hi mom.

Well well well...not only is today one of the best days of the year (daylight savings time. duh.) but it's also the date that marks 18 more days left of the program. 18 more days. Team leader Tony asked me to remember the 18th day of the program...What a whirl wind year this had been...to say the least. I am currently in Birmingham, AL working with Habitat for Humanity and the three weeks prior to this the team was once again in New Orleans working with the Alliance for Affordable Energy. Habitat is pretty self explanatory and widely known but the Alliance is a small non-profit that works with the energy companies and homeowners to reduce the cost of living. Since the hurricane they have switched gears and are better educating homeowners on the importance of energy efficiency and getting them involved in making their homes energy efficient. Its a small organization with a lack of funding but the staff was great and we definitely learned a lot. I think it's safe to say that this last round has been by far the best in terms of the work being done. These two organizations, while very different, have been great to work with and really utilized the team - making our experience that much more worthwhile. I have learned so much in the past two weeks while working with Habitat...Roofing, J-Channeling, (an awful pain in the bum) framing, siding..etc. I have also learned the words to the same 15 country songs that get played on the radio everyday - that of which i am ashamed... 

I've decided to just give a run down of everything that has happened (in no specific order, of course)

1. We lost our trusty van Mable and gained Boufford. he's huge. 

2. We live in a dungeon in the supposed ghetto and almost go carbon monoxide poisoning our first night (not really) and some fear we will get rickets. (https://health.google.com/health/ref/Rickets)

3. We spent a total of 21 weeks in New Orleans probably making us candidates for citizenship.

4. There were no hurricanes for the last 3 months in New Orleans but there might as well have been because it rained everyday. We did a lot of cloud and water funnel watching. 

5. I am finished with all of my hours! 1,700...yowza.

6. We've become professional acoustic ceiling tile installers..and paint scrappers. both of which are pretty dangerous. As professionals we found different ways to use those tiles...such as cleaning up a flood on the second floor because of a lack of brooms/electricity and to add traction in the mud when Mable got stuck for 4 hours (don't try it at home)...we also painted them to make Camp Hope look stunning...and as weapons when fighting with each other. who knew they were so versatile. 

7. The Girl Scouts in New Orleans aren't as nice as the ones in Ohio. cajuns are feisty, that's for damn sure.

8. I got me a pair of boat shoes but didn't get the chance to wear them when we took a 6 hour ride/tour (which was supposed to be three...sound familiar?) of the mississippi river gulf outlet on a fishing or crabbing or clamming (who knows) boat owned by a man named george - we think we was nice considering we couldn't understand a word that was coming from his mouth. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River-Gulf_Outlet_Canal 

http://www.mrgomustgo.org/

9. Wiring a house isnt as fun as it looks but, using a giant drill is pretty fun once you show it who's boss.

10. We went to the Civil Rights Institute which was really awesome and educational. Birmingham has a lot to offer..i think most of us wish we could have spent more time down here!

11. The cockroaches in New Orleans like to eat people food and snuggle in bed as much as my dog. neat. oh and apparently astroturf is the knew hard wood floor or tile in kitchens though again, i wouldn't try it at home because cockroaches like the feeling of it one their feet/toes/legs/gross.

12. You can lower the cost of your heating and cooling bills simply by spending days in your unbearably hot attic stapling up the thickest tin foil ever. and insulation is still really itchy especially when it gets blown up your AmeriShorts. yuck. (check us out!)

That's really all i can think of right now. We've got 5 days of work left which brings mixed emotions (I didn't know I had those until last night when I realized that in 18 days I'm not going to be going on a 3 day vacation and it will be a long time until i see some of the people i have shared every memory with for the last 10 months...how depressing) I couldn't be more excited to go home but I know i will miss these people and these crazy experiences (don't tell anyone is said so) It's been real and it's been fun. it's been real fun. But a new chapter awaits and i can't wait to begin it, whatever it may be. 

New Orleans...second time around

I've been scolded because i haven't updated this sucker in a while so here it goes. The past month has been a whirl wind of traveling, business and saying goodbyes and hello's. We made our fourth and final trip (thank. goodness.) up I-95 from Gainesville to Maryland at the beginning of the month to head out for mid-year break. I made my appearance where necessary..Hudson and Chautauqua. It was a really relaxing week..an opportunity to clear my mind and regroup. Those 12 days flew by and before i knew it i was back in Perry Point doin' the same 'ol stuff. It was a week of very mixed emotions...not wanting to be in MD and kind of not wanting to come back to New Orleans..I took up breathing exercises and motivational reading...(what has my life come to?...yikes) After silly job fair in DC, a day of trash pick up in Baltimore and a directors brief the team found ourselves, once again, packed to the gills in trusty Mable en route to New Orleans. We stayed over in town outside of Charlotte, which was really out of the way but that's irrelevant now..The team finally made it to Chalmette, LA last Sunday not knowing what a crazy week we had ahead of us. 

Chalmette is in St. Bernard Parish which is a neighbor to New Orleans Parish. It takes about 10 or 15 minutes to get to the city. We are living in bunk rooms in a church and basically found out how spoiled we have been for the past two rounds...now we actually have to share the place with other people. geez.  Our actual project is working with the St. Bernard Parish Gov. helping rebuild Camp Hope. Camp Hope was one of the first volunteer housing sites built after Katrina. There have been two Camp Hope locations which were funded and basically run by Habitat for Humanity...this is no longer the case. Habitat is no longer funding the new Camp so the Parish stepped in and is taking over. The new location needs a lot of work which is why we are here. 

That's our main project...which we have yet to really get started...

