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.

Chucky the Alligator is our neighbor...

We made it Florida on Friday. It's hot. We left Maryland on Thursday and began our 2 day excursion. I've spent more time in that van than i ever want to...and it's only the second round. We spent a night in S.Carolina in the middle of nowhere only to show up to our new housing..which just so happens to be...in the middle of nowhere. For our directors brief(part of pre-round prep) we showed a really nice picture of what was THOUGHT to be our house...come to find out its the offices of the Nature Conservancy. Silly us...for the next 6weeks we will living in a double wide...which is actually bigger than our last house. Hearing the reaction of the team when we drove up was priceless though. We met Dan..who works for the Nature Conservancy (who we now work for) and he showed us around and let us know that the only things we needed to watch out for were...ahem..: every single type of poisonous snake in the USofA, poisonous spiders, bobcats, ticks, scorpions, the two gators that live in lake in our front yard (Chucky and Chica...they are only 10ft & 12ft - no biggie), ferrel hogs (there is a hog catcher living in a FEMA trailer)...and well i'm pretty sure the list went on but i my attention span is pretty minimal these days. I don't know what i feel more comfortable with, that speech or the "if you hear gun shots..hit the deck" speech by our last sponsor. Oh AmeriCorps. 

We live and will be working on the Nature Conservancy's Disney Wilderness Preserve. No, we aren't working for Disney... The preserve was established in 1992 as an offsite mitigation project to basically make up for all of the damage that occurred to the wetlands when the Walt Disney Resorts and various other sites were developed. There is a law in florida that when someone wants to develop over wetlands they either have to find another location to move the wetlands or find and preserve existing wetlands. Our orientation is on Monday but when talking with the sponsor during transition we found out that we will be doing a lot of herbicide treatment to invasive species, different species removal and relocation (in terms of plants such as maidencane, saltbush, cordgrass...yea i don't know what those are yet) and trail widening/restoring. No one on the team has really done this type of environmental work before so it should be a pretty educational experience for all of us. One of the coolest things about this round is that we only work four days a week...3day weekends will be glorious (Cocoa Beach is only an hour) 

We have only been here for a couple of days and have already come to realize that our entertainment is minimal....Yesterday we took a walk to the office which only took us two hours (from our house)..but we saw a turtle and some wild turkeys!  The walk also allowed us to refill our water bottles because well..drinking sulfur water isn't very legit..which is what is spit out to us from the showers and the faucets. We have a volleyball net. And a frisbee. And while we thought there was wireless in the office...it proved to not work yesterday so i am sitting at a Panera about 20 minutes away from home typing this. This round will definitely be interesting. We have a chance to actually spend some time with each other since we had a difficult time doing that in New Orleans. SPF70 will most likely become my new best friend since i already got fried. I am definitely excited to get started and am hoping to really make the most of my experience here and am looking forward to maintaining a positive attitude. constantly. hah. PEACE&LOVE!

Wrappin' up...

So, it's our last day in New Orleans. It's been a fun run but the entire team is definitely ready to bust a move outta here and head to our next location. We found out last week that we will be heading to Kissemmee, FL! We will be working with a branch of Disney doing environmental conservation work. It sounds like its going to be a lot of hard work but should be pretty rewarding! We havent gotten into all of the nitty gritty details of the project yet because right now we are working out this rounds project debrief (we have to give wrap up presentation to the directors and staff upon our return to perry point)

We finished work on Friday..which was pretty exciting. The past few weeks still consisted of a lot of painting and random carpentry work. A couple of weeks ago the team traveled to Baton Rouge for a night to work on a home. It was nice to get away from the United Saints project...not to mention we got to stay in a really nice hotel...(that bed sure beat the air mattresses we have been sleeping on for the past 8 weeks..) This past week i spent my time in the tool shed and running tools to projects in some pretty sweet cargo vans. We got a lot of work done for United Saints and everyone is pretty sad to see us go. Luckily another team from the Denver campus will be arriving in a few weeks to TRY to fill our shoes...(doubtful) We got pretty close to all of the people here so, its going to be sad saying goodbye.

