I have fallen in love with a city.

Hello readers.  It has been almost 2 weeks since I posted last and that is because I have been prrrrrrretty busy.  I am sure y'all are real upset about that...anyway...last week in NOLA.

The last week in New Orleans was pretty crazy.  Monday we went to a home to muck and gut it and when we got there it was literally a poopy mess.  There was legitimate poop on the ground.  It was the worst home we have been in so far.  We had to wear the tyvek suits again to sweat all day.  Well for me and David, we didn't have to sweat all day.  He left his chargers for his electronics everything at the distribution center so I got nominated to drive him to get his things.  This conveniently came at the right time since we ran into our first HUGE snake in the garage.  It was probably tiny, but in my afraid of snakes mind, it was massive.  David and I got more than lost and it took all day to retrieve his things.  We ended up taking a ferry to get from one side of the Parish to the other.  Really weird.  But all in all the day was full of driving.  Kind of the theme of the week..

Tuesday was the best day I had in New Orleans by far.  Sam, Rachel, Margaret and I decided to take a personal day/life after AmeriCorps day.  We decided the week before that there will never be a time where the 4 of us are together in a fun city again.  We took full advantage of that and took the day to relax and go downtown and shop/hang out.  The day started with beignets, per usual.  Again, they were delicious.  We then walked around and did some shopping/found a place with cheap beer.  After the one beer we found the world's best nachos and margaritas.  Kind of the perfect combination.  Once we finished that mess of food, we ventured to Frenchman Street to the French Market.  Then we went to Magazine Street to go to the Defend New Orleans store.  Really cool t-shirt store where I made my first and only purchase.  I wear the shirt loud and proud.  Apparently it is Taco Tuesday at a local place on Magazine, so the 4 of us plus Sam's friends who live in NOLA came to eat with us.  Such good tacos.  Honestly, this day was what I needed to really bring to light that I definitely love the city.  I am actually in love with it.  Maybe I will be heading down there sooner than I think.

Wednesday we woke up to a wonderful surprise; 5 slashed tires!  How nice of someone!  Not only did our team's van need to be in the shop for almost a week because of hitting a ladder on the highway, but now our truck had a flat.  The other 2 teams vans had their tires slashed, our truck, and a truck of the non-profit that ran the housing we stayed at.  Due to the tires needing to be fixed immediately, Sam and I had to stay back and drive cars around.  So, much like Monday, I drove the entire day Wednesday.  Here, an hour there, back to the work site, back to the housing, back to work, it was a lot.  But what can you do.  Just some sick people in the world.  Anyway, I got to watch Modern Family and The Middle premiers that night, which was a laugh that was needed big time.  That night I actually finished book #3 on the year!  I am really proud of myself for what may seem like a little accomplishment, but if you know me, you know how hard it has been for me to read.  Thanks to Kara for the great book!  Looking for #4 for the fourth spike, any suggestions are welcome.

Thursday was our last day of work.  We finished the home the team had been working on all week.  I am glad we finished it and got to help this family with one of three homes they own.  Thursday afternoon was spent packing until we had a service learning 3 hours with our sponsor, Jim.  He lives in New Orleans and was here when Katrina hit.  He took us around to the places in NOLA where Katrina hit the hardest.  We saw the levees that broke and saw where they were rebuilt.  It was amazing to see some parts of the city still not fixed from the hurricane.   It was a real eye opener for me.  Our team got to see the homes that Brad Pitt helped build.  Kind of cool homes.  It just made me really want to move to this awesome city.  Hearing stories from a NOLA native really made me realize that the sense of community in this city is unlike any other city I have ever seen.  It is amazing what people have gone through together.  I love the sense of pride in homes and sense of pride in the entire city itself.  I just have fallen in love New Orleans.

Friday was our travel day back to Vicksburg.  Best part about it was, we used our travel money on PANERA.  It has been since February that I have had a bacon turkey bravo.  I was so happy.  Since we got back to campus last Friday, my life has been stressful and a whirlwind of a week.  Everything worked out positively for me, but I am taking full advantage of the weekend I am having currently.  Yesterday I did an ISP with some people staying on campus for break.  We got to go to "Happy Day" at the intermediate elementary school in town.  This school is pre-K-3 and has 720 students.  Each student is given a certain number of tokens to earn so they can enjoy a day outside doing fun events.  It helps them practice positive behavior.  It was a really cool concept.  I got to play with these kids all day and sing and dance to Justin Bieber and One Direction with them.  It was the best day I have had in a long time.

