One long Fu King week..

Hello readers! We finished two whole weeks of disaster relief.  Last week from Monday-Thursday morning we went back to Mr. Davis's house.  By Thursday morning we had his house completely gutted out.  He was so happy that we got to finish his house for him.  I am really happy because he is such a good guy.  Unfortunately the rain, again, didn't hold out for us and since Mr. Davis is kind of sickly, he didn't like sitting in his tractor in the rain.  Monday and Tuesday we had to end work a little early because of how hard it was raining.  On Tuesday, we worked at his house and he had a few of us outside talking.  At one point he was asking us about the food we like to eat and we got to talking about how he has been in a motel since June.  The room is for his wife, himself, and their 5 big dogs.  They have to go out to eat for every meal and buy dog food for the dogs every week.  I can't imagine how much this all would cost.  With that being said, we told him that we like all food.  He told us about this great fried chicken place in town called Hip Hop and he wanted to show us where it is located so we would know for future reference.  Instead of just seeing the place, he bought each member of our team a lunch.  It was really so nice of him considering what he is going through.  He told us that it was the least he could do to thank us for our hard work.  I gotta say, my body wasn't thanking him too much for the food.  It was great, just grease on grease.  I won't ever deny a free meal though!  Wednesday and Thursday morning we went back to Mr. Davis's house and finished it!  It was an accomplishment for us because it was our first house completely finished.  The reason we had a little delay finishing his home was because we didn't have the proper face masks to go into some of his rooms that had serious mold.  We got the face masks, made sure we were sealed tight, screamed at each other for a few minutes to enjoy the sweet new face gear and then went straight into the house.  We worked really well as a team on this house and got it finished for the Davis family to start to move back to normalcy once their construction begins.  I learned a lot from this house and from Mr. Davis.  He was a great man to work for.



Jamie, Sam and I with our new masks



Thursday afternoon and Friday we went back to Miss Thompson's house.  This was the house that we were at the week before that had quite an effect on me.  Again, it was hard to work in the conditions and to see a woman living in the home she does.  It is still hard for me to comprehend that all of this is going on in our country and for some of us, it was hard to even go back into the house.  Thursday after work was nice to cook together and to sit and talk about how the day had made us all feel.  I won't lie I shed my first disaster tears thinking about this particular home.  We made sure to tell our sponsor how we feel because she cares about us so much and she took care of us by giving each one of us a Happy Seed.  Happy Seeds are a product of a sculptor who didn't want to throw away his scraps of pottery and he made these little seeds that are just plain smiles.  It's the little things in life like Suzanne caring and giving us such simple trinkets to make our day turn around.  Friday we went back to Miss Thompsons home.  We started on replacing her floor for her.  Hopefully by the end of tomorrow we can have a whole new floor put in for her so that eventually when the roofers come her home can start to be more complete.  We all just have to dig deep and get this home done for her and know we are making her life better by being there to be the first steps toward a better home.

This weekend was actually the first two sunny days in Lake City in two weeks.  We were kind of feeling the effects of the rain and clouds.  I took advantage of every ray of sun light yesterday and stayed by the pool all day.  You could probably tell if you saw me now.  After basking in the sun for a good 5 hours, I went to church with a few team members then we went for a nice little dinner at a local Chinese food place.  This place was called, kid you not, Fu King.  I bought a t-shirt don't worry.  Fun fact about Fu King is that Marc Zuckerberg (creator of FaceBook) wanted to buy their store sign, but they said no.  How Fu King awesome is that?!  Today Suzanne hooked us up with sweet free passes to float down the Ichetucknee River.  We did just that.  It was a fun relaxing day for us.  We are truly blessed and spoiled to have Suzanne as a sponsor here.  She takes care of us as if we are her children and just really cares about each one of us.  She showed up to the pool yesterday with $15 gift cards to the local movie theater for each one of us.  She really is someone special and is doing such good for this world and I think we are all lucky to know her.



New T for me!



