We made it! End of CTI, Johnson flood, and Memphis



Rachel, Sam, Margaret, and I before Induction sporting the AmeriTux



Reporting live from Memphis, TN!  This week brought the end of CTI.  We are officially trained and ready to take on America.  Monday brought us to Induction Day.  This ceremony was so nice.  We got to listen to many speakers and recite the pledge to become official members of AmeriCorps.  It was a long 4 weeks, but I am so glad I made it.



Sunset over the Mississippi River.



Tuesday was a bitter sweet day.  We had a few things to do around campus, but mainly it was used to say bye to the friends who have quickly become family in 4 short weeks.  I have made some of the best friends here that aren't on River 10 with me.  These people were the hardest to say bye to.  I am extremely thankful that Sam, one of my best friends here, is on my team.  However, the third musketeer, Rachel, is on a different River team.  The three of us spent Tuesday hanging out and going to one of Vicksburg's finest eating establishments, Whataburger, for dinner. (totally kidding about finest, it's fast food)  Once that beautiful moment was over, I went with my old River 10 team from week one to watch the sunset on the Mississippi River.  This was the first full circle moment for me while being in Mississippi.  This was my first team as I got to campus and they were the people I got to spend my last night in Vicksburg for 6 weeks with.  It was so nice to talk about the 4 weeks of CTI with the ten people I started it with.  Once I got back to campus it was time to pack.  My little red bag had to fit EVERY piece of uniform, PT clothes, and leisure clothes.  This was a struggle.  While hanging with my friends we heard a gush of water from the hall.  Then we saw water trickling into our dorm room.  What do you know, a pipe burst in Johnson Hall, my new dorm.  Needless to say, my last night which was supposed to be saying bye to friends, was spent with a shop vac, mops, brooms, and towels trying to clean the mess.  Have no fear, I survived the Johnson Hall Flood of 2012.



Me and Sam.



Wednesday morning brought on Christmas morning feelings.  River 10 was heading to Memphis!  We piled into Scooter our 15p van for our 5 hour drive.  Before we parted our ways, we said our last tearful goodbye's to some close friends who we all have decided to write, call, and skype.  Once that emotional morning was over it was Memphis bound!  We got to our site for work around 2pm.  We sang, laughed, slept, and cruised at a speed of 65 mph the whole way.  Our site sponsor is VECA, Vollinteen Evergreen Community Association.  VECA was created to improve communication and strenghten resident relations within biracial neighborhoods. Our sponsor, Michael, is awesome.  He is a recent graduate from Rhodes College in Memphis and is pumped to be working with us.  For them, we are going to be improving their Green Line which is a natural trail outside.  We are also helping to repair affordable housing and the office/Welcome center of VECA.  They have us also in charge of an Art Walk festival.  We are going to be planning the event and picking spots for all vendors and booths.  There are also 3 co-sponsors of this SPIKE.  One co-sponsor is the First Congregational Church, which is actually connected to our hostel.  We will be doing maintenance of the outside and inside of the church.  Another sponsor is Memphis Heritage Inc.  For this sponsor we will be helping them for 3 days by doing prep work for their big yard sale fundraiser.  The contact woman, is the best.  She told us to call her our Memphis Mom.  She wants to get us tickets to baseball games, the Civil Rights Museum and anything in Memphis.  Our last sponsor is one I am particularly the most excited about.  They are called the Memphis Center for Independent Living.  For this project we are working with the center to improve their outdoor garden and patio.  We also may be building handicap ramps.  I am most excited because 51% of the staff at MCIL are individuals with disabilities.  Today on our tour we met all of the staff and I am so excited.  We get to interact with these individuals and I was crawling out of my skin with excitement.  I felt right in my element in this building.  I really am so excited to be living in this unbelievable hostel and getting to know David, Terrel, Chris, Lannise, Jamie, Sam, Johnny, John, Andrea, and our fearless Team Leader Beste, aka River 10, a lot more.  We are bonding really well and our home here in Memphis is awesome.  Me and my teammate John are in charge of PT for our team so we are running them to the ground.  I also am Assistant Team Leader this round so I have much more responsibility.  I am excited about that.  An AmeriCorps requirement is that along with our 1,700 hours of community service by graduation, we need to do 80 additional Individual Service Project hours.  But, we lucked out.  Our hostel has about 3 or 4 places we can do ISP hours at, and we did 2 hours tonight already.  I can feel this is going to be a good SPIKE!



