Recent News, A Day In the Life, etc.

Interesting stuff starting to happen around these parts. We’re getting information about what Alabama is going to be like, what we’ll be doing there, what our living situation will be and a lot more. Also induction is this coming Friday, the 28^th. I’ll get to all this stuff later. Right meow I want to talk about other stuff.

So about a week and a half ago my teammate asked me if I would go to the Governance Council meeting with him and be our team’s secondary, so I went. I had wanted to go to the previous meeting but we had been on our mini project and really hadn’t known about it, so I thought I had missed my chance. Anyway, we went. And my teammate is kind of an impatient person, and the meeting was kind of stagnating with different temp checks and votes so he up and left because he had other stuff to do. So suddenly there I am basically sitting as Spruce 4’s primary representative all of a sudden. And it was interesting. And we talked about electing officers which are president, VP, and secretary, and I decided that I would run, because, screw it. Fast forward to this past Sunday. I gave my little speech to the council, along with two other people running for president, and then we all voted. And I lost, by what I’m told was a very, very small margin (so I’m thinking like 2 votes). BUT! Then I decided to run for VP, and won that, so that’s pretty cool. And so now I am the vice president of the Americorps NCCC FEMA Corps Class XIX Governance Council, which sounds awesome. My duties include attending all meetings (duh), being the hammer, assisting the president with stuff, and delegating responsibilities to other council members and checking on their progress. How neat is that? That’s pretty neat.

“Neature Walk” is being quoted frequently here at the moment, I don’t even know why.

So then at the community meeting on Monday, which the entire 240 member corps attends, I had to get up on stage and talk to everybody about what the governance council does and why it’s important and why every team should be represented and blah blah blah. It was kind of nerve wracking because I don’t like being in front of large crowds, but I don’t think I made a fool of myself. I’ve decided that public speaking is going to be a thing that I work to improve while I’m here.

And now a lot of people address me as “Vice Prez” or “VP” when they see me on campus and it’s kind of embarrassing and kind of funny. Also, the staff and the rest of the corps has started holding me to a higher standard of conduct, so there’s a little more pressure to not mess up than there used to be. Some people have started coming to me with questions about stuff. I tell them to attend governance meetings. That should get attendance up.

One of the duties/privileges of being an officer of the council is that the three of us get to meet with the regional director of Americorps in person to talk about corps morale and get questions answered about various things. An example of this is that some people were concerned that we wouldn’t be getting rain gear because there wasn’t enough room in the budget. So we brought that up at the meeting with the director and he told us what was going on, and then we informed the council so that they can disseminate that information to their respective teams. Turns out we’re getting rain gear here in Vinton, and they’ll ship us the boots if we end up needing them. In case you were wondering or worried. Thanks, by the way.

SWAG SUIT

ANYWAY

Some people back home have been texting/emailing me asking me to lay down what a typical day at Americorps is like. This is where I’ll do that.