This week was a hard one emotions wise for the whole team.  It really had an effect on me to see certain homes and situations.  We are trying to take advantage of different outlets while we are here to escape the craziness that is disaster relief.  The county is now worried about Isaac hitting and causing more flooding her because the water levels in Lake City haven't gone down in some places.  We know that this county does NOT need any more rain and I hope it strays the path of lLake City a little bit.  It may not be too bad here, however, it will be bad where more AmeriCorps teams are.  My friends that are on other teams will be in some of the areas predicted to get hit the worst so keep all of us in your thoughts this week.  Let's throw some up to the big man that the damage won't be as bad as some past storms and all of us are safe.  I will keep you all updated, but let's hope nothing happens with Isaac. 

That's all for now for me.  Hope everyone has a good week preparing for the new school year starting soon, unless you are starting this week, good luck! 

Disaster Relief week 1

Hey everyone! We arrived safely in lake City Florida last Saturday late afternoon.  Once we arrived, we were literally thrown right into orientation of the project.  Our sponsor, Suzanne, was at the hotel to greet us and explain what is going on in Columbia County, where we work.  She is awesome.  She is the CEO of this counties part of Catholic Charities.  She literally has her hand in so many different organizations in and around Lake City.  She knows everyone and anyone doing anything to help another person.  She kept telling us how blessed the county is to have us and she was just excited to get to know each one of us right away.  Suzanne showed us a slide show of pictures from the flooding before some of the roads became roads again.  The pictures were horrifying.  It was so sad to see such terrible conditions people had to endure before they got some sort of help or support.  After our brief orientation with her, we got the night to relax after such a long 10 hour day of driving.

Sunday we had the morning off and more orientation in the afternoon.  I took the morning to lay at the pool after church and try to get some sun.  The orientation we had was with Suzanne and David, our supervisor.  We learned the background and history of Catholic Charities from Suzanne and more about the county in general from David.  This county is in a literal disaster even almost 2 months post storm.  We saw more pictures and an aerial view of the county that FEMA filmed.  Water is still everywhere.  Once we had our orientation taken care of, the county and Suzanne took us to a Chinese buffet for lupper.  Lunch supper if you will.  There we got to meet Danny, Suzanne’s husband, who is serving as our site supervisor, kind of.  He works with us daily, but he is a volunteer for Catholic Charities.  We ate with them, told them more about us, and learned more about the county. 

Monday was day one of work.  This day we were supposed to be taking an inventory of which homes needed help still.  However, we were going to homes which we found out were empty, the owners were at home, or the area didn’t get water in their homes.  This day was kind of slow and it concerned us.  Tuesday however, we went right at it.  We got to work at Miss Hatcher’s home.  Miss Hatcher is an elderly woman who was living alone when the storm hit.  She was living with literally 86 years of her own belongings in the house.  The storm washed all of her belongings everywhere all over her house and yard.  The water line in some rooms where the water hit was up to my shoulders.  Can you imagine living through this?  She is in her late 80’s and thankfully has her son living on the same property, next door.  Her trailer from her back yard was blown across the creek in her yard almost 50 yards away.  It was amazing.  This day had my emotions running everywhere from feeling bad for her to feeling sad knowing that this woman was going through such a hard time like this.  We will hopefully be back with her later on to help finish her home.  This day of work was emotionally and physically draining.  It was kind of a wake up to what the entire spike is going to be like.  It is going to be no joke that is for sure.



Outside of Miss Hatcher's house. The water came up that high on her screen

Wednesday we woke up for PT in the morning where the sun was rising in Florida and it was already about 85 degrees at 5:30am.  Tough, but we powered through.  This day we worked with Miss Thompson.  She lived in a trailer that had floors that were so wet and giving out and a roof that was caving in.  We had to tear up her rug in the room she was solely living.  It had 2 chairs, one that she slept on, the other was holding water.  Her yard had debris from inside her home all over it.  We had to maintain the yard and the inside of the house.  Halfway through the day it started to do a Florida down pour.  What we didn’t realize until we were in the car for about 15 minutes was that we moved buckets before to do her floor and they were catching water from the rain.  2 of my teammates had to run in and replace the buckets, where they found her sitting in her car.  She goes in her car during rain storms because her roof is that bad.  This part of the day really had an effect on me since I can’t imagine that being something I had to do during my life.  I really am learning to appreciate more and more every day the house I live in.

