only causes harm to himself, but remain cautious
In the Americorps Olympic Games, their is only 1 winner.. and 9 losers
Green Five says goodbye to Pearlington Mississippi we will miss you!


*The water in Pearlington was totally safe and completely clean, however, it smelled of something we had all hoped to leave behind in High School science classes.. sulfur. Apparently if you drank it it would help keep the gnats away.. none of us tested that theory..
**Dan Reynolds was one of our construction supervisors in Bay St. Louis and we became his biggest fans. So much so that we made these t-shirts with his likelihood
Also pictured here from Left to Right are Tom (peeking in just barely), Ryan and Ben. In the middle next to the man himself is Stephen. They were the most fantastic staff we could have asked for, and I think we will all continue to miss them for the remainder of our year. Missing here is Chris, one of our staff members who was sick on our last day :(. If you're a fan of the Dan Reynolds t-shirts (which feature the motto "what would Dan Reynolds do?" on the back) you can purchase one online at www.cafepress.com/wwdrd. Check out the website, it's pretty hilarious!


On another note, the concert I attended last night was pretty fantastic! One of the bands that opened for Red Jumpsuit was Tickle Me Pink from Colorado and I would recommend them to anyone looking for some new music. Not only did we enjoy their music but their performance was entertaining to say the least.


On a work related note; we've been preparing sites for a string of blitz builds coming up in March. Today we staked out the perimeter of where the concrete slab will be poured. The area we're building in is called Rosewood and is land that was donated to Habitat because it was no longer able to be farmed for sugar cane. The entire subdivision is made up of Habitat homes and we'll be building on 5 empty lots. Today while eating lunch one of my team mates looked over the sites and remarked about how strange it is that in just a few months these empty patches of grass will be the site of a family's home. It was one of those moments that made me realize what we're doing here and made me really appreciate the work that my team has done and will continue to do. Although construction is tiring and we're all going to be ready for a change of pace come our next project in April, it is most certainly one of the more rewarding and visible types of work we could be doing.

Peace, love and no more sulfur water,
Walker

City life at last!

Gaux Tigers! That’s right, greetings from Louisiana State University’s campus! Before arriving in Baton Rouge we had all been told that we were living near LSU but it wasn’t until we got here that we realized that literally, our back yard is LSU frat houses and the LSU library, along with other university buildings, is just a three minute walk! We’re all already enjoying the ease and excitement of city life, we arrived Thursday around lunch time and in just 4 and a half days here’s the exciting list of “Things I’ve done in Baton Rouge I never could have done in Pearlington”!

-explored LSU’s library, all 5 floors of it.

-eaten sushi and gone out for ice cream, all within 3 miles of each other

-WALKED to a pizza place and coffee shop (that sells vegan cookies)

-gone to Chelsea’s, a fantastic bar/restaurant/music venue that books fantastic Indie bands like The Weakerthans

-bought tickets to see Red Jumpsuit Apparatus at The Varsity, which is three blocks from our housing (the show is Wednesday!)

-attended a free lecture on Astronomy at the Baton Rouge Astronomical Society’s observatory

-viewed Orion’s Nebulus, a “stellar nursery” through Baton Rouge’s largest telescope

-been to Louisiana’s largest shopping mall

-run on paths around “the lakes” aka, two beautiful lakes right across the street from our housing

-worked on a Women’s Build house (when completed it will have been constructed solely by female volunteers and staff)

-gotten free coffee from Common Grounds, the coffee shop across the street run by a local church that doesn’t charge anything for coffee!

As you can see, I’ve had quite an eventful time in Baton Rouge so far, and we’re already feeling as though we’re going to run out of time before we can do everything we want! Don’t let the title of my list confuse you though! I loved my time in Mississippi and miss our staff at Habitat BW so much. It is just nice being able to feel as though we have some semblance of real lives, sleeping in real beds and walking to coffee shops rather than sleeping in shacks and walking to the port-a-potties. We arrived at our housing on Thursday after eating lunch at Reginelli’s and getting coffee at The Highland. We met with Mary Michael, the woman in charge of showing us the ins and outs of our housing as well as Patti Snyder, the pastor at the church we’re staying at. We live in dormitory rooms behind the sanctuary at the University Presbyterian Church. During the week the building (which includes our two rooms and two Sunday school rooms as well as a tiny kithen and living area as well as bathrooms and the Sanctuary) is basically ours. We have certain days when we have to stay clear of the large living area and on Sundays we have to be cleared out of the Sunday school rooms but we’re all very excited about being here. The girls have a beautiful yellow room with windows that look out to the lake and all of us have quilts on our beds that were made by a church in North Dakota and donated to this church. During hurricane season UPC is a shelter for women and babies, something we’re reminded of by the large amount of diapers in the pantry and the sign above the kitchen sink proclaiming, “Please only bathe babies in bathroom sinks”.

