Throughout the round, my team lost a few members. One girl went home permanently for personal reasons, and we lost two other individuals because they were chosen for disaster relief in Georgia. Talk about a small team! Eleven teammates that quickly changes to eight teammates in a matter of days definitely gives the team a different feeling and overall dynamic. My team noticed right away just how comfortable it was to have to only sit two to a seat in the van instead of having to squeeze three. It felt like we were traveling in luxury!
For Halloween, a group of my teammates and I headed to the nearby town of Ocean Springs to meet up with another team for Halloween. I went to Walmart earlier that day and picked up a cheap "rock star" kit and a Miley Cryrus t-shirt so that I could turn myself into an "AmeriRocker". The rest of my teammates dressed up as a Pumpkin Fair, a Home Wrecker, a Scarecrow and a Weekend Warrior.
One weekend while living in Biloxi a group of us traveled to New Orleans for the weekend. We left early Saturday morning and once we arrived in NOLA, our first stop was Cafe Dumonde where we partook in hot coffee and their beignets which they are known for. Fun fact - while waiting in the take out line for our food, we saw Tom Hanks sitting and enjoying his breakfast at the cafe!! We were literally 5 feet away from him! Thankfully for me, I was the only brave one to actually take a picture of him! Throughout Saturday and Sunday I walked throughout the French Quarter and checked out the different shops and restaurants. It was quite entertaining to see all the live performers cluttering the streets throughout the day and night. Lucky for us, my team found a hotel to stay at that was located right around the corner from Bourbon street! Saturday night we spent all night walking around Bourbon street. Goodness Bourbon street was full of energy! I almost felt like that one night of celebration made up for all the nights I didn't go out back in college. I definitely enjoyed sightseeing around New Orleans. The people were wicked friendly and the architecture was beautiful!
On weekends that we stayed around Biloxi, my teammates and I would travel often to Ocean Springs. Ocean Springs has a really nice downtown area. The town reminds me a little bit of Holland, Michigan. There was a neat gelato place as well as a pottery painting place where a few of my teammates and I painted pottery. I ended up painting a mug that had peace signs carved into it. I painted it bright colors and wrote "peace begins with a smile" on it. It definitely made for a great hot chocolate mug! On Sundays, my teammate Becca and I traveled to the local non denominational church with one of our supervisors Jimmy and his wife. It was definitely a new and neat experience and I'm glad I made myself branch out!
For Thanksgiving, I traveled to Alabama with my teammate Becca. If I had it my way, I would have flown home for Thanksgiving.. especially since the whole family would have been together. Looking at plane tickets for Christmas break made me realize that I had to be realistic and choose a cheaper route for Thanksgiving. Lucky enough, I had the opportunity to Skype with my family on Thanksgiving. Goodness was it an enjoyable time. I wish I had the chance to Skype with them more often! Friday after Thanksgiving was the Iron Bowl football game which I guess is a very important game in the South. Being the nice person I am, I wore one an Auborn t-shirt and rooted for the team throughout the game. On Saturday I had the opportunity to partake in Becca's family tradition of cutting down their Christmas tree. After picking out the perfect tree, we brought it home and I helped Becca trim the tree with lights and family ornaments. Once the tree was decorated to our liking, Becca and I baked one of her traditional chocolate chip recipes and went out for a pedicure. Talk about one eventful day!! Sunday, before heading back to Biloxi, I went to church with Becca's family and sang in the choir with them. Becca lives in a small town where everyone is warm and welcoming :D Going to Alabama for Thanksgiving was definitely a good idea :D
After Thanksgiving I found myself getting into the habit of reading. It took me joining an organization where I am secluded from Internet, television and phones to finally understand why people enjoy reading. I can finally say that for once in my life I enjoy reading!! From Thanksgiving until the middle of December I read eight books! I was definitely on a role up until I left for Christmas break.
Overall my second round in Biloxi was an enlightening experience. Personally I was very happy that I had the opportunity to learn new interior construction skills and perfect the skills that i had learned prior to joining AmeriCorps. I am also thankful to have met Jimmy and his wife. I believe that the world would definitely be a better place if there were more people like Jimmy and his wife living on it.
The end of the round marks the half way point for my term in AmeriCorps. Time truly does fly by while you are participating in an activity that you whole heartedly enjoy. Week by week the project feels long, but as I look back on it month to month I realize just how quickly the days add up! I am so proud of myself for getting involved in AmeriCorps. It truly has been a challenging five months, but these past five months are a part of my life that I would never trade for anything. I feel like I've already grown and matured in the past five months which makes me very anxious to see where I will be after ten months.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Round 2: Biloxi Mississippi [Part One]
October 29 - December 17
Once arriving to Biloxi, my team and I discovered that Biloxi is a "miniature Las Vegas" of the South. The strip where our housing was located was full of casinos and resorts. It was definitely vibrant and showy to say the least. We noticed as we pulled up to our housing that we were going to be living right across the street from the GULF! That's right, the beach was literally at our finger tips! The only thing int he way of my team and the beach was a simple four laned road! Talk about being the best housing location yet!! My team and I had been told by previous groups to not go into the water in fear of receiving staph infectsion, so I'm very sad to report that I enjoyed the water from afar. For sleeping quarters, we lived in dorm styled rooms. Each room had eight bunk beds and a bathroom that consisted fo two stalls, two sinks and two showers. The only thing I was worried about was the fact that the beds were a little too soft for my liking. Oh well, I quickly realized that I should have focused on being thankful that I didn't have to sleep on an uncomfortable cot for two months! For food, we had a tiny kitchen that was located in the Casey Center which was a big room where the church probably held weekly meetings. The only drawback of the center was that there wasn't a comfortable area to "lounge". We either had to lay around in our bunk beds, sit on chairs in the center, or sit at picnic tables outside.
Each week we worked Monday through Friday and had the weekends off. The majority of our time was spent working in two homes. One home was a home that was going to be used to house volunteers once in the interior renovations were completed. My team and I installed insulation, dry wall, mudded, textured, and painted the walls. I spent the majority of my time mastering the skill of mudding. More or less you mud by spreading a thick putty like substance along the taped seams of a wall where the two pieces of dry wall meet. It sounds like an easy process but it takes a lot of patience and a lot of skill.