ISP bike shop work.



So that's it from Memphis.  I am really happy that I am here with my team in this unbelievable city.  Also there are 3 Dunkin' Donuts here that my teammate Jamie and I are excited about.  I will be doing a lot of walking around the city on our days off (Sunday and Monday) to get acclimated with the place. 

More to come when we really start getting our hands dirty as we walk in Memphis everyday!

Induction Day

Hello all.  So tomorrow, Monday March 26, 2012, I become officially inducted as an AmeriCorps member.  After the long 4 weeks of CTI (Training) we are DONE!  It seems like it has been about 4 years, not weeks.  I can't tell you how happy I am that training ends and I get to use my new skills come Wednesday in Memphis.  I applied to be a speaker at induction tomorrow, but was not chosen to share my reflection.  I wasn't too let down since on Friday at our community meeting they let me read it to everyone.  Our community meetings consist of every Corps Member, every Team Leader, and every staff that are on our Southern Region campus.  They were the people that I really wanted to read my reflection to anyway.  We all know how much I love to talk, so this was not that big of a deal to me.  I wanted to share with you my reflection.  It had to be written about what service means to me and how the last 4 weeks at NCCC has been for me.  This is what I said...

Before beginning a day of service I always think of the quote that reads, "Those who can, do.  Those who can do more, volunteer."  Service and volunteerism are vital for human growth and development.  The fulfillment I feel knowing I helped another individual makes me feel on top of the world.  Service is more than a physical act.  Service brings out emotions in me that are sometimes too much to put into words.  Now, doing National Community Service, I believe I am going to feel pure happiness knowing I will be touching lives of complete strangers.  Each and every young person should take part in service during their life.  It only takes one day of volunteering to get hooked enough to make service your life for ten months.

The past four weeks have changed my life.  Before coming to NCCC, I felt every emotion.  The second I got to campus, every emotion suddenly went away.  It was at that moment I knew I made the right choice to leave my Massachusetts home to come to Mississippi.  Immediately we were thrown into vans with random strangers, and boy am I happy that was the case.  From that moment on, and every moment after, I have met people who quickly took a large place in my heart.  Our hands on experience at King's Community has helped us prepare for our new ventures with our teams.  Those days may have been the most sweaty, but they are the most important.  I am excited to put my new skills to work on SPIKE one coming up.  I know these next 9 months will fly by and I can't wait to experience it all.  So to answer the three questions I was always asked before leaving, yes I am in Mississippi, yes I am volunteering, and yes I will change the world.  To close I would like to tell you all one thing.  When I wake up in the morning I put on our beautiful uniform and I look in the mirror.  I look at myself and tell myself I look good.  So today, I would like to tell you all one thing.  You look good.

After the last line, it is safe to say the roar of laughter was contagious.  From that speech on, everyone has been telling me and the whole corps that they all look good.  I felt really honored by the two rounds of applause I got and the fact that I got to share my experience with my friends from here and the staff of this wonderful program.  Tomorrow will be an exciting day and I can't wait to officially be an AmeriCorps Member and get things done!

I will write another blog probably Tuesday sometime before we leave for Tennessee.  Keep me and the other 165ish members in your thoughts tomorrow for our big day!

Walking In Memphis

Hello blog readers.  I know it has been quite some time since I last posted so let me give it to you in as most detail as possible.  I think a day-to-day rotation would suit this situation well, since the last week and a half has been an exciting one!