Thursday we got to work at the food bank with Suzanne, something she helps out at with Catholic Charities twice a month.  This morning was amazing.  Even before the food arrived there were people waiting.  We organized a canned goods table, bread table, and desserts.  The line from 9-12 was consistently LONG.  It was amazing to see how many families needed assistance.  We gave food to 105 families with a total of 284 people in the 3 hours we helped.  I got to color with some children teaching them about fruits and vegetables and I was in heaven.  A couple of them were so cute.  I asked one little girl how you go about cooking eggplant, which she told me was a “veggie” and she said, and I quote, “you slice it, you bake it, and it turns into eggs!”  Had to be the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.  What really hit me was when I had to help some of the adults read the sheets they needed to fill out before receiving their food.  Some of them couldn’t even read the sheets.  It was amazing to me to have this be the situation because I am lucky I have graduated college and have a degree when some of these people who are much older than I am barely completed the 3^rd grade.  It made me, again, be thankful for my education and life I have.  Once 12 hit, Suzanne takes all of her help to lunch at this UNREAL Florida seafood restaurant.  I got baked scallops and catfish.  IT WAS AMAZING.  So good.  She then let us have the afternoon off!  Much needed, the entire team napped.





Team at the food bank.

  Friday, we worked with Mr. Davis.  His home was also in the storm and it was better off than the first two homes, but everyone has a story.  We got to actually muck and gut his home.  We tore some of his walls down and helped him make progress to start the rebuilding process.  Danny said he was impressed with how fast we got the walls down and how neatly we worked.  Obviously, we are the best.  Mr Davidson was a great man.  He was telling us his stories.  He and his wife have been staying at the Super 8 since the storm and he is just ready to have a home again.  His stories had a big effect on us all and we were happy we were there to help.  We are going back to finish his home tomorrow to start off our new week.


Before inside Mr. Davis's house.





After we gutted the inside.

Yesterday we had an all day ISP which put me over 80 ISP hours!  We need at least 80 to graduate so I am good to go.  The ISP was a fundraiser for the families who had damage on their homes.  It was an all day music festival.  Really cool local bands came to perform and it was a cool day.  We relaxed last night watching gLee reruns and went to bed early.  Today I got up early to go to the gym and for a run.  It helps that the cleaning lady came to wake me up, tough life we have a cleaning lady. 

This project is going to be a tough one mentally and physically.  I know it will take a serious toll on me, but I am ready and that’s what bed is for.  a fresh clean pair of sheets every night and a nicely cleaned room.  Pretty neat living in a hotel if I do say so myself.  That’s it for week 1 of disaster relief.  Our sponsor starts each day with a word of the day, I think I will do one for the week.  My personal word for this week is gratitude.  Burlington lost an awesome person over the weekend who I know means a lot to my family and the people of Lake City have lost things that we usually daily take for granted.  I am going to go through this week being grateful for everything and everyday I have.  Things like this project and the loss that I know people of our town are going through help you to realize that life is short and we all need to be grateful for what we do have.  Hope y’all have a good week!

Back in action

Hello readers in reader land...it has been quite some time since I last posted.  Mainly because I was on summer break for 10 days.  10 awesome days at home.  It was full of time with family, friends, sleep, relaxing, golf, plenty of beer, and much more.  The essentials mainly.  I caught up with my friends I have missed, caught up with family, golf my best 9 holes ever, and slept past 6am on Monday through Friday which hasn't really happened in 5 months.  Needless to say I had a great time.  It went by fast, but it was the break I needed to come back to campus and feel refreshed for round 3.