The other home that my team and I spent a lot of time working on was at the house that was built from start to finish by Hope CDA (organization that we were working with). When the house is complete, the house will be used as a rental home for individuals that in the process of finding permanent housing in the Biloxi area. The Hands on Gulf Coast team of people began working on the house back in August. Once my team and I arrived in Biloxi, our main task was completing the interior work. I spent the majority of my time painting and tiling and bathroom and kitchen floors. I practically painted every surface in the home including walls, window trim, ceilings and doors. By the end I was a professional at cutting in around the ceiling and corners without making any mistakes. I also had the opportunity to tile the kitchen floor by myself after only having instruction on one floor prior to the kitchen floor.
Overall each home that we worked on provided a great work environment. Our supervisors at each of the homes taught us each task with much detail and gave us enough room to complete each task. I never felt like they were peering over my shoulder waiting for me to make a mistake. I believe that they truly had confidence in the skills that we obtained throughout the weeks. I definitely feel confident in teaching others the tasks that I was educated on while working in Biloxi.
PT time was definitely enjoyable while in Biloxi. We had many of our sessions on the beach. A favorite for my team was soccer while a least favorite was trying to run on the sand. Goodness it's definitely a work out that's for sure! We also tried a game of basketball on one of the local courts. Surprisingly this theatre girl really enjoyed basketball! Granted I didn't exactly know what I was doing most the time, but I at least found myself having a lot of fun!
Once arriving to Biloxi, my team and I discovered that Biloxi is a "miniature Las Vegas" of the South. The strip where our housing was located was full of casinos and resorts. It was definitely vibrant and showy to say the least. We noticed as we pulled up to our housing that we were going to be living right across the street from the GULF! That's right, the beach was literally at our finger tips! The only thing int he way of my team and the beach was a simple four laned road! Talk about being the best housing location yet!! My team and I had been told by previous groups to not go into the water in fear of receiving staph infectsion, so I'm very sad to report that I enjoyed the water from afar. For sleeping quarters, we lived in dorm styled rooms. Each room had eight bunk beds and a bathroom that consisted fo two stalls, two sinks and two showers. The only thing I was worried about was the fact that the beds were a little too soft for my liking. Oh well, I quickly realized that I should have focused on being thankful that I didn't have to sleep on an uncomfortable cot for two months! For food, we had a tiny kitchen that was located in the Casey Center which was a big room where the church probably held weekly meetings. The only drawback of the center was that there wasn't a comfortable area to "lounge". We either had to lay around in our bunk beds, sit on chairs in the center, or sit at picnic tables outside.
Each week we worked Monday through Friday and had the weekends off. The majority of our time was spent working in two homes. One home was a home that was going to be used to house volunteers once in the interior renovations were completed. My team and I installed insulation, dry wall, mudded, textured, and painted the walls. I spent the majority of my time mastering the skill of mudding. More or less you mud by spreading a thick putty like substance along the taped seams of a wall where the two pieces of dry wall meet. It sounds like an easy process but it takes a lot of patience and a lot of skill.
The other home that my team and I spent a lot of time working on was at the house that was built from start to finish by Hope CDA (organization that we were working with). When the house is complete, the house will be used as a rental home for individuals that in the process of finding permanent housing in the Biloxi area. The Hands on Gulf Coast team of people began working on the house back in August. Once my team and I arrived in Biloxi, our main task was completing the interior work. I spent the majority of my time painting and tiling and bathroom and kitchen floors. I practically painted every surface in the home including walls, window trim, ceilings and doors. By the end I was a professional at cutting in around the ceiling and corners without making any mistakes. I also had the opportunity to tile the kitchen floor by myself after only having instruction on one floor prior to the kitchen floor.
Overall each home that we worked on provided a great work environment. Our supervisors at each of the homes taught us each task with much detail and gave us enough room to complete each task. I never felt like they were peering over my shoulder waiting for me to make a mistake. I believe that they truly had confidence in the skills that we obtained throughout the weeks. I definitely feel confident in teaching others the tasks that I was educated on while working in Biloxi.
PT time was definitely enjoyable while in Biloxi. We had many of our sessions on the beach. A favorite for my team was soccer while a least favorite was trying to run on the sand. Goodness it's definitely a work out that's for sure! We also tried a game of basketball on one of the local courts. Surprisingly this theatre girl really enjoyed basketball! Granted I didn't exactly know what I was doing most the time, but I at least found myself having a lot of fun!
October 26 - October 29
Monday began very early because the whole corps had to participate in a second Base Line test. I definitely was not looking forward to running the mile and a half. My team and I hadn't worked out together in a over a month. Normally we do some form of work out three times a week but when you're on disaster PT is not considered mandatory. Even without working out for over a month I managed to shave off time from my run! Goodness I was happy. I wonder how much time I'll be able to shave off the next time I have to run after I've been actually participating in PT each week. The remainder of the day consisted of a few follow up sessions relating to our personal roles in our team.
Thursday was definitely a blur!! I stayed up really late trying to finish the portfolio. I felt like I was reliving my days of pulling all nighters! Even after only getting three hours of sleep Monday night, I still have more to do to finish the portfolio. This I guess is what happens when you put an over achiever in charge of a project! I also tend to take on more than I can handle and not ask people for help when I know that I need it. I hope that over the course of the year, I can work on taking on smaller loads, and actually asking for help!! Today my team and I also had our Clearance meeting for Biloxi. My team and I can't wait to travel to Biloxi and tour a new city!!
Surprise!! Wednesday I still spent most of the day working on the team portfolio! While stressing over it, I took a break to repack my lovely small red bag. I don't know how I'm going to be able to part with the red bag at the end of the year.. it truly has become a large staple in my AmeriLife!! On a fun note, our campus hosted it's first ever Talent Show. Only a few people partook in the show but all of them were very good! I had I would have had more time to prepare, I would have possibly sang a song or acted out a monologue of some sort. Who knows, I may just participate if we have another one.
