I like Silver 3 and I cannot lie

This past weekend we had the pleasure of being at Camp Mendocino, a beautiful Boys and Girls Club of Sacramento camp in the Coastal Redwoods of Northern California. About a four hour drive away. REDWOODS!!! It was so restorative; being in the middle of a forest, surrounded by majestic trees, away from civilization with no cell phone reception or internet or television or anything to distract me besides the trees, the river, and my AmeriCorps (Silver 3!). Its times like these when I can really be thankful for God’s creation, when it isn’t so bogged down with human pollution and garbage. And the smell, THE SMELL, so wonderful and fresh and piney and clean and pure.

Silver Unit was at camp Thursday through Sunday morning, and we overlapped with green unit the first two days. The other units Blue and Gold had been there earlier in the week. This was a weekend filled with team and unit bonding: low ropes courses and high ropes courses, games, talks, AmerOlympics, campfires and bonding over the cold. I’m ashamed to say that I complained rather a lot about the temperature at camp, having gotten used to sunny and warm Sacramento in the 70s, the 40 degree temps at camp felt a little harsh. We were sleeping in open air cabins so things did get quite chilly at night. In spite of the cold we had a fabulous time. A girl on our team has the most beautiful singing voice and another team leader Joe from Silver 2 had a guitar and what transpired around the fire was nothing short phenomenally beautiful. Every night before bed there would several groups heading out to some open area in the middle of majestic redwoods for stargazing. The stars were stunning, and we saw many shooting stars! Definitely worth the cold.

When the time came to leave it was bittersweet. We weren’t sad to come back to warmer temperatures, and a comfy bed, but we would certainly miss the redwoods, and the freedom of being away from civilization.

I’m getting used to driving the big 15 passenger van named Kuna, currently I’m the only driver except for Amber our team leader. Soon two other boys from our team will have their driving records sent in so they will be able to drive as well.

Now we are just preparing to leave on Thursday morning for our first spike! Trying my hardest to take care of everything I can before we leave, go internet hunting and buy my tickets for winter break and the REUNIONS that will be taking place during!! A South Africa reunion in Chicago and a Bike & Build reunion in Denver. And of course a family reuion back home in Michigan. I should be home between December 22 and 28.

OH I almost forgot why I titled this post in this way. At camp each team had to come up with a chant to perform at campfire. Ours went like this: (to the tune of “I Like Big Butts”)

I like Silver 3 and I cannot lie
You other teams cant deny
When we walk in with our steel shinny boots
and the swagger in our suits
We GET THINGS DONE, son!
SILVER THREE awwwwwwwwooooooooo!!!!

Chainsaws

I FOUND OUT MY FIRST SPIKE PROJECT!!!!

fun fact: the term "Spike" comes from the CCC (FDR)and refers to the spike used to secure tents to locations.

ANYWAYS....my team, Silver 3, will be doing fuel reduction and fire management in Nevada County and Lake Tahoe National forest. We will be staying in Grass Valley, CA but traveling around the region, clearing brush, trees, invasive species, doing prescribed pile burns, etc. Essentially, we are trying to prevent wildfires specifically in the homes and properties of the elderly and disabled.

For this job, whoever wants to will be chainsaw certified! I am quite excited to have the training and be working in the forest in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountain range for the next five weeks. We leave November 3 after our initiation.

Thanks for feeding the fish and for following this journey! I apologize for not posting often, the internet is worse here than in South Africa!
peace and love
k

AmeriFamily

Every once in a while I find myself with several hours to kill in the middle of a day. During this time I’ve been reading, watching Band of Brothers, and decorating my room. I figured that perhaps I should also use this time to blog and update you all on my AmeriLife.

First things first, I found a building with reliable internet, so if you want to skype we can definitely make that happen. Second, is anyone playing with the fish to the left here?! I thought they were so cool, they follow your mouse and if you click you can feed them!

OH MY GOODNESS I DIDN’T EVEN TELL YOU THE MOST EXCITING NEWS!!! I FOUND OUT MY TEAM AND AM ON SILVER 3. Silver Unit is the wolf pack so Awoooo awoooooooo!!!

Thursday evening we were given our units in a fun creative way, and then we were split up once more into our teams with a scavenger hunt to find our team leader. Once we found our team leader (after several clues) she had set up a dinner spread! My team leader is Amber and she is awesome, it will be a good year. I also really like all of my teammates, which is a good thing because we will become very close over the next ten months.

It was strange, meeting everyone for the first time, awkwardly introducing ourselves, and my knowing that we are soon to become best of friends. More than friends, but a family. This is the third time in the past year and a half that I have found myself in this situation and I’m extremely excited to have an AmeriFamiy.

Friday was a training called “Hands of Peace” which was actually really interactive and beneficial. A lot of team building and just learning about each other and become more comfortable around each other was involved. It was my favorite training thus far.

Saturday I did my first ISP (Independent Service Project), of which we need 80 hours to graduate from this program. It shouldn’t be a problem. My roommate Molly set up this ISP with the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary. Twelve of us spend the day standing behind purses and handbags during their annual Helping Handbags auction and luncheon. We helped run the silent auction portion, they fed us lunch, gave us a chocolate purse and then we helped clean up after the event. I was happy to actually get out and serve after sitting in classes and trainings for so long.