This week helped me realize that I joined the program for the right reasons and I am so lucky to have met the group of friends that I have here.  I honestly have some people in my life here that will be in my life forever.  I am on a team that was a team to begin the 10 months together and now we are a family.  It is amazing how well we get along and how much we all love each other.  My group of friends are the most supportive people of each other that I have ever met.  We are all here for the same reasons and I would probably not complete the program without them. 

Today is day 2 of fall break in Vicksburg.  I am going to get a lot of job research done before Thursday when Sam, Tiffany and I get into a car and drive 7 hours to Nashville to meet Rachel for our little AmeriCorps vacation! I can't wait.  Jill is flying down for the whole long weekend vacation and MaryKathryn decided spur of the moment to come join.  I need that little taste of home for a few days and I couldn't be happier to introduce them to my friends from AmeriCorps.  The south better get ready for the Conceison sisters taking over! 

A lot of positives to look forward to for me, round 4 in Virginia with my family River 10, and my BIRTHDAY NEXT FRIDAY in a city I've always wanted to visit, and a new beginning at home in December!  I need this kind of excitement in my life right now!

That's it for now, I hope everyone is doing well in the fall weather I miss so much.  It will be weird not celebrating my birthday at home, but I am sure MK will fill that void for me.  Can't wait to see everyone in 2 short months! 

I am going to strategically place my address here... :)
Christine Conceison
AmeriCorps NCCC
2715 Confederate Ave.
Vicksburg, MS 39180

Round 3 coming to a close

This week in New Orleans...
This week was a little different for River 10.  Monday was by far the best day ever.  We all got up for work and got ready, but it was POURING here.  Did the usual routine, put on my beautiful uniform, made some eggs, drank black coffee, you know the usual.  As we were all about to get into Scooter, our 15p, Beste told us that work was...get this...cancelled.  What this meant for us was we had a SNOW DAY!  We deemed this day as a snow day because it was exactly like watching the news and seeing your school scrolling down teh bottom of the screen.  So, Jamie, Chris, Sam, and I decided to brave the rain and head downtown.  Our mission on this day: eat our first beignets of our time in NOLA.  We went to Cafe de Monde and had coffee and beignets.  It was quite honestly the best Ameri-snow day ever.  On Monday afternoon we had 4^th round project reveal.  I can’t even believe it is 4^th round already.  We found out that we are going back to Virginia to Great Falls.  We are going to be working with Living Classrooms of the Nations Capital Region.  This non-profit provides a hands-on learning, job training, community service, and community development programs for students with diverse backgrounds with an emphasis on serving disadvantaged youth in at-risk environments.  We are going to be doing a number of things with LCNCR.  Our project consists of debris removal from the wind storms that hit Virginia in June which also includes trail upkeep on the site, bridge repair and invasive species removal, we will do indoor and outdoor repairs of the lodge at Camp Fraser where the Living Classrooms site is, we will do repairs to sleeping pavilions and outdoor classroom space, we will be creating a garden for educational usage, and last but not least we will be doing educational programming.  The educational programming is something I hope I can do well in since it is planning a spring break plan for 4^th/5^th grade students who come to the camp for their break.  We also get to create a park outreach program which brings students out into the park to do environmental education programs.  Right up my alley.  Although this wasn’t our first choice of projects, I am excited to be in Virginia for the fall.  I get to feel the fall weather that I am really missing these days.  It will be the little things that I will appreciate about round 4 since it is the last round of my service, can’t believe it. 

Tuesday and Wednesday we were back at it.  We spent the day at the distribution center handing out personal care bags to people who are still in need to supplies.  It is kind of mind blowing that even two months after that some individuals are still in need of cleaning supplies and food.  The distribution center has become kind of our second home in NOLA since the staff there now know all of us and we have been there so often that we can run the show.  It does get kind of boring, but hey, it beats Lake City!