Thursday morning definitely did not start out well. I had to submit the portfolio via email to our Unit Leader before my team and I could leave for Biloxi. Little did I know, I had created the portfolio in a format that would not be recognizable by any other computer. It was a huge headache trying to figure out how to change the format. Thankfully my mid morning I had solved the problem and my team was finally able to head to Biloxi where new and exciting adventures awaited us!
Thursday was definitely a blur!! I stayed up really late trying to finish the portfolio. I felt like I was reliving my days of pulling all nighters! Even after only getting three hours of sleep Monday night, I still have more to do to finish the portfolio. This I guess is what happens when you put an over achiever in charge of a project! I also tend to take on more than I can handle and not ask people for help when I know that I need it. I hope that over the course of the year, I can work on taking on smaller loads, and actually asking for help!! Today my team and I also had our Clearance meeting for Biloxi. My team and I can't wait to travel to Biloxi and tour a new city!!
Surprise!! Wednesday I still spent most of the day working on the team portfolio! While stressing over it, I took a break to repack my lovely small red bag. I don't know how I'm going to be able to part with the red bag at the end of the year.. it truly has become a large staple in my AmeriLife!! On a fun note, our campus hosted it's first ever Talent Show. Only a few people partook in the show but all of them were very good! I had I would have had more time to prepare, I would have possibly sang a song or acted out a monologue of some sort. Who knows, I may just participate if we have another one.
Thursday morning definitely did not start out well. I had to submit the portfolio via email to our Unit Leader before my team and I could leave for Biloxi. Little did I know, I had created the portfolio in a format that would not be recognizable by any other computer. It was a huge headache trying to figure out how to change the format. Thankfully my mid morning I had solved the problem and my team was finally able to head to Biloxi where new and exciting adventures awaited us!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Week 12 (October 19 - October 25)
Monday morning a group of us traveled to a senior citizen apartment complex and worked with a local food bank to distribute non perishable food items to the residents. It was nice to have a change in schedule and assist the community of Louisville in a different way. After lunch, I spent the remainder of the day making phone calls at United Way fro the long term recovery program.
Tuesday was another day full of phone calls! My goodness my phone skills are close to perfection by now! After work, my team and I went out to dinner for my teammate Tarah’s 21 birthday. Tarah really likes pasta so we took her to the Old Spaghetti Factory. The factory has a trolley car right in the middle of it where you can actually have your dinner! Seeing the trolley car made me miss the trolleys at home!!
Wednesday I stayed home from work. Over the past few days I had developed a really bad cough. I think the cough started after working Saturday at the home that was hit really hard during the storm. While working, my respirator didn’t feel like it was tight and I kept coughing. In addition to that home, the next day of work I spent crouched over in front of a crawlspace where my teammates passed me bags full of moldy insulation. The two days combined definitely made for a good reason for a cough and congested sinuses!! For dinner my team and I went out to dinner with a few of the MUW volunteers to Spinelli’s. Goodness I’m going to miss that restaurant!! At the end of the meal our site supervisor surprised us with fried Oreos for dessert. Fried Oreos are a wonderful creation let me tell you! Pizza, diet coke, and fried Oreos! Talk about a meal fit for a heart attack!
Thursday was our last day working in Louisville, Kentucky with Metro United Way. We spent half of the day cleaning up one last home before we spent the remainder of the day cleaning up our housing facility and packing our lovely red bags! For dinner, our site supervisors Kelly and Mary took us to a BBQ restaurant in Highlands where they wined and dined us and surprised us with MUW goody bags! Each one of us got a “Live United” white t-shirt, and a bag full of random “survival kit” necessities. Last day!! Mary and Kelly were wonderful site supervisors. They genuinely cared about our safety and well being while we volunteered in Kentucky. They worked hard to make our Kentucky experience enjoyable and memorable. Little do they know that Louisville is by far my favorite place so far!
Early Friday morning we stuffed our red bags in the van, and piled in to begin the journey back to Vicksburg. Each one of us was anxious for our own reasons to return to Vicksburg. Many of us couldn’t wait to take hot showers and sleep in actual beds, while some us were looking forward to seeing significant others and rekindle friendships that we had made prior to going on disaster. The 12 hour drive seemed to take forever! By the time we turned onto Confederate Avenue the majority of the team was on the edge of their seats squealing and cheering with excitement to be back in Vicksburg. It was beyond nice to see everyone back on campus! I hadn’t seen most of them for 8 weeks! In a way it felt like the first round flew by but in another way it really did feel like it had been a long time since I had seen everyone. Once the whole corps arrived on campus, the River unit had to move out of their old rooms and into their new rooms. Talk about a long day! Going from a few hours of sleep, to a 12 hour car ride, and then spending the rest of the day moving makes for one very long day!! Thankfully I got lucky and only had to move over one building and I managed to still live with my initial roommate Stacey from Michigan!
Saturday was a national service day called Make a Difference Day. The whole corps traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to partake in the day of service. My team was going to prepare the lunch for the whole corps until we were transferred to a different project. The team and I ended up traveling to a part of the community where a Christian group provides a weekly tutoring program for the local children. They want to expand the program and add an outdoor playground along with additional building but the land is not suitable for building on at the current time. In order to assist them with their goal, my team and I spent the morning clearing the vacant lot of trees, debris, and plenty of old beer bottles. While cleaning I found an assortment of colorful geckos and a handful of small snakes! I literally felt like I was a little girl playing around in the mud! Later on after dinner, the majority of the corps who were of age decided to go out to the local bar to celebrate being back in Vicksburg. It was neat seeing everyone together and having fun!
Sunday I spent most of the day catching up on sleep, catching up with friends and relaxing. It was nice to have a hot shower and sleep in a comfy bed!! I didn’t realize just how much I could miss both of those things in just a three week span of time.
Tuesday was another day full of phone calls! My goodness my phone skills are close to perfection by now! After work, my team and I went out to dinner for my teammate Tarah’s 21 birthday. Tarah really likes pasta so we took her to the Old Spaghetti Factory. The factory has a trolley car right in the middle of it where you can actually have your dinner! Seeing the trolley car made me miss the trolleys at home!!