Over the past two weekends we volunteered a Jazz Fest. Selling $65 tshirts is a pretty boring and ridiculous job but we got to get into the festival for free which was pretty radical since the price for a one day pass is $50...lots of money being made. I got the opportunity to catch a few minutes of Dave Matthew Band, Earth Wind and Fire, Etta James, Neil Young, Avett Brothers...and a few others. Etta James was by far the best...Neil Young is old. Unfortunately i didn't get to see Ben Harper (my all time fav) because i had to play a rousing game of kickball....i don't want to talk about it. We also go a free t-shirt and some kind of cooler bag contraption. Badgers love free tshirts.

Our entire team finished all 80 of our Individual Service Project (ISP) hours...which is pretty huge. We were the first team done and Travis was the first Corps member done. Apparently there is rumors circulating that we get a pizza party. woo. Having all of our hours done is a pretty fortunate thing - we basically get some of our freedom back.. free time on weekends and after work! 

We have a long drive tomorrow and Wednesday. We will be staying in Perry Point for about a week and a half before we leave for FL. I have no interest in going back there but it will be nice to get a break from living in a 3 room house with 9 crazy humans. 

This has been an awesome first round. I got the opportunity to meet a ton of great and interesting people and learned a lot about the history and culture of New Orleans. Our team has learned a lot about each other and while we dont always get along or see eye to eye..we are all that we've got so we had and will still have to learn to live with one another.  I also learned a lot about myself and know that everything i learned here and had to deal with during these 2months will make me stronger....or so i hear. 

Conrad being the bomb

Sweet drumming(..and huge guns..ha!)

This is Buck...the United Saints mascot! (His little lady friend just had puppies...what a pimp.)

Rollin' and Brushin'

It's been a busy busy but productive and great two weeks! If anyone is in need of a paint job..interior or exterior..holler at me. I have perfected my brushing skills whether it be on the exterior of a Methodist Church or the interior of a renovated home (i guess it all really depends on what you consider "perfection") That's what all of my work days have consisted of except for a few scattered projects such as hanging drywall(yikes..) and maybe another that i can't really remember right now.
Big John(he's like 7 feet tall..no joke) is a master painter who came to United Saints 1st St Recovery from California as a volunteer. He took it upon himself (along with a lot of help from Sherwin Williams and volunteers) to repaint the church that the organization is headquartered in. He selected me to be on his team when he saw me on a 24foot ladder changing light bulbs in the multi-purpose room...(I guess Jill's fear of heights skipped me!) So, i've been working with him a lot - it's been a lot of fun and a great learning experience but, i think i'm ready to dabble in a few other things...
Last Saturday was some anniversary for Hand's On New Orleans, one of the biggest relief organizations down here (I worked with them when i went to Biloxi, MS) So it was a day of service and a big celebration after. I helped clear/clean out a garden that will grow fresh vegetables for a local restaurant. After working, a big meal was served and a local high school marching band played (the dancers sure knew how to shake it...that's for sure) We also got a free t-shirt. It's purple!
For one of our service learning projects the team went to go see "Trouble the Water" at a local "theater". The movie is a first hand documentary about the events of a Hurricane Katrina- a woman and her husband found a video camera about a week before the storm and documented everything from days before the storm, during the storm and returning to their neighborhood two weeks after and realizing no one had even inspected the houses yet. It was a huge reality check of why we are here and why the city is the way it is today...such an eye opener! It was nominated this year for an Acadamy Award - didn't win though, I definitely recommend renting it!
Today part of the team went to the Rhythmic Roots and Green Ability Fair to work and spread the NCCC word. While we didn't get a huge response in terms of people being interested in the program, it was a great day to spend outside listening to an African drumming group and a 7 piece brass band! It's been raining all week so having today to spend out in the sun enjoying awesome music and the company of great people was a real treat!
It seems as though all of the days are running together - i find that i like it much better not knowing what day of the week it is or the date. We have been here for three weeks now but it seems way longer! I'm sure once these 8 weeks come to a close it will feel like we just arrived the day before! We still don't know where we are going for second round..but hopefully it will be announced soon!
PEACE&LOVE!

travy cleaning out a house fire.

julie at john harrison's house.

our corner.

mikal(a long term volunteer) painting john harrison's house.

paintin' the sign on the side of our house.

the team. somewhere.