Thursday five of us went into a home and did some mucking and gutting.  We had to tear down the ceiling and help clear the rest of the house out.  This house wasn't so bad since a crew had been in earlier in the week and did all of the walls.  We came in to finish the ceilings.  Pretty simple and easy day.

Our van had a little tire issue, so he has been out of commission all week.  Thank God for our tiny truck!  Due to this little mishap, 3 of us had to go work with River 6 for the day.  I enjoyed working with another team for a day.  We got to work with their sponsor organization on their homes.  I got to paint my fair share for the day.  After work, a group of us went to Magazine Street to shop.  Since I love shopping so much I purchased zero things.  I may leave New Orleans with a t-shirt or two since well, we all know my usual outfit consists of a t-shirt at some point.  I had a nice bowl of gumbo for dinner and we all literally came back to our housing and went to bed. 

Saturday a few of us from each team got together to do an ISP.  We spent the day working with Green Light New Orleans.  This unbelievably cool non-profit was started after Katrina hit by the founder because he was on tour with his band.  He came up with a pretty bright idea, if you ask me...har har...The concept behind the organization is to change incandescent light bulbs to Compact Fluorescent Lights.  We got to canvas around to homes to ask each home owner if they wanted their light bulbs changed to the CLF bulbs.  Each bulb will help the residents of New Orleans to reduce their carbon foot print and reduce the amount of money they spend on their bills.  The bulbs also last for an extremely long time, much longer than the incandescent bulbs.  The concept of the whole non-profit is pretty amazing. I enjoyed a sweet nap after the day and did the usual on our last Saturday night here. 

I absolutely am in love with New Orleans.  I love everything about the entire city.  I am looking into non-profits down here for next year in hopes that maybe I can do another AmeriCorps program and live here for a bit.  Blazing my own trail as Dad-Z likes to say.  We will see...just a thought now.  Anyway, this is our last week here and we are mucking and gutting in a neighborhood that needs some serious help.  We are working with a Delta team that got sent here to help.  It should be a good week.  Friday we are back to Vicksburg for the start of transition for a week, then it is fall break.  Fall break means, relaxing on campus, my birthday and NASHVILLE with some of the best friends and the best sister in the world.  I can't wait.  Big happy birthday to Pauly wog and Dad this week! Miss you guys! Again, pictures are taking way too long for my attention span...Hope y'all have a good week!

Disaster relief 65.25 hour week...no big deal

So since the last time I posted, it has been one crazy week.  We left Lake City, Florida and got to New Orleans last Saturday.  We got here and had a real brief orientation of the housing we are staying at.  We also learned that our project is all disaster relief in the parish's (a Parish how the city is split, not churches here people) that were most affected by Hurricane Isaac.  Mucking and gutting homes along with distribution of materials here and there.  We are working for a number of sponsors, but we are staying at Project Homecoming's volunteer housing.  Pretty cool, all the girls are back in a room together which we have been oh so longing for since we haven't been together since last spike.  Once we were situated we pretty much dropped our bags and got ready to go out.  It kind of felt like the first night out freshman year of college.  It is just nice to be in a city where we are not limited to Applebee's or a restaurant to go out to.  We sure went out.  NOLA is insane, but I love it.  We are staying at our housing with another team, River 6, which also is great since we haven't seen another team since we left campus AND Rachel and Margaret are on their team.  Pretty neat-o.  Sunday was used as a day off and pretty much a recovery day.  Much needed.

Monday was day one of work.  We went to a distribution center in a local Parish that was affected by Hurricane Isaac.  Our team put together personal care bags at a location where different churches come to give out to their parishioners.  We did over 300 bags for the day.  Jamie and I got to help a kitchen that was feeding volunteers clean out their area.  Their kitchen is called Mercy Chefs and they travel to disaster areas to make food to feed volunteers.  Debby, the head chef, told us that it is her duty to feed volunteers because without food for them, there essentially couldn't be any volunteers.  Never until this day did I once think of how volunteers and first responders to disasters eat.  Now I know.  Sam, Jamie, and I got to work with another kitchen, The Chow Train.  These people were the best.  We pulled chicken for them so they could make enchiladas the following day.  Once we had all of the chicken done, the whole team got in on the fun.  We made about 30 trays of food for the next day, leaving the chefs to do the other about 40.  Once we were done, they popped a tray of food for us in the oven.  We did some good work.  This lovely 12 hour day ended around 8ish.