So we got back to campus on Monday the 6th.  Tuesday we were thrown right into transition stuff.  SO fun.  We had classes, briefing meetings, random things to fill the day, per usual.  Our team had our briefing on our project in Tallulah, Louisiana.  Before the briefing we were kind of apprehensive about the whole project, but after the meeting, we felt better.  There were plenty of opportunities for creativity in the project working with children, mucking and gutting a school, and interacting with the community.  We had our River 10 creative juices flowing.  Vicksburg wasn't looking so bad as a place to live after all.  Wednesday was supposed to be used as a clearance meeting day, packing, cleaning, etc.  HOWEVER, around 10 or so our Unit Leader and Team Leader called a meeting with our team to share some news with us.  Our Tallulah project has been cancelled because of asbestos taking over the entire school we were supposed to be working in.  Zero good.  SO River 10 will be heading to Lake City, Florida on Disaster Relief for Tropical Storm Debby!  The main idea of AmeriCorps is to be responders to natural disasters such as a tropical storm or hurricane.  I was really hoping that we would have to be apart of a disaster relief team (I know that sounds terrible, but hey whatever) because I know that it is work that is essential to helping a community in dire need.  One of the main reasons why I joined AmeriCorps was to go on a disaster relief.  Here I am in that position, and I am really excited.

So let me give y'all a little overview of the next 4, what could potentially be 6, weeks in Lake City, Lake Lake City B*tch (song reference for you rap fans)...
Our project takes place in Lake City which is a little inland located about an hour from Tallahassee Florida.  Lake City is located in Columbia County which is one of two counties hit hardest by Tropical Storm Debby.  These two counties are among two of the poorest counties in Florida, two that were affected the most by Tropical Storm Debby, and these counties are two that have the highest rates of unemployment. Needless to say, this area needs a team to come help.  Lake City pumped 395 MILLION gallons of water so far and has 485 homes or buildings damaged.  As of July 24, a month after Debby hit, debris pick-up started.  Some homes flooded with up to 5 feet of water, some were flooded all the way to ceilings, while others flooded with a little less, but still a significant enough to be damaged. 

What we will be doing to help...
Our team will be canvasing for the first few days.  We will be going door to door to areas most impacted to do needs assessments.  We will be cross-referencing the existing needs that are on a list to see what has already been completed by other organizations.  Once that is done, we will go into homes to muck and gut the homes.  What this means in a nut shell is we will be going into homes and pretty much remove debris that can no longer be used in the house.  We will basically be leaving the frames of the house, if they are not completely damaged.  This will be a majority of our project with hopes of completing 28-30 homes by the end of what they want 4 weeks, potentially all 6 of this spike.  We will also be delivering disaster recovery information door to door to the home owners.  Since Lake City is still a disaster zone, we will also be in town cleaning debris from the roads to make the city roads 100% functional since right now 95% are functional roads. 

Our housing...
We are a liiiiiiiiittle spoiled by our housing situation.  Most disaster housing is not ideal for a team to stay in.  However, we are being housed in the Cabot Lodge.  Yes, a hotel for 4 weeks.  Pretty nice digs we at least hope.  There is a pool, wi-fi, free breakfast and access to a kitchen at the Emergency Operations Center down the street.  All of the girls on our team will be sharing a nice cozy hotel room and so will the boys.  We are pretty excited for the hotel.

Our sponsor...
Our main sponsor is Catholic Charities.  This organization's mission is to provide services to anyone in need regardless of race or religion.  There are a number of organizations working in Lake City to help repair and rebuild, but they are our main sponsor.  We will also be working with Columbia County which is the county Lake City is in.  We have 2 main site supervisors that we will meet when we arrive.

We are leaving tomorrow (Saturday) at 8am and we couldn't be more excited.  There are plenty of opportunities for ISP's while there and even the potential to sneak out for a little team trip to Disney World.  The staff has been telling us how excited they are for us and how great it is we are going.  I am really excited to be put in a situation where I know the place I am going needs immediate help.  Today we are all packing and preparing for the next 6 hectic weeks ahead of us.  The drive is about 8-9 hours and we go right into orientation when we get there Saturday night and Sunday.  Work begins Monday in full force.  The 9 member of River 10 are ready to take on this disaster relief project!

That is all I have for now.  Very exciting news for us.  I hope all is well wherever you are.  Big Happy Birthday to Momma C! 

I will fill y'all in on new stuff next week when I have some time! Keep it classy.