Days 6 through 8 (The magic continues...)

Day 6 – Saturday February 13, 2010

The remainder of yesterday was great.  I hung out with my housemates for hours and we continued conversations about life (including a good one I had with Rene in the afternoon about different motivations for striving to be a good person).  Rene and I walked over to the post office in the afternoon with Red, a girl who had just moved in across the street an hour or two earlier because she’d had multiple train rides and flights cancelled due to weather.  She was surprised to arrive to find the Village empty and we explained that everyone else was at physicals then gave her a brief introduction to our end of campus as she joined us for our walk to mail a couple of letters. 

In the evening, the rest of the house (except Marissa, who had yet to return from the clinic) headed out for the night.  I stayed in to go to the Wolf Den and enjoy a restful evening before our first day of training.  I ended up having three Raven CMs over for half an hour to chat since the Den opened late.  We had a nice conversation before returning for some quality internet and people-bonding time.  I got to sleep at a reasonable hour and was up at seven today when the rest of the house began to stir.

Training today went very smoothly.  We headed over to the theater by the gymnasium (in the building attached to 9H) at 8:40 for a 9 AM start.  Our Atlantic Region program director, Robin Nixon, began by introducing us to the types of trainings we’d have during CTI and explaining the basics of where NCCC fits in under the Corporation for National and Community Service.  She told us that our target cities for the year are Baltimore, DC, and Camden (NJ); one or more teams will be on projects in each of those cities during each of our four spike rounds.  She also explained that 50% or more of our service will be in the area of natural or other disasters.  The rest of our projects will fall into the following four areas: environmental stewardship and conservation, urban and rural development, infrastructure improvement, and energy conservation.  Throughout the year, our class will complete at least 100 projects during over 425,000 hours of community service.  Pretty cool, huh?

Sean, the Badger UL, joined Robin in describing the specialty roles we could take on our teams once they’re selected.  These include roles such as the POL (Project Outreach Liaison), who acts as on-the-ground eyes and ears to help NTrip find potential project sponsors for future years, and the SLI (Service Learning Initiator), who creates opportunities for team members to think about the broader impact and implications of the project.  I thought the CAP (Corps Ambassador) sounded especially interesting.  The CAP finds opportunities to tell people, especially in our target audience of ages 18 to 24, about NTrip through job fairs, school visits, and the like.  I enjoy talking about my love of AmeriCorps and had tons of fun promoting Brown so would very likely quite enjoy this too.

Sean then talked about NCCC Standards and Expectations (don’t drink or do drugs; disciplinary structures are in place if there are issues), gave us a lunch break, and ended with information about PT and Wildland Firefighting.  We’ll have PT twice per week during CTI, always starting at 6 AM, then three times per week for 45 minutes per session while out on spike.  Each month, we’ll do a PT assessment, during which we do one minute of push-ups (as many as possible), one minute of sit-ups, and a one mile run (or 1.5 mile walk as necessary).  The assessment will be a good tool for helping us track our progress through the course of the year. 

I don’t have interest in being trained as a firefighter, but enjoyed learning about that opportunity too.  About 90 people usually take the pack test to try and become firefighters.  Around 2/3 of those people will pass, walking 3 miles in 45 or fewer minutes while carrying a 45-pound pack.  This year, there are 36 spots for CMs to become firefighters.  They’ll train during the first week the rest of us are on spike.  Most will then rejoin their teams while some go out to do fire-related projects for their first spike.  Each round, one-fourth of the firefighters will leave their teams to join together on a composite firefighting team.  Sean did an excellent job framing the program as a great opportunity to continue as a wildland firefighter for anyone potentially interested in that as a future career.

We finished training around 2 then hung out a bit longer for our steel-toed boot fittings.  My pod had had first physicals so had last fittings.  We finished up around 3:30 then Rene and I walked back to the Village (fitting in a bit of a leg stretch rather than returning to the van for the one-mile trip).  Our whole house sat around together all evening, variously making and eating food, talking, adding another dreadlock to Rene’s hair (that was Jordanna), sleeping on the couch (Jamie right now), and sorting pictures and journaling.  I love our house.