I woke up at 5:00 yesterday morning to get ready for physical training. Ate an energy bar (thanks Mom), drank some water, brushed los dientes, got dressed and headed to the gym. As a unit (Spruce Unit) we did the new workout routine that the Army recently adopted, which included a lot of lunges and leg raises and such. We finished at about 6:20 and were out of the gym by 6:30. We then had an hour and 20 minutes to eat breakfast/nap/shower before our unit meeting at 8:00. The unit meeting went until 8:45, then we had a professional accountability training at 9:00 led by the regional director. That was scheduled to go until 10:00 but I feel like he has been pretty busy this week with induction coming up and the meeting only went until 9:30. I went and made brunch in our kitchen, and then was able to type some of this after that before I had to be at a meeting for corps ambassador programming (recruiting) at 11:30. I don’t know if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but if you’re not early for your meetings here, you’re late. So really you have 10 minutes less time during each break than is on the schedule, because you have to make sure you have your uniform all perfect and then you have to walk there, and then you have to be 5 minutes early. Anyway, after that we had a Member Opportunities seminar from 12:30 until 1:45 in which we were able to sign up for online classes for certification or college credit in different areas of study, such as service learning or non-profit management. Following that at 2:00 was a meeting where shit got very real. It was called Psychological First Aid, and the speaker was a funeral director from Cedar Rapids who has been volunteering with the Red Cross since 1989. He worked at Ground Zero after the September 11^th attacks, he has done hurricane recovery volunteering, he’s been around the world volunteering. For three hours he was so brutally blunt about the loss and sadness and occasional horror that goes along with working in disaster recovery that a lot of people at the seminar were in tears. It was a lot for many people to handle, but when it was over everyone agreed that those 3 hours of training did more to prepare us for what we’ll be doing than all the other training we’ve done. That meeting ended at 5:00, but we met as a team after that until about 5:40 to talk about the meeting and go over how certain people felt about it. From there it was dinner prep, and I had to eat at 6:30 before the rest of the team because I had to be 15 minutes early for the Governance Council meeting that was at 7:00 because as VP I had to meet with the President and Secretary to create an agenda for the meeting and talk about some of the issues we would be going over. I am now the POC and supervisor of the event planning committee for activities this Saturday, which means I basically just make sure they’re getting stuff ready, but I don’t actually have to do any planning. It’s a pretty neat gig. That’s pretty neat! Sorry. So the council meeting went until 7:55, and I had to run to my room to get changed into basketball attire because the 5-on-5 corps-wide basketball tournament started at 8:00. I was on a team with 2 of my tall friends and 2 of my athletic friends. We played and won 2 games, which, with the lopsided bracket due to an uneven number of teams, put us into the championship game, which is tonight. It’s double elimination so the team we play will have to beat us twice in order to win. So it’s looking pretty good for us. I’ve never really been a baller, but I pulled my own weight, scoring 2 baskets in each game to 11 points, where each basket counts as 1 point. Throw in a few blocks and steals and it turned out to be a really satisfying night. The tournament went until around 10:00, and by the time I showered and got ready for bed it was almost 11:00. Then I went to bed, because on Thursday mornings I get to “sleep in,” which means I get up at 6:15.

So there you go, a day in the life.

So induction is on Friday, and I guess it’s a big deal. There’s going to be a bunch of big wigs attending and speaking, including the senator that basically created FEMA Corps, the CEO of CNCS (Corporation for National Community Service) which runs Americorps, the president of Americorps (I think), and so on. So it’s pretty exciting. I am one of 3 corps members in my unit to be hand picked by the unit leader to be interviewed for induction. I’m not really sure what that means, I think I might be getting put in the induction video? I’ll report back on that after it’s done I guess.

I’ve rambled on too much for one post, so I’ll include details about Alabama (Bamalama) in my next post, which I guess will be after I’m settled into the campus there.

9/11 Remembrance Project, PT, etc.

Since 9/11 was last week, the higher-ups at NCCC decided that this week each team would conduct a mini-project in remembrance of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Teams all received different projects, ranging from servicing roller skates at the local roller rink to working trail maintenance overnight at a state park somewhere in Iowa. My team was given the task of organizing, cleaning, and doing some painting work at a science center in Cedar Rapids, as well as helping to build a rain forest exhibit for children ages 2-12. We had PT at 5:30 (I'll get to that later), then I had just enough time to shower, put air in the tires of our team van (since I was driving) and park it in our designated meeting spot so that we could leave by 8:00 AM. It is about a 40 minute drive to the mall in Cedar Rapids that the science center is located in, so it wasn't too bad.

The place itself is pretty cool. They used to have a big building elsewhere in Cedar Rapids but it was pretty much destroyed by the flooding that they had in the area in 2008, so they salvaged what they could and set up in the mall. Since they lost a lot of resources and money from that disaster, they have been working with Americorps teams on a regular basis over the last few years, so they knew what we are all about and were ready to put us to work. Some of us cleaned the exhibits, others painted some of the activity rooms, my job was to help brainstorm ideas for the rain forest exhibit, research facts about rain forests, and create some hands-on materials for children to check out. I ended up making two fact-card things about deforestation after a lot of note-taking, as well as putting some paint hand-prints on some walls and other related activities. It took a lot longer to photoshop the images for the cards than I thought, so I may not be working as much on that kind of stuff tomorrow. I forgot to mention that this is a 2-day project, so we're done tomorrow, and our portfolio report is due Thursday. So that was pretty interesting.