Just me and the debris from the house.

 Tuesday was September 11th which is a National day of service.  We kind of got to work with River 6 for the day to do the national day of service together.  We went into Slidell another town in NOLA.  We worked on a house mucking and gutting the whole thing.  The homes were under water about 2 feet.  On Wednesday we got to go back to the same home to finish up cleaning the lovely mess we made.  It literally took all day to sweep, vac, and mop the drywall we took down.  Hopefully this helped the family who lives in the house to start the rebuild process.

Thursday and Friday we were back at a different distribution center.  This place hands out food, drinks, diapers, and cleaning supplies.  The line never ends.  It is open from 9-4 and cars are constantly coming.  Friday we actually counted that there were 317 cars that came from the late opening time of 12-4.  I really enjoyed working at these places because we got to meet some of the people that the food and supplies were going to.  Everyone is so thankful we are helping them and it makes me feel like the reason I signed up for the program is really coming full circle on this part of our project. 

Yesterday we traveled to a different Parish to do some mucking and gutting of a neighborhood that was really devastated by the hurricane.  The damage was unreal.  The home we worked on had water 3 feet high on the second floor.  That means the entire first floor was under water and up to 3 feet upstairs.  We had to gut the whole first floor from the ceiling to the floor.  We typically only do 2 feet above the water line on the drywall, but this house and neighborhood was that damaged.  The awesome part about this neighborhood was that they go from house to house everyday and help each other out.  They are rebuilding their neighborhood together and they all have an awesome sense of community.  It was nice to work with about 25 neighbors and really help them speed recovery process up.  We only worked a half day since it was our 6th day of work.  6th long day of work.  65.25 hours worth of work this week to be exact, no big deal though.  I earned my night last night that is for sure.  Let's hope my body can keep up with me this week!

Needless to say, River 10 is more than thrilled to be in NOLA.  I personally love the fact we are doing real disaster work because Florida was kind of a bust as far as the work load.  I signed up for AmeriCorps knowing the possibility of responding to a disaster would be high.  I am so glad that we are helping out here because they need it.  Talking to people while working and really hearing how happy we are that we are helping reassures me that even through some tough days, I am so glad I am doing this work.  We have another 2 weeks of disaster relief here in NOLA and I personally am thrilled.  The work days are long, but so worth it in the long run. 


That's all I have for this long 65.25 hour week! Really looking forward to hearing about what our 4th round project will be.  We should know today or tomorrow.  Can't believe it is 4th round already! More to come next week from me in NOLA! Pictures are taking way too long for my patience, maybe next week!

On the road again

Hello y'all...quick post for a nice little update on what is going on with River 10.  So this week we had the bare minimum work load.  Florida has been nothing but awesome for us.  We were living in a hotel, our sponsor bent over backwards for us, and we were in Florida, what more could you want?  This is all great, however, AmeriCorps is not just for cool hotels and awesome gifts from sponsors.  We are here to help others, and to be quite honest, we really weren't doing that much work here.  We were told that 20-30 homes needed to be mucked and gutted from Tropical Storm Debby, however, there really weren't many homes.  We did a total of 4, and that total is being generous.  We did a significant amount of work in these homes and it is work we are proud of.  Our disaster relief here in Florida was only supposed to be 30 days and today is the 30th day.  We stayed the time we were supposed to, which makes us feel better.  Yesterday we got word from campus that we have a new project assignment starting tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will get in the van and drive to New Orleans, Louisiana! I am SO excited.  We will be doing some disaster relief from Hurricane Isaac.  We really have no idea what we are doing while there except we know we are going to clear debris and muck and gut homes.  When I know more, I will fill y'all in.  I've only been to New Orleans for a weekend last round and the little taste of the city I got I loved.  I am really excited to spend the next 3 weeks in such an exciting place, however, my bank account probably isn't as excited as I am.  Let's see how that works out...

So tomorrow we are on the road again and moving to a new location.  We have to keep reminding ourselves of the AmeriCorps F word frequently as we continue in this round, flexibility.  Just go where the wind blows us/campus calls us and tells us where to go.  Either way, we are leaving and excited for the next 3 weeks!  Enjoy your weekend!