Last Monday we woke up with the rising sun, or pitch black which ever way you want to look at it, and had a great PT session.  After we sweat our brains off, we went into some real interesting training about asbestos, lead, and mold.  We were, in short, learning how to muck and gut a house.  We actually got to go to homes in Vicksburg, Mississippi y'all and put our skills to work.  We had to wear our awesome hazmat gear and sweat like crazy.  It could have been the hottest day thus far, but I powered through and didn't complain once about the heat (that's a lie).  These houses were in terrible condition, but we made the best of it and got through the day.  While at one house we were cleaning the debris pile and I ran into the home owner.  He was going through the pile to find some valuables from his home and I just asked in a casual way how he was.  His response of "I was doing pretty poorly until you all got here to help and now I am happy" made me realize in that very debris pile that I am here for a reason and I am going to be making a huge difference.  After the emotionally and physically draining day, we had a lovely dorm wide clean up night.  Our dorm, Ann, has been pretty messy, but believe it or not, I was doing a good load of dishes everyday.  We each got assignments for the dorm to clean and I had the bathroom on the first floor.  I could have used MaryKathryn's help on the toilet, but I managed to do a great job all while singing my well known song around here of Lean on me and entertaining most of my friends.  Yes, I cleaned my first toilet.

Tuesday we learned about Child-Friendly Spaces.  We may be working along side or closely with children in the next 9 months.  We learned how to basically help them out and cope with what they are going through.  While we were doing some big time learning, all I could think of was the fact that Tuesday night was the big permanent team reveal.  I could not tell you why I was so nervous about it, but I was.  However, before team reveal, my last temporary team leader made us the most delicious jumbalia.  I enjoyed it to the fullest.  Around 7 we were told to go to the gym with our temporary team.  While there we were put into lines and told an action.  I had to act like I was a willow tree.  Everyone had a separate action and we had to find the other people who were acting like you were.  When the entire team was organized, you were given a scavenger hunt clue to go find your permanent Team Leader hiding on campus somewhere.  After a good hour, we found our Team Leader.  I will be permanently on River 10 with our team leader Christine.  If you recall, she was my first Temp Team Leader.  We call her Beste (best-ie) because it is her last name, which makes her the best-e.  I could not be more excited.  She was hiding in a room with balloons all over the floor.  Those balloons had hints to our first project.  WE ARE GOING TO MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE!! We will be working with VECA an organization in Memphis.  We are going to be doing everything, construction, trail building, and being in charge of volunteers all while living in a hostel for 2 months.  That night was very exciting.

Wednesday we had, by far, the best day of training.  It was called Hands of Peace.  This day was the first day as a team and it couldn't have gone better.  We did pretty much get to know you games all day with another team from our River Unit.  It was a great day to start to build team chemistry and know facts about one another.  Both teams bonded real fast and every doubt we all had about our teams left after that day. 

Thursday I got to go out into the city of Vicksburg and CAP.  Basically, I went, along with 2 others, to explain to companies about AmeriCorps and to thank them for welcoming us to the city.  It was great to get to know the people of Vicksburg and Mississippi y'all in general.  I sported the Ameritux nicely and really repped the 'A' that day.  Once done CAPping, we got to join our fellow Corps members and do some beautification of Vicksburg.  I was put to Catfish row, which is right on the Yazoo River, the river that connects with the Mississippi.  We were picking up trash and making our city look nicer. 