Wednesday I stayed home from work. Over the past few days I had developed a really bad cough. I think the cough started after working Saturday at the home that was hit really hard during the storm. While working, my respirator didn’t feel like it was tight and I kept coughing. In addition to that home, the next day of work I spent crouched over in front of a crawlspace where my teammates passed me bags full of moldy insulation. The two days combined definitely made for a good reason for a cough and congested sinuses!! For dinner my team and I went out to dinner with a few of the MUW volunteers to Spinelli’s. Goodness I’m going to miss that restaurant!! At the end of the meal our site supervisor surprised us with fried Oreos for dessert. Fried Oreos are a wonderful creation let me tell you! Pizza, diet coke, and fried Oreos! Talk about a meal fit for a heart attack!
Thursday was our last day working in Louisville, Kentucky with Metro United Way. We spent half of the day cleaning up one last home before we spent the remainder of the day cleaning up our housing facility and packing our lovely red bags! For dinner, our site supervisors Kelly and Mary took us to a BBQ restaurant in Highlands where they wined and dined us and surprised us with MUW goody bags! Each one of us got a “Live United” white t-shirt, and a bag full of random “survival kit” necessities. Last day!! Mary and Kelly were wonderful site supervisors. They genuinely cared about our safety and well being while we volunteered in Kentucky. They worked hard to make our Kentucky experience enjoyable and memorable. Little do they know that Louisville is by far my favorite place so far!
Early Friday morning we stuffed our red bags in the van, and piled in to begin the journey back to Vicksburg. Each one of us was anxious for our own reasons to return to Vicksburg. Many of us couldn’t wait to take hot showers and sleep in actual beds, while some us were looking forward to seeing significant others and rekindle friendships that we had made prior to going on disaster. The 12 hour drive seemed to take forever! By the time we turned onto Confederate Avenue the majority of the team was on the edge of their seats squealing and cheering with excitement to be back in Vicksburg. It was beyond nice to see everyone back on campus! I hadn’t seen most of them for 8 weeks! In a way it felt like the first round flew by but in another way it really did feel like it had been a long time since I had seen everyone. Once the whole corps arrived on campus, the River unit had to move out of their old rooms and into their new rooms. Talk about a long day! Going from a few hours of sleep, to a 12 hour car ride, and then spending the rest of the day moving makes for one very long day!! Thankfully I got lucky and only had to move over one building and I managed to still live with my initial roommate Stacey from Michigan!
Saturday was a national service day called Make a Difference Day. The whole corps traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to partake in the day of service. My team was going to prepare the lunch for the whole corps until we were transferred to a different project. The team and I ended up traveling to a part of the community where a Christian group provides a weekly tutoring program for the local children. They want to expand the program and add an outdoor playground along with additional building but the land is not suitable for building on at the current time. In order to assist them with their goal, my team and I spent the morning clearing the vacant lot of trees, debris, and plenty of old beer bottles. While cleaning I found an assortment of colorful geckos and a handful of small snakes! I literally felt like I was a little girl playing around in the mud! Later on after dinner, the majority of the corps who were of age decided to go out to the local bar to celebrate being back in Vicksburg. It was neat seeing everyone together and having fun!
Sunday I spent most of the day catching up on sleep, catching up with friends and relaxing. It was nice to have a hot shower and sleep in a comfy bed!! I didn’t realize just how much I could miss both of those things in just a three week span of time.
Week 11 (October 12 - October 18)
Monday through Thursday two of my teammates and I spent time making phone calls to homeowners at the United Way office. We called each homeowner that had already been assisted since the August flood to ask if they needed long term recovery assistance. Long term recovery assistance is the next step in United Way’s plan in assisting homeowners in disaster relief. Their plan is to assist homeowners that need assistance in repairing their home from the flood related damages. Repairs could include installing floors or walls, and assisting with recommendations for new appliances. By the end of the week we had made over 3,00o phone calls. I enjoyed making the phone calls because I was able to personally hear firsthand how grateful each homeowner was because of the volunteers that came to their homes. It was nice to hear their words of gratitude because often times we never had direct communication with the homeowners while we were cleaning up their homes.
Friday was our second day off. We decided as a team to have our day off Friday instead of Sunday so that we would have more options of places to sight see. We started the day with a visit to the Louisville Slugger Store where a few of us bought Louisville Slugger memorabilia. Personally, I was more amused with the huge 10 or so story bat outside the building! For lunch, we went to Steak and Shake because it was my teammate Brennan’s birthday and Steak and Shake is one of his favorite fast food restaurants. After lunch a few of us went to the local Science Museum where their had a Titanic Exhibit. At the beginning of the tour they gave each one of us a boarding pass of someone that had boarded the boat. At the end of the tour they had a wall that listed all the names of the passengers and told whether or not they survived. My passenger was an infant and was a part of the Class 3 passengers. The infant and her whole family survived. Overall it was neat to be put in the shoes of a passenger and see items that had been recovered from the boat. Afterwards, we headed back to our campus and enjoyed jambalaya that one of the MUW volunteers made for us and a special birthday cake that Brennan’s mom had made for his birthday. Talk about a delicious meal! After dinner my team and I attempted to see Michelle Branch and Better Than Ezra in a benefit concert at Hard Rock Café but sadly the concert was sold out. We at least got to catch a glimpse of Michelle Branch from the outside of the restaurant!
Saturday I spent most of the day working with another group of Mormons along with one of the MUW volunteers named Michelle. At first glance, the home looked like it would take all day to clean. All of the paneling and floors needed to be taken out of the basement as well as most of the furniture. Surprisingly the group of Mormon men that we worked with were beyond hardcore!! I would let them know what they had to do in one section and then walk away. In a matter a minutes I’d come back and they’d already have the task completed! I felt like I was on an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition when they are all running into the old home and quickly demolishing everything in site!! While working on the house, I experienced my first adventure with cockroaches!! I was taking drywall off an old back room of a basement when all of a sudden they flew out at me when I took off the last bit of drywall. Needless to say I squealed and ran out of the basement like a little girl. Thankfully we had a guy on the team who owned his own pest company and was more than happy to deal with them. I did however manage to get over my fear and squish a few while I was sanitizing the room.