Last week we found ourselves leading about 1,000 Lutheran youth (and there annoying parents) in trash pickup and cemetery painting. Every three years there is a ginormous conference for Lutherans ( or something) This year they packed up from all over the country (mainly the Midwest) and came down to the city and were basically a pain in the butt. Our project was painting in 4 different cemeteries and trash pick up around the Parish...

Let me explain..because of the location of New Orleans people cannot be buried underground. So, the cemeteries consist of giant above ground tombs. When Katrina hit the water level around where we were working was about 25 feet (to the top of a standard utility pole) when that happens...things tend to want to float...and they did. Coffins floated out of their tombs...tombs floated out of their cemeteries and it was really a hot mess...(In the cemetery i was working at there were coffins that were found 20 miles away.) Its basically the last thing anyone would think about when a disaster like that happens but we came in and (tried) to save to day. During the three days we worked we used about 30 gallons of latex paint (all white) and only finished painting about 20 tombs. Its going to take a lot more work to finish it but to even get the ball rolling was a big help. The high schoolers complained and so did the parents. And it seems to be the case that the sun never shines in the Midwest (i thought it was just Ohio) and bees don't exist. It was an exhausting week but everyone was very appreciative of the work we were doing. (oh, and no one got swept away when the torrential down pour occurred or when the two water spouts [tornados?] touched ground...phew)

It's crazy to be back here again...but i am pretty excited about this round. Our sponsor, Crystal, is great and the project should be fun. Cross your fingers about hurricane season...i forget my life jacket at home. 

check out those vests.

conrad loves GPSing road signs!

this is what we work with everyday...what an expensive little bugger

.

our doublewide and Mable = heaven.

see, we work. in the pouring rain while getting attacked by mosquitos

the wild conrad does work.

roof frame of a bird blind (not for hunting..) we built. thank you.

conrad and crystal love nature walks.

gator.

gator.

badger 4.1 loves the days inn and route-95

Street Signs Are Complex.

Day 21 of Round 2: We have gotten into a groove in terms of our new project...finally. Our sponsor, John,  is awesome. He is an AmeriCorps NCCC alumni...so he knows the drill. We are working with the Public Works department of Gainesville helping them take inventory of their street signs = we walk around all day with fancy GPS systems recording every sign we see. Now, for those who arent so hip to the signs...there is a lot more to say, the average STOP sign than you think. For example...the material: is it engineer grade? or prismatic material?..both having different reflectivity... (so drivers can see them at night..) There are many different sizes of signs...24x24?..9x30?.. And the poles they are stuck to? Yep, is it 10ft or 12ft? U-channel or square? So...all of that junk has to be recorded and we are the suckers that got the job. It's actually not that bad, we get to spend the entire day outside - allowing me the perfect opportunity to work on my super sweet suntan and who doesn't love a good 6mile walk everyday? Apparently Gainesville loves their weekends because they recently moved to 4day/10 hour work weeks meaning on Friday's we will be working with the Nature Department...i think tomorrow we are building a roof for a bird viewing house? We'll see how that goes. 

Our housing is actually quite spacious. We are living in a double wide in a park called Boulware Springs...there is 15 miles of trail behind our house and a natural spring with turtles. Gainesville gets all of their water from natural springs and it was one of the main reasons the University of Florida built their campus here. The spring that is behind our house is nasty so, no swimming but one of the weekends we are down here John is going to take us to some springs that we can swim in and float on. One of the trails from our house leads to a pretty radical places called Payne's Prairie...which is a wildlife preserve. On Monday we went an walked the trail hoping to get a glimpse of wild horses, alligators, bison and many birds. The only thing we spotted was a ton of giant stinky alligators..and baby alligators! Everyone escaped with all of their limbs. (i'll post some pictures) The only downfall to our housing is that we had to bring all of our own furniture = cots. I hate cots. Cots hate humans. I got an early birthday present though!..a fabulous air mattress! (thanks mom & dad) 

So far things are going pretty well! This is a great project and we are pretty bummed we are only here for the month of June. Gainesville has a lot to offer in terms of history and things to do. I'm definitely looking forward to taking advantage of that and just have a good time! (John is pretty big into making sure we have fun too so, it shouldn't be a problem!) 

Peace&Love

this is the uh...only good thing that came from being in Kissimmee...

Psych.

I am here writing this in Perry Point after a wonderful weekend spent at home. Why am i in Perry Point? Well...it all started when we went to our first day of work for the Nature Conservancy and they informed us that we were unable to work until further notice...Why you ask? Legal junk...more or less. We soon found out that the legal junk could not be resolved so we packed up. Said peace out to Chucky and started our journey back to Maryland. Yep. Another two days in our trusty van..(recently named Mable..because apparently that's the thing to do, name the team van) Luckily for me i was able to get dropped off at the airport on Thursday and headed home! 

It was really great to get away and have a short break from everything! I had a hard time returning but here i am...back with the team...minus three. There was flooding in W. Virginia so, a team of 16 headed out there today to do disaster relief for around 2weeks. Three of the sixteen were two of badger 4's corps members and our team leader. We're down to 5 and it's a riot. We found out today that the 5 of us will be heading BACK to Florida (yep..go ahead, laugh) tomorrow or Thursday to work with for the city of Gainesville. We will be doing GPS data collecting around the city..also known as geocaching. People do that stuff as a recreational activity. We are doing it for our job. It should be interesting...we don't really know much more...except for there's the possibility of tubing down a river. 

We were warned from the start that being a part of NCCC is all about being flexible...and here was our biggest test of that. Sometimes it's frustrating not knowing exactly what we will be doing and when we will start working again but things happen and we just gotta go with the flow. yo.