Each year an area the size of Delaware is cleared in the Amazon in order to make room for farmland.

2.5 acres of forest will absorb around 400,000 pounds of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. That's the same weight as 40 elephants.

PT is at 5:30 AM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Last Wednesday we did push up/sit up pyramids, where you do 1 push up, then 1 sit up, then 2 push ups, then 2 sits ups, and so on up to 10. Then you do it back down to 1, for a grand total of 100 of each. There was also stretching involved. Friday we ran for 20 minutes in the pre-dawn dark on the walking/biking trail that runs past campus. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that at 5:30 AM the sun isn't up yet. Which was pretty cool when the crescent moon and Venus were next to each other in the sky on Wednesday. Pics below for everyone that wasn't up before the sun on that day.

There are also pics below of some pretty awesome sunsets that I masterfully captured on my cell phone, and of me looking ridiculous in my uniform and PPE. You're welcome Arick.

Best sunset picture I've ever taken.

Second-best sunset picture I've ever taken.

Found this at Alco. Almost bought it. I'm sure it's still there if I decide I want it.

Pre-dawn moon and Venus.

Hard hat, safety glasses, ear plugs, coveralls.

Standard uniform while on-duty. I've been wearing shorts but it was only 63 F today.

That's pretty much all for now, I'll update again later this week if I can.

New Teams, New Jobs

Sorry for not posting for the last five days or so, this place is a time-sink. Days seem like they take forever but the weeks seem to fly by. There are a bunch of things to catch up on so I’ll jump right into it.

Last Wednesday (September 5^th) we had team reveal, at which we learned who our new, permanent team members and what our jobs in FEMA Corps would be. It started with a meeting in the auditorium and a little pump up session, then they sent us out on a scavenger hunt. First we were given envelopes with pictures on them, and we had to find the other 9 or 10 people that had the same picture. Once our whole group was together, they gave us another envelope with a Dr. Seuess poem/riddle that led us to another clue, which then led us to another, which led us to another etc. We finally arrived at our final destination and met our new team leader (who happened to be the same TL I had while we were in temporary groups), and found out what our roles were. After that we toured our kitchen and made a short-term meal plan and that was it.

Our group’s official job is Community Relations Specialist. This means that we are basically the face of FEMA and the first on the ground in a disaster area. We have to be at a disaster within 12 – 24 hours of it happening and meet with the locals/survivors to offer counsel, advice, guidance and counseling. I’m really excited because this job will let me get outside and meet with people and make me feel like I’m really making a difference in their lives. This job was one of the most sought-after positions within FEMA Corps, and I’m glad I was able to get it.

Aside from our FEMA jobs, we have NCCC “rep roles,” which are basically mini-jobs or duties that each team member has to perform for their team. I was assigned the roles of CAP and media. CAP reps are basically recruiters, and go around to high school education and job fairs to promote Americorps and NCCC. We will also be speaking to schools in auditoriums and stuff, which I’m a little nervous about since I’ve never done public speaking on that large of a scale, but hopefully it will be a good learning experience and eventually another skill that I will have. As for the media role, I will essentially be one of two official media spokespeople for our team, and will be able to do interviews with media outlets. I might be mentioned in the paper, on the radio, and might even be on TV if I’m lucky enough, so I’m pretty excited about that.

I almost forgot to mention the tornado that almost hit Vinton last week. Woke up at 2:30 or 3:30 to lights flashing and the tornado alarm going off, along with tons of lightning and rain going on outside. We all had to get out of bed and (kind of) dressed and head down into the tunnels that connect the dorms underground. It got hot and stuffy really fast, and really uncomfortable sitting on the tile floor against a stone wall with no room my legs and team leaders walking up and down trying to locate all of their team members. After about a half hour we got the all-clear and were able to go back to bed, but everyone was pretty riled up after that and not many people got much sleep the rest of the night.

Tomorrow we start physical training, which takes place at 5:30 in the morning. It’s supposed to be one hour of physical activity, but that could be anything from running to ultimate frisbee to volleyball, so I guess I’ll find out what we’re doing when it happens.