Our first day with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton rouge was Friday and we were to begin with an orientation presentation at the Habitat officer to get us acclimated to the new affiliate. Everything got off to a great start, we all prepared breakfast in a kitchen the size of one of our bunks, no one was missing any vital uniform pieces, our team leader deftly navigated the strange street names (we live on Dalrymple…) and then all ten of us got to the office and piled into the elevator which was to take us up to the 4^th floor. Note to future teams staying in Baton Rouge: the elevator at the Hancock Bank building where the habitat office is located was “brought over by Christopher Columbus” and does not handle ten NCCC members very well. Once we got the elevator to move from its limbo position between the 3^rd and 4^th floors and take us back to the ground level we split into two groups and successfully made it to our destination. Once in the office we were greeted by Katie, the vegetarian, environmentalist who is the volunteer coordinator at Habitat GBR. She gave us t-shirts and a presentation on our new affiliate.

It is interesting the differences between Habitat Bay-Waveland and Habitat GBR as the affiliate in Mississippi is still classified as a disaster relief affiliate where as the one here in Baton Rouge is combating poverty which isn’t necessarily linked to any of the most recent storms. For example, all Habitat homeowners are required to put in sweat equity hours in which they work in the office or on the construction site for a set number of hours in order to pay for some of their house. In Bay St. Louis a single homeowner was required to do 100 hours and here in Baton Rouge a single homeowner is required to do almost 300! The staff organization is a bit different here too and therefore, the tasks that we’re asked to help out with will be a bit different. It’s been fun picking up differences and learning to do tasks in a new way. People’s stories here are also so different, our construction manager, Frank, told us that during Katrina his home lost power for a grand total of one hour, however, during Gustav last September he lost power for a littler more than a week. In Bay St. Louis one of our supervisors grew up in the Bay and during Katrina he lost everything and his story wasn’t at all unique.

I’m excited for the new experiences we’re going to have here in Louisiana. It’s already looking like our whole time here will be the complete opposite from our time in Mississippi and I’m quite glad for that. I’m also getting, somewhat prematurely, excited for our projects in region, I can’t wait to be back in the Pacific region! We’re here until the end of March, however, so I’ve got a ways to go but I’m sure that it will fly!

With lots of love and free coffee,

--Walker

Packed.

Whew.. these past few weeks have been such a blur! I think I started a new entry here at least 5 times, every time being pulled away by paperwork or some team event happening as we closed up our project in Hancock County. That's right, we're done, out of Mississippi and onto bigger (although better is still to be determined) things. What sorts of things, you might ask? Well... Habitat in Baton Rouge! That's right, we'll be living in Louisiana's capital city, the home of the Louisiana State University Tigers and working, again, with Habitat for Humanity building homes for families living below the poverty line.
Our last week in Hancock County was filled with so many emotions; excitement, sadness, nostalgia and anxiety over what was to come. Monday was Martin Luther King day, a day which is encouraged to be "a day on-- not a day off" meaning instead of just lounging around enjoying a day off of school/work American citizens should embrace King's message and serve their communities. AmeriCorps, being a service organization, connects its members with different organized events so, even though Habitat, our sponsor, was closed, we spent the day working. Our team went to a MLK day event sponsored by Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and the group that I was a part of worked with Loaves and Fishes, a shelter which provides meals 6 days a week and church services on Sundays for homeless in the Gulfport-Biloxi community. It was a really great day of service led by a college student and we got to mingle with volunteers from the community including some other AmeriCorps teams. My group worked on painting the dining/service area of Loaves and Fishes but, luckily, we got to take a nice break to watch the MLK Day parade going down the street! This picture is of me and teammates Maria and Bailey after collecting some beads! We thought this parade was great.. we can't wait until Mardi Gras!! After the parade was over we ate lunch and our hosting MGCCC student held a reflection activity in which we discussed why we were serving (either that day or for our term of service in general) and also how we feel about MLK Day being a day "on" not a day off. It was really great to get to hear from locals about their view on service, so many of them talked about how volunteers have done so much in their communities that they feel it is their duty to give back. One girl thanked us so much, said that she wouldn't have a house if it hadn't been for AmeriCorps volunteers and told us that, even though it has been 3 years, everyone loves seeing people come down to help, it gives them hope and reminds them that people still remember this area even though other events might be taking precedence in the media. Aside from the discussion we had with the local volunteers my favorite part of the reflection activity was when a Team Leader from another team serving with us referred to our Ameriyear as a "year on, not a year off". I think that too many people assume that since we're not working "real" jobs or attending school that we're putting our lives on hold or avoiding doing some sort of assigned task. In reality, we're serving our country just like someone in the military or a government official might be.. we're just doing it in the way we see most befitting to us. I think with the close of my first project I'm getting a bit Amerisappy.. but I can honestly say that through this program I have met the most incredible, selfless people and have really discovered how much good there is when people come together to help strangers.
After Monday we went back to working with Habitat for the rest of our final week. We were helping prepare for a blitz build the next week as well as just getting to say good bye to our fantastic staff. Friday was our last day and quite a fantastic one at that. We worked until lunch at which point Habitat grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and veggie burgers for us and we all ate and talked for an hour or so. Our team decided that since our staff and done so many construction Olympic events for us and made us do ridiculous tasks that we would do the same for them. We created two events, the first of which was a physical challenge and the second was a written exam in which we quizzed them about NCCC policy such as how much money is each corps member allotted for food per day ($4.50) as well as questions about our team specifically like, which green 5 team members don't knit (Sam, Abe and Sarah). The end of the day held the Closing Ceremonies for the Construction Olympics. The culminating event of the Olympics was the birdhouse building competition. My partner Bailey and I built a "Birdstone"-- our birdhouse version of a Brownstone-- and we placed second out of 5! I ended up placing third overall and being awarded the Bronze metal which I will forever brag about :).