Sunday I spent the day working on small projects throughout the town. After work, my teammates Becca, Tarah, Lan and I went and saw Kate Voegele in concert!! The concert was at Headliners which is a local venue where many artists perform. It’s a decent sized open room with a stage, bar and a second floor balcony overlooking the stage. The tickets were only 20 dollars so clearly we had to go! The opening bands were awesome and Kate was fantastic live!! She apologized in the beginning because she had been sick since Friday but she still sounded amazing!
Friday was our second day off. We decided as a team to have our day off Friday instead of Sunday so that we would have more options of places to sight see. We started the day with a visit to the Louisville Slugger Store where a few of us bought Louisville Slugger memorabilia. Personally, I was more amused with the huge 10 or so story bat outside the building! For lunch, we went to Steak and Shake because it was my teammate Brennan’s birthday and Steak and Shake is one of his favorite fast food restaurants. After lunch a few of us went to the local Science Museum where their had a Titanic Exhibit. At the beginning of the tour they gave each one of us a boarding pass of someone that had boarded the boat. At the end of the tour they had a wall that listed all the names of the passengers and told whether or not they survived. My passenger was an infant and was a part of the Class 3 passengers. The infant and her whole family survived. Overall it was neat to be put in the shoes of a passenger and see items that had been recovered from the boat. Afterwards, we headed back to our campus and enjoyed jambalaya that one of the MUW volunteers made for us and a special birthday cake that Brennan’s mom had made for his birthday. Talk about a delicious meal! After dinner my team and I attempted to see Michelle Branch and Better Than Ezra in a benefit concert at Hard Rock Café but sadly the concert was sold out. We at least got to catch a glimpse of Michelle Branch from the outside of the restaurant!
Saturday I spent most of the day working with another group of Mormons along with one of the MUW volunteers named Michelle. At first glance, the home looked like it would take all day to clean. All of the paneling and floors needed to be taken out of the basement as well as most of the furniture. Surprisingly the group of Mormon men that we worked with were beyond hardcore!! I would let them know what they had to do in one section and then walk away. In a matter a minutes I’d come back and they’d already have the task completed! I felt like I was on an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition when they are all running into the old home and quickly demolishing everything in site!! While working on the house, I experienced my first adventure with cockroaches!! I was taking drywall off an old back room of a basement when all of a sudden they flew out at me when I took off the last bit of drywall. Needless to say I squealed and ran out of the basement like a little girl. Thankfully we had a guy on the team who owned his own pest company and was more than happy to deal with them. I did however manage to get over my fear and squish a few while I was sanitizing the room.
Sunday I spent the day working on small projects throughout the town. After work, my teammates Becca, Tarah, Lan and I went and saw Kate Voegele in concert!! The concert was at Headliners which is a local venue where many artists perform. It’s a decent sized open room with a stage, bar and a second floor balcony overlooking the stage. The tickets were only 20 dollars so clearly we had to go! The opening bands were awesome and Kate was fantastic live!! She apologized in the beginning because she had been sick since Friday but she still sounded amazing!
Week 10 (October 5 - October 11)
Monday was spent morning working with Wes sanitizing homes. After lunch, we headed to a home that the rest of my team was working on and helped them demolish the walls and tile in the basement. After work, a few of us went out to Buffalo Wild Wings for a beer and wings while we watched a Packers game. Louisville has a great nightlife! Definitely puts “tiny one bar Vicksburg” to shame!
Tuesday was spent all day at the home of Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith was your definition of a hoarder. Her whole home was covered top to bottom with things. There was no where to sit or stand in her home. You literally had to hop over things to get from one end of the house to the other. In the beginning of the day Mrs. Smith was beside herself and did not want to get rid of anything in her basement. We tried to tell her why we needed to remove her walls and moldy items but she didn’t want to remove anything. It was very hard for to come to terms with strangers in her home trying to help her rid her home of mold. Thankfully with enough talking, I experienced Mrs. Smith transition from a victim of the storm into a survivor. By the end of the day we managed to remove everything in her basement that had mold on it and sanitize everything that was salvageable. By the end of the day she was welcoming the idea of moving on in her life and even thanked us by making us homemade chili and two delicious desserts! Before departing, Mrs. Smith graced us with her poetry and read us a poem about God that she had written. By the end of the day she had opened not only her home to us but also her grateful heart.
Wednesday Wes put me in charge of a home! What we thought was going to be a simple sanitation project turned into a medium sized project. My team and I had to demolish a makeshift recording studio, walls in a small bedroom, and sanitize everything in the basement that the homeowner wanted to keep. Due to some complications on another job Wes and a CAP volunteer had to leave the site before lunch. Even with only three of us left, we were able to complete the job! Wes returned at the end of the day surprising us with cake and coffee and was surprised to see that we were able to complete the job with only three people. What can I say, I have great skills! :D
Thursday I spent the day sanitizing a homeowner’s basement. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why people hold on to such random stuff! I do remind myself though that many items have sentimental value that we as volunteers are not aware of. Why though, would someone keep a walker that is missing a leg, or random scraps or other broken items? If they are in your basement collecting dust, are you really planning on using them? After work my team and I went to the church where the CAP volunteers are being housed and had dinner with them. A few of the members of the church supplied the meal for the volunteers. The overflow of support and hospitality from the community is wonderful! It’s truly a humbling feeling to be appreciated as much as we are!
Friday I had the opportunity to work for the first time with the Metro United Way group of volunteers. Metro United Way (MUW) will be the organization that we will be working with daily start Monday when CAP heads back to Northern Kentucky. The group is made up of a handful of local adults that came together right after the flood to clean up the homes. They are definitely a group of hardworking and passionate individuals! A guy by the name of Mike runs the crew. He is originally from New York and actually has a daughter that is going to school near Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire. Talk about a small world! All throughout the day he attempted to teach us all how to say “forget about it” in his lovely New York accent. By the end of the day we had cleared and sanitized three homes! Talk about efficiency!