Also, I think I have shin splints. The second or third night here I played soccer with a bunch of people and afterwards I thought that I had gotten kicked in the shin at some point because it hurt and it was all swollen. But then the pain never really went away and 2 weeks later it’s still nagging and acting weird. I’m resting it when I can, avoiding basketball and such (for now), but I have to go to PT so we’ll see how it goes.

That’s it for now, I’ll try to keep updating regularly.

One Week In

I have now been in Iowa for a whole week, and am settling into a bit of a routine. Last week consisted of various lectures and small meetings involving getting acquainted with the campus and policies. On Thursday we toured the small museum inside the main building that showcased various artifacts and equipment from the Braille and Sight Saving school that is on this campus. They had some cool stuff, like a braille typewriter and old gym equipment. It was only 8 rooms of stuff, but everyone found it a lot more interesting than anticipated.

Downtown Vinton

Train depot, the farmers' market is on the other side

Weird, trippy sculpture/basketball hoop

Looks a lot like the sunsets back home. My dorm is on the
 far right and the gym is in the background on the right

At the museum

Glasses that simulate poor vision

During the week I checked out a couple local bars with my roommates and other random people that became friends by the end of each evening. Nothing heavy, just one or two beers and back by 9 PM. Of the two local bars that I’ve been to, one (The Ron-Da-Voo)  is much nicer and more popular than the other, both because of the atmosphere and because of the fact that they have bar food.

On Saturday we went on a driving scavenger hunt/tour of Vinton and then we went to Cedar Rapids. We shopped for our team’s groceries at Wal-Mart and then headed over to the movie theater, where you could chose to either head back to campus or see a movie and then head back to campus around 10. My roommates and I saw Lawless starring Shia Lebouff and Tom Hardy, which was good not great. When we got back to campus we ended up heading out to Ron-Da-Voo where a bunch of other corps members were hanging out. It was a pretty fun night and I made a few new friends.

Over the past few days we’ve received a lot of information about what we’re going to be doing in FEMA corps. It turns out that we are not going to be filling sandbags, cutting up fallen trees and fighting wildfires like we all thought. Instead, we’re going to be training in specialized roles in order to participate in various FEMA operations including logistics, mass emergency aid, and meeting with locals to assess loss and give counsel.

At the end of the month we are all heading down to Alabama to train with FEMA for two weeks. No one really knows what that will entail or what our living accommodations will be, but everyone’s pretty excited about a road trip and a change of scenery. After training in Alabama we head out on spike with our teams and start working for real.

Inside my dorm there's this sign. This makes me feel better

View of my room from the door. My bed is the half hidden one on the right

My area

View from my bed

 Speaking of teams, we get broken out of our temporary teams and reformed into new teams according to our positions on Wednesday. The team leaders (TLs) have some sort of exciting reveal planned, they’re all hopped up about it. I’m excited to see who will be on my new team and what my position will be.

Iowa is such a horrible state. It’s like Wisconsin but it sucks. Not all of the people here are bad, but a few of my black and Asian friends have had people yell obscenities at them, and a latino guy said he got yelled at by a lady that yelled “white power” at him. Seriously, Iowa? I guess the famous hospitality of the Midwest stops at the Mississippi river. Anyway, maybe it’s just small town ignorance, but I don’t remember anywhere in Wisconsin being like that.

So.

Today we had vehicle training. It consisted of all of a driver’s education course crammed into a 3.5 hour lecture and two tests, and it was immensely boring. I was so happy to get out of there at lunch time, both because I was barely clinging to consciousness and because I was extremely hungry. But my team was all out of sandwich meat because we didn’t buy enough on Saturday. Once we get used to shopping for a large group it will be better at determining how much food to get, but today I settled for a PBJ and some grapes. We had baked potatoes for dinner, which were really good and filling, so I’m feeling full and content and sleepy as I type this.

Tomorrow we have TB tests, tetanus shots, and (there is some disagreement here) possibly drug tests. My team leader made it sound like we do have drug tests, but a lot of other people have said that it’s on Saturday, so I don’t know what to expect.

That’s all I got for a while, I suppose I’ll put another post up when I find out what my job is going to be this week.