Saturday night we went out with out housing sponsors Beth and Larry (you might remember me talking about how incredible they were and how much I loved baking in Beth's oven). They took us out for dinner and told us that we'll always have a home in Pearlington. I can't imagine how they manage to stay sane having so many teams come and go through their home. We will miss their hospitality immensely as we move on in our year. The picture of us by the Pearlington sign was taken the night that we went to dinner which was, actually, the first time we had been somewhere dressed up out of uniform, as a team, since the beginning of our project! We all couldn't stop remarking about how GOOD we all looked!!
Sunday morning and promptly (more or less..) 10:30 am we left the Pearlington Recovery Center for good and headed to Camp Hope in New Orleans. In between all projects in AmeriCorps NCCC all teams get together for a few day for a period of time we refer to as Transition. During this period we have debriefs in which we talk about our project and present to our Unit Leader and some other NCCC staff members. We also have a briefing in which we talk about the project we are about to begin to the same NCCC staff members. Transition began this yesterday morning and we'll leave Thursday morning to arrive at our housing in Baton Rouge in the afternoon. We had our debrief at 10:30 this morning and along with the staff we were watched by Green 1, the team which is about to take over the project we left in Hancock County which was really great because we were able to help them understand more about what their project will be like as well as answer any questions they might have.
Whew. Like I said, the past few weeks have been a blur... but a fun blur! I can't believe that our 4th month in this program has flown by so fast and that we've already completed our first project but I can't wait to see what the rest of this year brings. Take care and stay tuned soon for more information on Green 5's second project in Baton Rouge!
love,
--Walker

Back in the Bayou

Greetings all :) I am, as of Sunday evening, back in Pearlington, Mississippi! Vacation was fantastic and it was great to get to spend time at home, see (or at least hear from) most of my family and friends. Sunday morning, however, I woke up ready to be back in the Ameriworld. I was excited to see my team, excited to get back to work and excited to get on with the rest of my 7 months of servince. Don't get me wrong, I loved being home, loved showering in a real bathroom, loved eating food not bought on $4.50 a day and loved being surrounded by people who know and love me. But, in all honesty, I never once wished I could stay for longer than my two weeks. I'm absolutely enjoying myself in AmeriCorps and I missed my team, I missed the immersion into this world that is unlike any other.

My team is awaiting the reveal of our next project and project location quite anxiously.. Ben, our team leader, claims he knows no details of where we'll be staying but our friends in other units already know their second round SPIKEs(remember-- my term of service is comprised, typically, of 5 parts; one month of training and 4, 6-9 week long project "rounds" and SPIKE is another term for project). We're pretty sure that we'll be here, in the gulf until third round but... anything is possible, really.

We're working on some new houses with Habitat this week as well as finishing up the one we helped Blitz the week before our vacation. Today we spent the afternoon framing the walls at a new house location. Framing walls seems almost like putting together puzzles, before we begin there is a "pre-build" in which partitions, trimmer-studs, cripples, headers and other pieces that make up a wall are cut to the right sizes and put together. Then, once we begin framing we align the top plate and bottom plate of the walls which are marked with letters signaling where different pieces need to be secured (S for stud, C for cripple etc.) We then fetch the pieces and nail them into the top and bottom plates and the walls are then secured to the floor. Raising walls is pretty fun and we took some pictures of us doing it today which hopefully I'll be able to track down.

Speaking of pictures, my camera is broken so for the next few posts, I'll be relying on the kindness of my team mates for pictures :)

with new years and new beginnings,
--Walker