Saturday was our last day working with the CAP group. I definitely learned a lot working with them and was happy to have met such wonderful and warm hearted people! Along with the CAP volunteers, we also worked side by side with a large group of Mormons. I ended up being the only AmeriCorps volunteer in my group therefore allowing me to pretty much lead the whole group of adult Mormons. I was taken aback by the interest they showed in me and my reasons for joining AmeriCorps. They definitely put me at ease and made me feel comfortable leading such a large group! After work, Becca and I headed back to our home earlier then the rest of our group from dinner in hopes to be the first to take warm showers. To our surprise, the shower ceiling collapsed while we were working. Chicken Little knew what she was talking about when she said the sky was falling! Thankfully no one was hurt when the ceiling fell and according to our housing sponsor there are other showers that we can use. After the shower episode, Becca and I took a trip to the Highlands area of Louisville and went to a coffee shop called Heine Brother’s Coffee Shop. Highlands is definitely a cute area of Louisville and probably the part of town that I could see myself living in.
Sunday - Sunday was our first official day off! Since my team and I only have a few days off while we are in Kentucky we decided to try and pack everything worth seeing into each day off. Today we started the day out by going to a cute café for breakfast. Afterwards, we decided to partake in a free tour of Churchill Downs and the Speed Art Museum. For lunch we decided to attend Louisville’s Chili Cook Off contest. Any restaurant, family or group can partake in the contest. My goodness did we end up tasting a lot of chili! There were 80 contributors and I must have tried at least a third of the chili that was provided by the contributors. Once we had our fill of chili we traveled to Seneca Park which was a large and local park that had an assortment of activities to partake in. a golf course to large a local and large park to hang out for a bit. After the park we headed back to campus and relaxed for a bit before deciding on dinner plans. During the down time we were lucky enough to find wireless internet on the third floor of the building. Goodness were we excited! It was as if Christmas had came early! Once the excitement wore off, Becca, Tarah and I decided to go to Hard Rock Café for dinner. The waitress was awesome, the ambience was nice but the over priced food was not all that great. That will probably be the one and only time that I go to a Hard Rock Café. The experience was nice, but probably only needed one time in my life!
Tuesday was spent all day at the home of Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith was your definition of a hoarder. Her whole home was covered top to bottom with things. There was no where to sit or stand in her home. You literally had to hop over things to get from one end of the house to the other. In the beginning of the day Mrs. Smith was beside herself and did not want to get rid of anything in her basement. We tried to tell her why we needed to remove her walls and moldy items but she didn’t want to remove anything. It was very hard for to come to terms with strangers in her home trying to help her rid her home of mold. Thankfully with enough talking, I experienced Mrs. Smith transition from a victim of the storm into a survivor. By the end of the day we managed to remove everything in her basement that had mold on it and sanitize everything that was salvageable. By the end of the day she was welcoming the idea of moving on in her life and even thanked us by making us homemade chili and two delicious desserts! Before departing, Mrs. Smith graced us with her poetry and read us a poem about God that she had written. By the end of the day she had opened not only her home to us but also her grateful heart.
Wednesday Wes put me in charge of a home! What we thought was going to be a simple sanitation project turned into a medium sized project. My team and I had to demolish a makeshift recording studio, walls in a small bedroom, and sanitize everything in the basement that the homeowner wanted to keep. Due to some complications on another job Wes and a CAP volunteer had to leave the site before lunch. Even with only three of us left, we were able to complete the job! Wes returned at the end of the day surprising us with cake and coffee and was surprised to see that we were able to complete the job with only three people. What can I say, I have great skills! :D
Thursday I spent the day sanitizing a homeowner’s basement. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why people hold on to such random stuff! I do remind myself though that many items have sentimental value that we as volunteers are not aware of. Why though, would someone keep a walker that is missing a leg, or random scraps or other broken items? If they are in your basement collecting dust, are you really planning on using them? After work my team and I went to the church where the CAP volunteers are being housed and had dinner with them. A few of the members of the church supplied the meal for the volunteers. The overflow of support and hospitality from the community is wonderful! It’s truly a humbling feeling to be appreciated as much as we are!
Friday I had the opportunity to work for the first time with the Metro United Way group of volunteers. Metro United Way (MUW) will be the organization that we will be working with daily start Monday when CAP heads back to Northern Kentucky. The group is made up of a handful of local adults that came together right after the flood to clean up the homes. They are definitely a group of hardworking and passionate individuals! A guy by the name of Mike runs the crew. He is originally from New York and actually has a daughter that is going to school near Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire. Talk about a small world! All throughout the day he attempted to teach us all how to say “forget about it” in his lovely New York accent. By the end of the day we had cleared and sanitized three homes! Talk about efficiency!
Saturday was our last day working with the CAP group. I definitely learned a lot working with them and was happy to have met such wonderful and warm hearted people! Along with the CAP volunteers, we also worked side by side with a large group of Mormons. I ended up being the only AmeriCorps volunteer in my group therefore allowing me to pretty much lead the whole group of adult Mormons. I was taken aback by the interest they showed in me and my reasons for joining AmeriCorps. They definitely put me at ease and made me feel comfortable leading such a large group! After work, Becca and I headed back to our home earlier then the rest of our group from dinner in hopes to be the first to take warm showers. To our surprise, the shower ceiling collapsed while we were working. Chicken Little knew what she was talking about when she said the sky was falling! Thankfully no one was hurt when the ceiling fell and according to our housing sponsor there are other showers that we can use. After the shower episode, Becca and I took a trip to the Highlands area of Louisville and went to a coffee shop called Heine Brother’s Coffee Shop. Highlands is definitely a cute area of Louisville and probably the part of town that I could see myself living in.
Sunday - Sunday was our first official day off! Since my team and I only have a few days off while we are in Kentucky we decided to try and pack everything worth seeing into each day off. Today we started the day out by going to a cute café for breakfast. Afterwards, we decided to partake in a free tour of Churchill Downs and the Speed Art Museum. For lunch we decided to attend Louisville’s Chili Cook Off contest. Any restaurant, family or group can partake in the contest. My goodness did we end up tasting a lot of chili! There were 80 contributors and I must have tried at least a third of the chili that was provided by the contributors. Once we had our fill of chili we traveled to Seneca Park which was a large and local park that had an assortment of activities to partake in. a golf course to large a local and large park to hang out for a bit. After the park we headed back to campus and relaxed for a bit before deciding on dinner plans. During the down time we were lucky enough to find wireless internet on the third floor of the building. Goodness were we excited! It was as if Christmas had came early! Once the excitement wore off, Becca, Tarah and I decided to go to Hard Rock Café for dinner. The waitress was awesome, the ambience was nice but the over priced food was not all that great. That will probably be the one and only time that I go to a Hard Rock Café. The experience was nice, but probably only needed one time in my life!
