Week 4 (August 24-30)

Monday began with PT…then surprise, surprise continued on with training! Today’s training was quite beneficial though. I found out today that if I take two online courses (six credit hours total), and attend a conference I could receive a non-profit management certification! This excites me because then I’d have the proper credentials needed to work for a non-profit. Every day I’m here my plans for after AmeriCorps are focused more and more on non-profit. On a food related note - my friends and I are at the point where we love the catering food, yet we could definitely use a change in menu!!! Thankfully I have friends who can cook and Becca cooked a great southern meal - chicken, rice, and green beans. It’s funny what a home cooked meal can do for the soul!!

Tuesday was a “travel around town” day for my team. In order to understand what my team did today, I’ll have to go into brief detail about my team’s round 1 project. The year as a whole is split up into different rounds. Each round is assigned a new project. For the first round my team along with a few other teams will be staying local. For the first five weeks my team will be assisting the local fire department. We will be painting home addresses on the curbs of homes in 5 different neighborhoods. Our initial goal is to paint addresses on 608 homes. Our project is a major priority and improvement for the city of Vicksburg. According to our sponsor, the city has been in need of these clear painted addresses for quite awhile. Due to our involvement with the Fire Department, my team and I went downtown today and were showcased during the daily town meeting. We introduced ourselves and spoke briefly about NCCC while our sponsor informed the community about the project. After the meeting our sponsor gave us a quick tour of the fire department that we will be working with in town. Once we got back to campus we had to meet as a team with the NCCC project coordinator and go over our debrief of our Round 1 projects. The debrief is a conversation basically explaining to the coordinator what our first round project will be. Afterwards we had more team time and a Leave No Trace training which was facilitated by one of my fellow Corps members. Afterwards, my friends and I continued on with our home cooked meals and made baked tacos for dinner. Oh goodness where they yummy! I can’t wait until we can actually cook our own meals as a team!

Wednesday was another long day. The whole corps spent the morning at the National Military Park outside getting rid of trees and bushes. There is an area of land that plays an important role in a past historical battle that the park would like to keep cleared in order to give better visual representation of the event. The River unit’s task was to clear the land. Needless to say the task was a lot harder than it looked. The whole time we were working on an incline which made it hard to pull trees, vines, and other debris out of the ground. During the afternoon we had more training that was focused around being a volunteer for New Orleans disasters. After the training we were cordially invited to attend an open house at an art gallery downtown. The Art Gallery is ran by H.C. Porter. Her art consists of pictures from the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The pictures are hard to describe, therefore I’ll just have you look at them in my album on Facebook. H.C. lived at the gallery as well. The second floor was her home and on the third floor she had a walk out roof. Most of us spent the majority of the time on her roof overlooking the city of Vicksburg. The artist also provided a live band and an assortment of snacks for us. The gallery definitely made for a fun and memorable night!!! Most of us broke out of our shells and enjoyed being away from campus for the night.

Thursday consisted of “AmeriOlympics” in the morning and then practicing for our team’s clearance meeting and finishing up other odds and ends in the afternoon before our first round of projects. The whole Corps is getting to the point where we are anxious to start our first round of projects. Although the month of training has been very beneficial, we all ready to get into the routine of our first round projects. On a happy and surprising note I have very thoughtful friends. My teammate and friend Becca baked me two homemade cakes tonight. Never in my life has anyone baked me two cakes for my birthday!

Friday..the day of my 23rd birthday! Goodness I feel old! Friday was definitely one long yet fun day! My birthday started crazy early with PT and then afterwards my team had to lead an all Corps community meeting. Halfway through the meeting, the whole Corps sang happy birthday to me which was definitely a nice way to start my day! Directly after the community meeting my team and I had our clearance meeting. The clearance meeting was similar to our debrief meeting. We had to describe to our unit leader our first project along with the personal projects that each permanent role will be conducting throughout the round. After our meeting the whole Corps traveled downtown to the convention center to rehearse our induction ceremony. It’s mind boggling to know that I’ve already gone through a month of training! I feel like it was just yesterday that I received the acceptance phone call. For my birthday dinner I decided that I wanted to experience more southern cooking. We ended up going to a restaurant called LD’s which supposedly has good southern food. I ordered the Catfish Poboy which is basically fried catfish on an Italian bun. Wasn’t great, but the whole southern restaurant experience was nice. My teammate Becca brought one of the birthday cakes with us to dinner for my teammates and me to enjoy. The cake was delicious!! My team bought me a picture frame that had a picture of our team in it from the night at the art show. My team leader was creative and ordered a pair of APO sandals for me. He and I were both a part of APO and I had told him how I wish that I owned a pair of sandals. :D He’s a very thoughtful team leader. After dinner a few of my teammates and I walked to the local bar. I hadn’t gone to the bar at all since I’ve been here so I thought it’d be nice to socialize with a few of my close friends in a different way. Afterwards I came home to a decorated room! My suitemate Trisha was bummed that she couldn’t go to the bar to celebrate my birthday so she went out and bought pink streamers, candy, and multi colored balloons and decorated my room. I have never had my room decorated before on my birthday so I was a really nice surprise! Along with everything that happened on campus for my birthday, my family also called and wished me a happy birthday! Playing back the voicemails throughout the day definitely put numerous smiles on my face :D More or less I’d have to say that is one of my favorite and memorable birthdays by far. It measures right up there with my surprise 16th birthday party!!!

Saturday and Sunday consisted of complete relaxation :D More or less I was tired from the long week that ended in my birthday so I felt the need to relax :D With all the preparation for our first round projects taking place none of the Corps members had the chance to put together any ISP projects for the weekend. Although it would have been good to obtain more hours, it was nice to have time to just socialize with everyone before we all dispersed for our round one projects.