We have the rest of the weekend free, including Monday as President’s Day.  The TLs offered us an ISP in town tomorrow helping shovel clear the sidewalks of Perryville.  I’ll get to do that for a few hours then just relax in and around the Village before training picks back up on Tuesday.  In the meantime, I’ve got some pretty sweet steel-toed boots.

Day 7 – Sunday February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine’s Day! 

Today was full of energy and noise.  My day began at 7:30 AM with the piercing shrill of the smoke detectors once again reminding us that they exist.  Yes, smoke detectors, we do remember that you’re there.  They had been going off repeatedly the previous night (and at various times since our first afternoon), so we’d removed the batteries from both of them.  (There’s one in the upstairs hallway and one over the front hall closet.)  This morning, they sounded off again in spite of their lack of batteries.  After about 10 minutes, I detached the downstairs detector from the wall.  It had gone off first by a few seconds each time and we’d been told there was probably an alpha detector.  Ten minutes later, it became clear that I had to remove the upstairs detector from the ceiling as well.  I had to use a pair of tweezers to pry the wire connector from the back, but then we could sleep in relative quiet.  By now, of course, most of us were awake for the day.  Thus is life.  I will comment that there was immense satisfaction in the weak final beep of the upstairs detector as I pried it from the ceiling.  It was an enjoyable sound.

I spent much of the morning sitting in the living room conversing with Casey, Maria, and Rene.  Eventually, Rene and I each went out for a jog, then I walked with Maria to the post office up the street so she could mail a couple of letters.  The weather was beautiful and starting to warm up, so it was great to be outside.

The entirety of my afternoon was also spent outside.  The TLs had set up an ISP opportunity for us shoveling snow from the sidewalks of Perryville.  The morning ISPers had made it into downtown and about 75 of us (from all units) walked on their beautifully cleared sidewalks into town.  We spent about three hours clearing and widening sidewalks far down one of the….

Day 8 – Monday February 15, 2010

Happy President’s Day!

To continue from last night…

We spent about three hours clearing and widening sidewalks far down one of the main streets (of Perryville).  It was wonderful to be out and active and making an impact, leaving a trace in a good way.  Wolf TL Jamie supervised my third of the shoveling crew.  He sent my four-person crew (Julian and Kelly from the Raven Unit, Leslie from the Badgers) into a retirement home to check the sidewalks and clear a path in the snow to and around a fire department in the complex.  While Julian and I put finishing touches on a sidewalk shoveling job, one of the women who lives in the community, probably in her seventies or eighties, came out to ask us for a favor.  She requested that we shovel out the still-snowy parking spot (most of the spaces were completely clear) of a man who had recently had a heart attack and was now out at the pharmacy picking up medications.  Another crew joined at the perfect moment to help us so 8 ACers cleared snow from a parking space for her.  She was super-nice, telling us she’d worked at the canteen at Perry Point for 25 years and thanking us multiple times for our help.  I knew we’d make a difference, but I didn’t realize we’d be directly helping a senior citizen (though not across the street) during our first week.

 Another cool moment of recognition in the A (‘in the A’ referring, of course, to wearing the AmeriCorps “A” logo) came towards the end of our shift.  Jamie announced that a woman driving by had stopped and said she would put three hundred dollars at the pizza place on the corner in town for us.  Jamie had ordered a bunch of pizzas for both morning and afternoon ISPers to enjoy after our shift.  Though a common response was “woo, pizza!”, my first thought was how cool it was that someone would recognize our work in the A in that way.  It reminded me of the high visibility of our uniforms – and of every move we make in our uniforms – and the awesome legacy of past ACers that we represent every time we put on that A.  I love being able to help continue that legacy and wearing that A with pride.