Friday, finally.  Our Friday consisted of early morning PT then days of classroom work.  Since it was AmeriCorps week all week, we had an open house.  After our second class of the day, I was asked to speak at a little gathering of high school students in the chapatorium.  I spoke about why I am doing service and what we have been doing so far the past 3 weeks.  I like to tell people about how I feel about this program.  It is important that people understand what we are all doing and why we are doing service.
Saturday, we got to go back to the houses we were mucking and gutting and do some construction!  Our team put up a wall of dry wall.  We worked hard as a team and were told that we are a strong unit by one of the staff members.  We all thought on a Saturday, St. Patrick's Day none the less, that we would be working until 5:00.  Much to our surprise, we got finished much earlier than that.  A group of my friends and I thought it would be a great idea to go off campus and get a good dinner and have some green beverages to celebrate the best day of the year.  My bartender really made me feel at home and told me that she got some green napkins and food coloring for the beverages for me since I told her that is what my mom does.  What a woman. 

Sunday was a much needed DAY OFF.  These days seem few and far between because of everything we are doing.  I enjoyed it with a couple of good friends, a huge burger, and a nice trip to the local smoothie place.  I was happy and content with doing nothing but enjoy life in Mississippi y'all on our beautiful campus.  Unfortunately I missed a couple of big events at home.  My little Lady Tanners (yes Woburn sorry everyone) U12 hockey team were in the Valley League championship.  They lost in that game, but have improved so much over the year and I could not be more proud of all of them.  I miss their little faces a lot and I actually got to talk to all of them before the game.  I also missed a pretty big family event that turned out much better than the girl's game.  The BHS Red Devil hockey team played at the beautiful TD Banknorth Garden for the D1 State Championship which they WON!  I could not be more proud to tell people here my father is the coach of the team and that he is the best coach I know.  I know I will have days of feeling homesick, but I survived with the help of my friends and distractions here.  I am here for a purpose and am doing well now.


Sunset night one



Anyway, back to the 3 most exciting days.  On Monday morning we had PT, per usual.  After PT we had a couple of classes, but then we piled into the 15P van, which we named Scooter the Magic School bus, and drove to Northern Mississippi for a camping trip.  I have never been camping, so this was an experience.  No running water, no shower, a porter potty, and lots of sweat.  Monday was used to set up camp and sleep basically.  When we all arrived, every corps member went back about ten years and turned into a little kid.  We skipped rocks, explored, and sat on the dock for about two hours.  Two great hours.  Tuesday was business as usual.   Our team was in charge of picking up trash along a 3-mile route into the camp ground.  After lunch, we helped dig holes to put a new fence in.  After all of this, we changed into comfortable clothes and went for a long walk on trails with our team and another.  After the walk, due to excessive sweat once again, we decided the best route to get rid of the wicked hot feeling would be to jump in the lake, fully clothed.  Due to me sporting my Pats t-shirt and shorts I like I was pretty hesitant.  But I decided since it was my first camping trip I decided my motto would be "why the hell not" I jumped right in.  I made sure to force the rest of my friends to jump in, too. Tuesday night was used for team bonding.  We made a nice dinner fire side and played some get to know you games and really bonded.  I slept on the dock with a bunch of people under a clear sky of stars.  It was really dreamy.  Wednesday we piled into our vans and went to Ole Miss campus.  This campus has a ropes course.  The morning was a low ropes course, but the afternoon was a high ropes course.  Since I am such a tough guy, I did about every high ropes activity possible.  I walked on a cat walk, pretty much a large log connecting to a wire with ropes to hold onto, while strapped into a belay line with a seat to get to a platform to zip line to the other side of the woods.  I was shaking the entire time, but why not try something about 45 feet off the ground.  After that I went up a power pole that was about 45 feet high stood on top of it and jumped to try to catch a trapeze.  I missed, but stood on top of the pole scared out of my mind for a solid 2 minutes.  It was the most exciting experience.  Overall the 3 days were perfect.  Awesome sunsets, awesome conversations, awesome tents with sleeping bags to sleep on (not awesome), and the shower on Wednesday night was the best part.  I have never felt so clean. 