Week 9 (September 28 - October 4)
Monday my team and I drove around town inspecting each of the numbers that we painted on the curbs. We checked each number to make sure that it matched the house as well as the quality of the paint job. After work my team and I went to the local YMCA to participate in an ISP. We worked with the YMCA Pee Wee football team. The boys were so tiny and adorable in their football jerseys! The different teams even had cheerleaders! For the most part I directed traffic in and out of the small parking lot. Part way through the second game I switched time and managed the time clock for the remainder of the game. For a girl that barely knows anything about football, I did a pretty good job!!
Tuesday morning a few of my teammates and I traveled to Jackson, Mississippi for a Corps Ambassador Program. We spent the morning educating non profit organizations of the Jackson area about Americorps NCCC. It was nice to be included in an activity outside of volunteer projects. Later on in the day my team leader informed our team that the second project that was included in our round one was cancelled because of the lack of internet on our campus. For the final three weeks of our round one were supposed to be working with a company that has a database for disabled individuals. We were going to help them update their listings of activities as well as the individuals and their personal needs that they assist in the state of Mississippi. At this point we will be stay in Vicksburg and try and few a new project to work on, travel to Kentucky to help with disaster relief from the recent August flash flooding, or travel to Georgia to help with disaster relief from their recent flash flooding. Talk about flexibility! I’d say that this is a perfect example of how flexible one must be while being a part of AmeriCorps. Here I thought I’d be enjoying three more weeks serving in Vicksburg when in actuality I may be in Kentucky or Georgia by the end of the week. Only time will tell!
Wednesday as a team we finished our last street of houses. We seemed to somehow save the highest traffic area for last! Nonetheless we are officially finished with painting curbs! Success! I have a feeling though that it may take me awhile to break the habit of looking at every curve that we drive by wondering if it is a large enough curb to paint, and looking at the house to see if it has a legible number. After work my team and I were informed by our team leader that we will be leaving for Louisville, Kentucky early Friday morning to assist with disaster relief for the remaining three weeks of the round. We will be mucking and gutting houses daily while staying at a school that has been turned into a Salvation Army building. Our first week we will be training under a volunteer group called CAP (Christian Appalachian Project). During our three weeks breakfast and dinner will kindly be provided by Salvation Army’s Center of Hope. Supposedly the Center of Hope feeds local volunteers and is ran by a four star chef! This doesn’t sound like disaster relief settings at all! Normally teams that go on disaster relief have a hard time finding places to stay and eat. Goodness we got lucky!! I am definitely beyond excited to travel to Kentucky to partake in a new volunteer project, but at the same time I am sad to leave a few people that I’ve grown close to since the round started. I definitely didn’t realize how hard it would be to say goodbye to people! Saying goodbye is probably one of the hardest things for me to do, and lucky me…I get to say goodbye often!! L
Thursday being our last day in Vicksburg we spent the morning watching a “Controlled Fire” done by the Vicksburg Fire Department. A few times a year they perform controlled fires in order to make sure that their firefighters stay up to par with their training. Never saw a fire take place in person and I have to say that it was pretty mesmerizing! It broke my heart though because the family that lived in the house was present to see the house burn down L Fun fact about the fire - the very center of the fire reaches 1,000 degrees! Where we were standing reached 125 degrees. I felt like I was in a sauna!! Afterwards I spent the rest of the day attempting to pack my life into a medium size bag and a small backpack. Needless to say I’m leaving ¾ of the things I brought with me behind. Talk about turning into an extremely low maintenance kind of a girl! Once I finished packing, a few of us went out to the bar for one last time before leaving for KY. It coincidentally happened to also be karaoke night which clearly made for an entertaining night. I didn’t realize how much I missed singing karaoke until I sang “I Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones. Karaoke with great friends was definitely the perfect way to end my time in Vicksburg, MS.
Friday bright and early at 7am my team and I loaded the 15 passenger van and headed north to Louisville, Kentucky. I tried so hard throughout the whole trip to get comfortable, but I could never find the right spot! I even planned ahead and bought a neck pillow!! Thankfully though the time in the van was split up a bit because I had to drive a two hour shift in the middle of the day. By about 9pm (which ended up being 10pm) we finally arrived in Louisville! Our great sponsor, Kelly, recommended that we get a bite to eat at a pizza place called Spinelli’s. Spinelli’s is the only place local that serves New York style pizza. The pizza was awesome and the college town atmosphere made for a great welcoming to Louisville. After dinner we moved into the school that we will be staying in for the three weeks. We have a common room, and three separate classrooms for our personal use. Girls are sleeping in one room, boys are sleeping in another room, and the third room will be used to house our uniforms. We will be using old locker room showers to shower in and thankfully we brought cots from campus to sleep on. This should definitely be an experience!
Saturday was supposed to be our day off but our sponsor informed us that we would be having orientation with the CAP group. Early afternoon my team and I drove over to the church where the CAP is being housed for the week to introduce ourselves are partake in an orientation session. CAP is a group that focuses their volunteer work in northern Kentucky. A group of them came down in early August to volunteer with the initial flood relief and then decided to return to Louisville for another week when they got word that AmeriCorps was coming to town. After the brief orientation we broke up into groups and traveled to different homes to begin our disaster relief work. I was paired up with a guy by the name of Wes. Wes lives in Kentucky with his wife and two kids and volunteers his time to help because he is good friends with the woman who runs the disaster relief program for CAP. He was a very nice guy and easy to joke around and get along with. The home we went to was owned by an older widowed lady who had suffered from a stroke. The only damage she had from the flood was tree damage so we spent the afternoon cleaning up broken limbs that were on her property. After our first day of work, my team and I headed to the Center of Hope for our first dinner. As we walked down the road towards the building we noticed that the Center of Hope was actually a homeless shelter and that we would be eating with homeless people, not volunteers. Sure enough, we all were greeted by shocked homeless people. I would be shocked too if I saw 11 well groomed and dressed people walk into a homeless shelter looking for a warm meal. We also found out that the four star chef that we were expecting teaches homeless people how to cook. In return, the homeless people are the individuals that cook and serve the meal. Needless to say my team and I were expecting a totally different atmosphere and meal.