Moving day was Sunday! I was lucky enough to only have to move from my old room into the room we share a bathroom with, the room Molly was in and she ended up not having to move at all! This was nice because we were able to help our other roommates and suitemates move. It was utter chaos. Just imagine, 300 plus people, all moving out and into new rooms in two different buildings, all at the same time. Three floors each, no elevator and one stairwell in each. Insanity, but it got done! We celebrated with a trip to the Thai restaurant just across the street from campus.

Yesterday we had PT (physical training) in the morning, and trainings in the afternoon. We are at the point now where we split up into specific trainings within our teams. For example: two people are trained on flood response, two on chainsaws, two on volunteer management in disasters etc. Adam and I were selected to attend the volunteer management in disasters training, and I really enjoyed this one as well! I’m glad the less exciting trainings about policies and such were at the beginning, because I’m certainly enjoying the more focused training more. In the evening it was my turn (along with three others-we are dinner group A) to made dinner for our kitchen. Our team (Silver 3) and a FMT (fire management team) Silver 2, share a kitchen, and there are 20 people to prepare food for. It was a challenge but I think everyone enjoyed the baked chicken, cheddar and broccoli rice, salad, and butternut squash we made. The extra-great thing about this is that another dinner group cleans up our mess and does all the dishes! AND all this week we just show up when dinner is ready and we eat.

Today was a short service project with the Water Dept of Sacramento, and we walked door to door handing out information about the recently installed water meters. Now I have another 2 hours until PT tonight.

Still sunny in Cali!
k

Transition.

Wed Oct 12

So, as stated earlier, internet is SUPER sketch.  The good news is I'm getting better at internet hunting!! Sorry about the lack of communication friends and family.  Currently waiting for dinner, tonight it’s going to be grilled cheese and tomato soup! Yum! I’m on clean up crew.  We spent all day today is Disaster response training, and tomorrow will be 1^st Aid and CPR training. Lots of classes and meetings and trainings.  I’m getting anxious to find out my permanent team tomorrow night! Also, I’m excited to start serving.

Thurs Oct 13

Last night was Trivia night and my team was very close to winning. Lost in the Final trivia question unfortunately.  Still a bunch of fun :) Today full day of training again, but it was lots of fun.  I can now (hopefully) save your life if you need CPR. This morning was our baseline test for Physical Training, and I'm pretty ok with how I finished.  We had to do as many push-ups as we could in 2 min, as many sit ups as we could in 2 minutes, a 1.5 mile run and a sit and reach. I feel I was just over average for the group, and have definite room for improvement. Luckily Molly, my suite mate, and I are pretty much at the same fitness level, so we helped each other out.  Soon that won't matter however, because TONIGHT is the night we find out our TEAMS!!!! stay tuned.

things are going great. It's 80 degrees, there are palm trees, and orange trees and good people.

i think i like this

peace and love

k

Welcome to the AmeriBubble!

I’m here!! In McClellan, California (outskirts of Sacramento-or “Sac town”) Myself and over 300 other corps members are based at an old Air Force base, here in the Pacific Region of AmeriCorps NCCC.  But let me back up a little bit…

Thursday October 6 my mom and dad brought me to the Grand Rapids airport to drop me off onto my next adventure! I flew out at 7:45 am and arrived in Minneapolis at about 8 am (time change…so the flight was an hour but I gained an hour!)  There I met up with close to 15 other AmeriCorps NCCC member on my same transfer flight, and we arrived in Sacramento, California at about 11am.  And then began the craziness.  Hundreds of NCCC corps members were arriving, and once we arrived on the campus we were shuttled through in-processing, and then meetings.  We were given temporary rooms which are very similar to the dorms I lived in freshman year of CMU, and next week our permanent teams will be assigned and so will our permanent rooms.  I’m getting anxious to unpack everything and hang up my pictures!

We have all been divided into “pods” for our first week of training.  I’m in pod 27 with nine other names ending in the later part of D….  LOTS of meetings, rules, policies, etc.  We were issued our uniforms yay!! Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) pants and shorts, long and short grey t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts, parka, coveralls, hats, sweatshirt all with the AmeriCorps NCCC logo, sleeping bag and our “red bag” for spikes.  I’m actually quite excited about our uniform, in spite of how unattractive it is on females.  It looks wonderful on all the male corps members, perhaps because they are men’s clothes….

There is quite a diverse group of people here, from all over the United States! For example, my roommate is from Alaska, my suite mates from Seattle, LA, and another girl from Michigan.  Lots of different ages and backgrounds and ethnicities. For some this is their first time away from home, for some this is the first time West of the Mississippi.  Some have graduated high school, and some have graduated college.  Regardless, it’s a pretty great group of people, and I’m excited to get to know everyone better.

The next two days we have off! So there are plans to head downtown Sacramento tomorrow and hopefully reuniting with Raja :)

love and miss you all

k