Today we got to go into the capitol of Mississippi y'all, Jackson.  Some teams were sent to the capitol building to stand on the floor to receive an award, while other teams, like ours, were touring the old capitol building.  The next few days will be used to prepare to walk in Memphis everyday, which I have informed my team that I will be singing everyday when we wake up.  I have taken up singing since I have been here and I am pretty well known for having the worst rendition to Lean On Me possible.  I have Dad-Z to thank for those beautiful vocals, thanks Dad.  I have been named ATL (assistant team leader) for this round.  I will be doing paper work and taking on team leader responsibilities with Beste until we return to campus on May 12.  Pretty exciting.  Monday we have an induction ceremony which we get sworn in as official AmeriCorps members. 

Long winded, but that's it.  Sorry so long, but I had to get it all out.  I will give an update about our team, Ridelten, which we named ourselves because we adopted 2 Delta Unit team members for the year and we are River ten.  Another portmanteau.  So many ameripuns and ameriwords it is crazy.  I hope all is well with everyone reading and I will give another short post before we depart on Wednesday for Memphis! 

P.S. In case anyone has lingering mail they would like to send me, here is my address
Christine Conceison Class 18 Winter
AmeriCorps NCCC
2715 Confederate Ave.
Vicksburg, MS 39180
Send away people.

P.P.S Pictures do not upload here unless you have ten hours, I will be setting up a photo page hopefully with my wonderful pictures of my wonderful new life. 
That is all.

Week 2- College Freshman Orientation 101

It seems like the weekends fly by, but the week seems to drag on.  This past week was a LONG one.  I was on Divine River 9.  Our Team Leader refers to her team with a nice southern accent as Divine River 9.  Joining this team made me feel a little worried because of how well my first team got along.  Much to my surprise, week 2 went just as smoothly as week 1 did.  Our team meshed well together and we all had a lot of fun.  This week consisted of very boring classroom discussion that made us all feel like we were college freshman at orientation, but they are important to learn and have if you want to be successful in the program.  Monday we woke up with the sun to travel to the military park in Vicksburg to do our baseline testing.  We had to run 1.5 miles and do as many sit-ups and push-ups as we could in a minute.  The number 37 was all over my baseline.  After that nice way to start the day, we were in diversity training all day.  The man teaching it was interesting, but the content was very monotonous.  Tuesday brought me back to my driver's ed days.  This day was van training.  We had the morning of learning the rules of the road, then the afternoon we got to drive.  I happily got into the drivers seat of the 15p and passed that test.  I will bring my supurb driving skills from Mass to Mississippi as I drive.  Wednesday we had a training on the power of language and how to speak to individuals who are not the same as you, as well as how to converse with other Corps Members.  We had CPR, First Aid, and AED training for an entire day on Thursday.  Friday, we had disaster relief training from the Red Cross, which made the day drag.  Over all, we powered through the week just to get to the weekend off.  I will say though, since I got here, I have started some daily affirmations and I feel good starting off each day.  I spread the love around to just about everyone I run in to.  It started as a joke because of our uniforms, but now I wake up and tell myself and the girls I live with that they look good.  A lot of people think it's funny, but I think it helps to get through the day in our beautiful khaki and gray uniforms.

The best day of the week had to be yesterday.  It was around 72 degrees out and the sun was surely shining (you could tell if you could see me right now).  My two friends and I took blankets outside around 11:30 and laid out until 2:00.  It was the best moment of the week.  I got a little too much sun, but it was relaxing and I was just so  happy to be taking life in on the grass with two of my good friends.  After our real strenuous day we took a nap then got ready to take on Vicksburg down town again.  We decided that a group of 10 of us were going to go out to dinner.  I must say, it was the BEST dinner I have had in a long time.  We went to a restaurant called Rusty's.  Don't let the name fool you.  It was unreal.  I got red fish that was covered in a craw fish sauce and cheese grits on the side.  Real southern.  I did not what so ever like the grits, but the fish didn't stand a chance.  So basically, the highlight of my week was doing nothing and eating southern fish.  The real reason I am here.