Sunday was another fun filled day working with Wes and a few of my teammates. By the end of the day Wes gave me the nickname “Killer” because I worked hard all day long - to the point that Wes had to yell at me to take water breaks.
Tuesday morning a few of my teammates and I traveled to Jackson, Mississippi for a Corps Ambassador Program. We spent the morning educating non profit organizations of the Jackson area about Americorps NCCC. It was nice to be included in an activity outside of volunteer projects. Later on in the day my team leader informed our team that the second project that was included in our round one was cancelled because of the lack of internet on our campus. For the final three weeks of our round one were supposed to be working with a company that has a database for disabled individuals. We were going to help them update their listings of activities as well as the individuals and their personal needs that they assist in the state of Mississippi. At this point we will be stay in Vicksburg and try and few a new project to work on, travel to Kentucky to help with disaster relief from the recent August flash flooding, or travel to Georgia to help with disaster relief from their recent flash flooding. Talk about flexibility! I’d say that this is a perfect example of how flexible one must be while being a part of AmeriCorps. Here I thought I’d be enjoying three more weeks serving in Vicksburg when in actuality I may be in Kentucky or Georgia by the end of the week. Only time will tell!
Wednesday as a team we finished our last street of houses. We seemed to somehow save the highest traffic area for last! Nonetheless we are officially finished with painting curbs! Success! I have a feeling though that it may take me awhile to break the habit of looking at every curve that we drive by wondering if it is a large enough curb to paint, and looking at the house to see if it has a legible number. After work my team and I were informed by our team leader that we will be leaving for Louisville, Kentucky early Friday morning to assist with disaster relief for the remaining three weeks of the round. We will be mucking and gutting houses daily while staying at a school that has been turned into a Salvation Army building. Our first week we will be training under a volunteer group called CAP (Christian Appalachian Project). During our three weeks breakfast and dinner will kindly be provided by Salvation Army’s Center of Hope. Supposedly the Center of Hope feeds local volunteers and is ran by a four star chef! This doesn’t sound like disaster relief settings at all! Normally teams that go on disaster relief have a hard time finding places to stay and eat. Goodness we got lucky!! I am definitely beyond excited to travel to Kentucky to partake in a new volunteer project, but at the same time I am sad to leave a few people that I’ve grown close to since the round started. I definitely didn’t realize how hard it would be to say goodbye to people! Saying goodbye is probably one of the hardest things for me to do, and lucky me…I get to say goodbye often!! L
Thursday being our last day in Vicksburg we spent the morning watching a “Controlled Fire” done by the Vicksburg Fire Department. A few times a year they perform controlled fires in order to make sure that their firefighters stay up to par with their training. Never saw a fire take place in person and I have to say that it was pretty mesmerizing! It broke my heart though because the family that lived in the house was present to see the house burn down L Fun fact about the fire - the very center of the fire reaches 1,000 degrees! Where we were standing reached 125 degrees. I felt like I was in a sauna!! Afterwards I spent the rest of the day attempting to pack my life into a medium size bag and a small backpack. Needless to say I’m leaving ¾ of the things I brought with me behind. Talk about turning into an extremely low maintenance kind of a girl! Once I finished packing, a few of us went out to the bar for one last time before leaving for KY. It coincidentally happened to also be karaoke night which clearly made for an entertaining night. I didn’t realize how much I missed singing karaoke until I sang “I Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones. Karaoke with great friends was definitely the perfect way to end my time in Vicksburg, MS.
Friday bright and early at 7am my team and I loaded the 15 passenger van and headed north to Louisville, Kentucky. I tried so hard throughout the whole trip to get comfortable, but I could never find the right spot! I even planned ahead and bought a neck pillow!! Thankfully though the time in the van was split up a bit because I had to drive a two hour shift in the middle of the day. By about 9pm (which ended up being 10pm) we finally arrived in Louisville! Our great sponsor, Kelly, recommended that we get a bite to eat at a pizza place called Spinelli’s. Spinelli’s is the only place local that serves New York style pizza. The pizza was awesome and the college town atmosphere made for a great welcoming to Louisville. After dinner we moved into the school that we will be staying in for the three weeks. We have a common room, and three separate classrooms for our personal use. Girls are sleeping in one room, boys are sleeping in another room, and the third room will be used to house our uniforms. We will be using old locker room showers to shower in and thankfully we brought cots from campus to sleep on. This should definitely be an experience!
Saturday was supposed to be our day off but our sponsor informed us that we would be having orientation with the CAP group. Early afternoon my team and I drove over to the church where the CAP is being housed for the week to introduce ourselves are partake in an orientation session. CAP is a group that focuses their volunteer work in northern Kentucky. A group of them came down in early August to volunteer with the initial flood relief and then decided to return to Louisville for another week when they got word that AmeriCorps was coming to town. After the brief orientation we broke up into groups and traveled to different homes to begin our disaster relief work. I was paired up with a guy by the name of Wes. Wes lives in Kentucky with his wife and two kids and volunteers his time to help because he is good friends with the woman who runs the disaster relief program for CAP. He was a very nice guy and easy to joke around and get along with. The home we went to was owned by an older widowed lady who had suffered from a stroke. The only damage she had from the flood was tree damage so we spent the afternoon cleaning up broken limbs that were on her property. After our first day of work, my team and I headed to the Center of Hope for our first dinner. As we walked down the road towards the building we noticed that the Center of Hope was actually a homeless shelter and that we would be eating with homeless people, not volunteers. Sure enough, we all were greeted by shocked homeless people. I would be shocked too if I saw 11 well groomed and dressed people walk into a homeless shelter looking for a warm meal. We also found out that the four star chef that we were expecting teaches homeless people how to cook. In return, the homeless people are the individuals that cook and serve the meal. Needless to say my team and I were expecting a totally different atmosphere and meal.
Sunday was another fun filled day working with Wes and a few of my teammates. By the end of the day Wes gave me the nickname “Killer” because I worked hard all day long - to the point that Wes had to yell at me to take water breaks.
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