What Does It Mean To Miss New Orleans?

The official Badger picture of the SuperBadgers aka Badger 7. The Members are: (from left) Aaron, me, (standing) Buck, Katie, Stephanie, Connor, (lower row) Abby, Autumn, Maaj, Jade, and Brenton, our fearless leader.

Much has transpired since my last blog post, so i guess right now is as good time as any to get you all up to speed. There has been blood, sweat, and tears, but most of all, laughter (i.e. the having a good time kind).

So, when I last wrote, we were on our baby Spike in Hockessin, Delaware. Brenton, our Team Leader, decided on that first night to reveal where we would be going for our first full spike. We all recieved a text message containing letters, that, when unscrambled, would reveal where our project location was. After we had gathered each others' message from our phones, we tried to unscramble them, but to no avail. In addition, the rules to the game were vague- we could have all the the letters, not enough, or some letters more than once. Undoubtedly, we were pretty confused and dumbfounded. After spending the majority of the night working on the unsolvable puzzle, Brenton, slowly gave us hints until we discovered that the message read: Camp Hope New Orleans.

With that tribulation over, we were giddy with excitement. Personally, this was just what I wanted. New Orleans has been dear to my heart ever since some hurricane kicked the crap out of it nearly 5 years ago. So, for most of us, while we worked the rest of the days on baby Spike, we had less than a week to look forward to New Orleans. We did score some Girl Scout Cookies the last day, for which we were all excited, and nearly devoured all of them in one sitting.

Returning from baby Spike, we threw ourselves into the last week of CTI (aka training), which essentially was our prep week for new orleans. We had to complete a Director's Brief, which ultimately was a 20 minute presentation describing what we will be doing on our Spike. Also, at the end of the week, we would be officially inducted as AmeriCorps members, with a lot of pizaaz.

However, a word that we had been hearing at lot during CTI came into play- flexibility. On Monday, our TL Brenton called our Sponsor to find out a little more onj what we would be doing for Camp Hope. Well, let's just say what we thought were going to be doing was not were were going to do. This revelation was not only news to Brenton, but to all of the Project Office staff at the Point.

What we were going to be doing was even better than before. Rather than working in a warehouse as originally thought, we were going to be working at an (almost) brand-new project, one that was in fact started by an NCCC from the Pacific Region only a few months ago. It is called the Serve Green Initiative, and we were to be Serve Green Initiative after we arrived in St. Bernard. We would be developing our own projects, and leading 80-100 volunteers on those projects each week. This was (and is) a prospect that excited all of us.

Training and Baby Spike

Back Again.

At least now for a couple days, I will have some reliable internet access, but more on than situation later.

Last week was a pretty fun filled week. In all technicalities, last week was our first full week of training. Some of the training was interesting and useful (CPR/First Aid and Tool Training) and others were not so interesting. My team, Badger 7, has started to getting to know each other better. Last week was also a full week of PT, which has been an up-and-down experience, but I've made it a personal challenge of mine to overcome.

We also found out that we would be going on a Mini-Spike (Brenton, my Team Leader, made us all call it Baby Spike), which would consist of a 4 day long project, simulating the longer spikes (projects) that would consume most of time here in NCCC. After furiously prodding Brenton, we eventually learned that we would be going to Hockessin, DE, refurbishing a Girl Scout camp the next week. Much to our amazement, the facility where we were to stay was a brand new building with internet access, a full kitchen, and TV (!!). We were all pumped to get started doing some service and living in our new accommodations for Baby Spike.

On Saturday, I got to participate in my first ISP (Independent Service Projects) working at a high and middle school robotics competition in Westminster, MD. Each Corps Member has to complete 80 hours of their own planned projects, and many of us are getting a jump start on our ISP hours during our training. The robotics competition was very entertaining, as each team had a different concept for a robot that would complete the tasks in different ways. The one I most most liked was a big claw, and was soon dubbed the same by the arena announcer. Overall, it was a great way to spend a Saturday, though a long one, working 14 hours.

On Monday, we were thrilled to have a second Congressional visit, for which we again furiously swept and mopped. We also spent a day at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE, training, which was a good break from the norm.

Also this weekend we got our chance to select our specialty roles within our team. There are about five different roles, each dealing with different aspects. Some, such as Media Rep and CAP, deal with external affairs and recuiting, while others are more internal like Team Trainer and the Service Learning Initiator (SLI). The one that held the most appeal to me was the SLI, as its their job to investigate the why questions behind the service, and help the team reflect on their service. Luckily, I was chosen as one of the SLIs (sly) and I'm looking forward to our first spike and the opportunities I can help facilitate for my team.

So today we had our first day at our baby Spike, and we were all psyched to get working on the project at hand. Hopefully soon we find out were we will be going for our first real spike in the next couple of days, which we are all anxious to learn. Thanks again for reading.

Getting things done!