This week coming up is AmeriCorps Week.  I volunteered to be an AmeriCorps Ambassador and will be going Thursday out into the city to speak to people about AmeriCorps.  I have been brushing up on my Vicksburg facts and facts about the program.  I am excited to be telling people how important this program is to me, and to our country.  I get to wear my "Ameri-tux" instead of the nice khaki garb that I rock everyday.  I am excited for the day.

Tuesday we find out our permanent teams.  This is making me a little nervous, but I am sure that I will make the best of whatever team I am put on.  I am looking forward to learning about each person on my team that will become my Ameri-family for the next 9 months.  Tonight we are going to a dinner at the church of one of the staff members here.  She is having the entire Corps from this base to her church for a nice big meal.  I am looking forward to meeting some Vicksburg folk outside of the AmeriCorps.

So that's it for week 2.  Sorry this post was not as fun as the last two, but I am sure the next one will be since I will know my team!  I hope you all enjoy your week, especially your St. Patrick's Day on Saturday!  I will surely miss Boston Saturday and the green dye that usually is spread around 10 Thomas on Mom's favorite holiday!  Have a few green beers for me, I will most likely be camping with my new team instead of celebrating one of my favorite days being Irish.  Erin go bragh!

Week 1

Today marks the end of week 1.  On Monday when I finally got to Mississippi y'all we were placed on temporary teams.  I was on River 10 for the week.  The teams are divided by the River Unit and the Delta Unit.  Our team leader was great and made the transition easy. Our team got along all week really well.  We find out new temporary teams today.  Our team went from session to session learning the ropes of AmeriCorps everyday.  We had training in just about everything.  We learned about safety in Vicksburg (the city my campus is in), issue resolution within a team, disability training, and my favorite, tool training.  On Friday we went to an old cemetery in Vicksburg to do some beautification.  We went into the cemetery where there were trees that needed to be chopped down, brush needed to be piled, and everything needed to be cleared out.  We were there from 1-4:30 on a day when it was 85 degrees.  We had to wear our long pants, long sleeved shirts, and steel toe boots.  Needless to say I was HOT.  However, I successfully used an ax to cut down 2 trees.  My favorite part of the week was definitely yesterday.  Every team had to go around Mississippi and do a scavenger hunt to locate useful places around the city.  We had to go to downtown Vicksburg and find different places there.  My favorite place was the Welcome to Mississippi sign.  Right behind it is the Mississippi river and the whole scene is beautiful.  Some of us Corps Members enjoyed the Vicksburg life on Saturday night so the day off today is much needed.  The whole week was draining, but I couldn't be happier that I am here.

Our campus is a beautiful little gem in Mississippi y'all.  When you drive into our campus you see Green Hall that is pretty much a picture perfect building.  There is what is referred to as a "chapatorium" that is where we had a lot of meetings.  It is called a "chapatorium" because it was originally a chapel because this previously an Episcopal school, but since we are a government organization we can't discriminate religions.  There fore the chapel which turned into an auditorium became the portmanteau of "chapatorium."  There are three dorms on campus Ann which I live in, Mary, and Catherine.  I like to call the other two dorms Mary Catherine together, little shout out to MK.  I live with two girls and we share a bathroom with three other girls.  So the 6 of us share one bathroom, which actually isn't too bad.  We are going to be moving rooms next week when we find out our permanent teams if your team dorm is located in one of the other two.  I am not so excited about moving because the 6 of us that share a nice little bathroom are getting along really well.  It is nice to jump into a new program and new life and find friends right away. 

I can honestly say I am very happy.  I was nervous about a few things on the plane ride, but the nerves settled the second I got to campus.  The diversity on campus is amazing and I can feel myself really changing the way I view a lot of things.  Everyone seems like one big family already and I am very thankful I got accepted to AmeriCorps and that I am lucky enough to be serving others.

The computers here are wicked slow so I will download pictures when I have more time on my hands!