Florida Living

Hey y'all.  We are still in Florida safe from the terrible storm that Isaac brought.  I am sure you all know how bad some of the parts of the south were hit by Isaac and if not, they were hit BAD.  New Orleans and Mississippi are where most of my friends got deployed to for disaster relief because of this storm.  They have been working pretty much 24 hours a day with occasional naps because they are helping Red Cross with shelter work.  I give them all the credit in the world for being where they are and helping out.  I've talked to a few of them from a few different teams and from the sounds of it, that part of the country is pretty bad.  Keep those people and my amerifriends down there in your thoughts and prayers. 

Anyway, back to our project.  We worked all last week at Miss Thompson's home.  We can say that it is about 98% finished.  We gave her a new ceiling that needs finishing touches to be finished, a new floor that we are waiting for the rug to be delivered, and new trim on her walls.  Her trailer is looking like somewhat of a home now.  One of the major accomplishments of last week was turning on the faucet one day.  Danny works daily with us and he had us look over as he turned the faucet.  Miss Thompson has not had running water for the past two maybe three years.  This was all before Debby hit Florida, but still, two or three whole years without an amenity we look at as a simple thing.  She cooks outside on a "stove" if she isn't eating canned goods.  She has made accommodations, but on this day, her faucet worked.  Danny connected some pipes and she now has running water.  We have been cleaning the sceptic piping for her and installed a washing machine.  Hopefully when the water becomes crystal clear, she will have clean water for the time being.  Pretty awesome to know that now she will have some sorce of water with a clean bathroom, a washing machine that works, and a faucet to clean and cook with.  We worked at her house today, too to do some finishing touches on her door.  We are now at a stand still with this home until the carpet that is being donated actually gets donated.



Ceiling work.




Drywall for ceiling




Putting together ceiling

  



Insulation for floor




Parts of finished room

Unfortunately, coming to Florida, we were under the impression that there was going to be endless work for us.  There is now an end in sight.  Somedays we do not have sufficient work to do, but we find projects around homes to get each home complete.  We are hoping that there are more homes (for work sake not their sake) that we can help fix.  Either way, Florida is awesome, just the work is kind of slow.

This past weekend was so relaxing.  Friday night a few teammates and hung out and did nothing.  Saturday was beautiful here.  I took advantage of the pool for the morning and then went down teh street to watch football for most of the day.  Sunday was the same routine.  I was at the pool all day with the sun, until some clouds came adn ruined my day.  We did some laundry then I concluded the weekend days by watching countless hours of mindless MTV "reality" TV, which I had been watching all weekend.  The Hills provided me with my dosage of drama and crazy girls for the next year.  It was an awesome 3 day marathon of such a really intelligent group of people.  Monday was Labor Day so we had the day off.  We traveled to Jacksonville to go to the beach and to meet David, our teammates, new baby.  Leyek is 10 weeks old and is SO CUTE.  David got to go home for 10 days to be with him and he lives in Jacksonville.  We got a nice meal cooked by his mother and step father after we went to Saint Augustine for the beach.  The town of Saint Augustine is awesome.  It is very old, the oldest town in the USA in fact, and has awesome beaches.  It ALSO has multiple Dunkin' Donuts! I got my fix of Pumpkin Spice that I thought I wasn't going to get.  Thank God, it was worth it.  We are thinking of going back to Jacksonville this Saturday to repeat what we did yesterday, beach, baby, and sun bathe.  

David and Leyek


We are hoping work speeds up this week for us.  Either way, I am still happy to be helping people.  I've been thinking of things to do after AmeriCorps and hopefully I will find a job somewhere and enjoy what I am doing.  Kind of stressful.  I am really looking forward to fall break where I will be staying on campus for a few days then traveling to Nashville for 3 nights and 4 days with some friends from AmeriCorps and a few from home.  Going to the birth place of my favorite genre of music to celebrate my 24th birthday that Friday!  I can't wait. 

That's all I have for now.  I hope everyone had a nice first day of school, especially my favorite permanent sub, my favorite 5th grade teacher, my favorite senior in college and my favorite 5th grader.  Crazy how time flies.  Oh yeah, and my new favorite college professor father.  I am sure the first day was good for you, too, Mom.  Hope all is well with y'all!

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!