After pizza, I returned home for a few hours of quality house time.  It was the 19^th birthday of Mercedes, one of the girls in the house across the street, and her house had suggested a potluck and party in honor of the occasion.  We decided that we would host the potluck (our primary reasoning was amusingly that we love our house and a couple people stated that no other house was as good as ours so we might as well host at our place) and the girls across the street and the guys two houses down came at 6:30 for dinner (the guys further down the street joining later after their taco night).  The guys only have pasta in their house, so they brought pasta and tomato sauce, the girls brought couscous, and Maria made buckwheat noodles (delicious!) and tofu with vegetables for our contribution.  We all feasted on the wonderful food then sat and chilled for awhile. 

At 8:30, party time, we all headed across the street to the birthday girl’s house.  They had made a cake so we sang happy birthday and ate cake and a bunch of people danced the hora, raising her on a chair in the middle (it’s still unclear why, but it sure was fun and lively).  We danced in the basement in a combination middle-school-dance and high-school-house-party (substance-free, of course) before a bunch of people decided to head out into town.  Since it was already well after nine and I hadn’t slept tons the previous few nights, I decided to head to the Wolf Den to write a bit in the chill company of fellow ACers then return for an earlyish bedtime.  That didn’t happen. 

Instead, I ended up sitting in the front room downstairs for over two hours.  I began by chatting with Josie, Tori, and Victoria, all of whom I met in my four hours at the airport on day one, and Red, who lives across the street with Mercedes.  I eventually talked about marathon running for awhile with TL Ethan, whom I had noticed has a 26.2 sticker on his computer.  He had run the Atlanta marathon last fall and we talked training regimens, pre-race prep, and such.  I finished the night conversing with TL Daniel for about two hours about life, AmeriCorps, and everything.  Red and I walked back shortly before the Wolf Den’s midnight closing; she may come visit the house later today to mingle and meet new people.  It’s nice to be reminded of all the amazing people here in the NTrip.  I’m totally in love with my entire house, but everyone else is phenomenal too.

Day 8, part 2 (many hours later)

I awoke at 8:15 this morning to the chattering of housemates down in the living room.  I hadn’t gotten as much sleep as perhaps might be optimal, but I got up anyway because it seemed a good time to start my day for staying-on-schedule purposes and my wonderful housemates were already up and about.  After making breakfast and recording the events of last night, I walked into Perryville with Jamie and Rachel.  Jamie had suggested last night that we wander around and take some pictures of the town; Rachel joined us to find some coffee.  We walked close to an hour to the traffic light to which my group had shoveled yesterday.  We went into a small convenience-store-slash-deli called Lindy’s to get Rachel some coffee.  One of the women working there asked if we’d been shoveling the previous day.  We all had (Rachel and Jamie had gone for the morning session) and she thanked us and even took a picture of the three of us after showing us some on her camera of other ACers shoveling out the sidewalk in front of her house.  On the walk back to campus, I enjoyed a delicious apple which I’d gotten from Lindy’s for 75 cents.  We have one day until our next shopping trip and I’m definitely ready for some fresh fruit.  The apple was extra-wonderful in being my first in days.

We returned home for lunch then headed to the pick-up point (a pull-out at the top of Third Street) for the short ride over to 9H.  All the wolves lined up to have our TB tests read.  As long as the injection site hadn’t swollen, we were set.  Mine was all clear, which I had expected but was still good to hear.  We headed back to the Village within the hour and settled in to relax for a bit.  Afternoon entertainment options arranged by the TLs were going to the movies or going to the gym.  Rene and I chose the latter so hopped in Melissa’s van at 3 to head to the local YMCA with some of our fellow pod members, Rachel and Jamie, and other members of their pod.  There was an erg, so I was happy.

This evening has been wonderfully chill.  We came home, settled in, made our various dinners-of-choice, and just relaxed.  It’s been a wonderful holiday evening.  Now I’m off to the Wolf Den with Jamie (Maria and Rachel are already there) to send this post your way via the internet.  The amazing times continue here in the NTrip.