Project 4

Well, I have been in Henryville, IN for the past month and a half, and there's is only two weeks left after this week is done.We are helping out with an organization called March 2 Recovery, an organization that is helping the town and surrounding areas clean up from a string of tornadoes that his the area on March 2nd. Keeping track of the volunteers, who needs help where, what needs to be done first, and filing it all so it stays on record. It's been really busy. The program has volunteers from all over come, even from Hawaii and Alaska. Even though I asked for most of the week off, it is still going to go by fast, I bet. It already has, I barely remember what we were all doing in September. The team has been divided up into doing different things during the day. Someone is always at the office, helping out there, and then there are two people always working in the kitchen area to help with the food for volunteers. And then there is construction work to be done. I have been doing all three. I really do like the construction stuff the best. I learn a lot from that. In September the guys and I helped build a handicap ramp at one of the houses, and another day some of us had to get into hazmat suits and masks to tear down a moldy old ceiling. The two days i was doing that was long. I don't know who said it could get colder, but it is. I'm glad I have such a warm sleeping bag to snuggle into. It was a real good day when my parents shipped me some warm clothes. Now I have real good snuggle stuff. I like it in my sleeping bag, snuggled up with my teddy bear. It's almost graduation time, i'm gonna have to seriously start figuring out what I'm gonna do when I get back home. My volunteering at the children's hospital is all set up for me to pick that up. But i also need to figure out how 'Im gonna make money, Mom and Dad aren't gonna pay my cell phone bill forever.

Omaha Adventures

Well, the project in Omaha is almost done. We were working with Habitat for Humanity here. It was good. We didn't do much with construction or building, but it was a good four weeks. The first week we worked more on the houses and painting some them, but after that we worked on the soil grade at other Habitat homes. We filled in a bunch of sink holes in various parts of the city, and added a couple of window wells to some of the houses as well. No water is getting in any of the houses I worked on. I kept asking our supervisor if I was doing the soil thing right, and he kept saying yes, so today I stopped asking him. When I drilled one of the holes for a window well, he double checked my hole to make sure it was empty and stuff, and that was okay, he did it, and then he said, 'of course it's empty, you did it kym," it was funny. I always feel better when something I'm not sure about is double checked. We are headed to Henryville, IN, next week to start our round 4 project. Our housing will be in an old two-story fire house. That is really cool, we will have wifi, we are getting passes to the YMCA, and I think we have a television there too. It's crazy. We will be helping out with recovery from the tornado that hit earlier in the year, but there are so many things that need to be done, that the team will be split up a lot, so I don't fully know exactly everything that we will be doing. That is Round 4 already. My service with NCCC is almost over, and it is NUTS!!! I can't believe I only have 7 weeks, then me and the rest of the team will be on camopus for closure, wich is only about 2 and half weeks long. It's going to come so fast!! For those of you read this and are curious, I graduate On November, 14th, at 6:30 PM!!!

Transition

Well, we arrived on campus last Friday night. It was supposed to be Saturday, but the hotel we were supposed to stay at got all their reservations confused. We ended up driving straight to Vinton that night. It was a hectic night, we all switched rooms because of FEMACorps, and now i'm living in cottage. My room door doesn't lock, so I need to put in a work order for that, and the laundry room is one, upstairs, and two, has more washers than dryers. At least in Rice I could always had time to do my laundry. I'm still roommates with Kate though, which is pretty cool. I'm also room mates with another one of my AmeriCorps friends as well, which makes it okay. Last night David and I went to the Iowa state fair. I ended up getting an overstuffed giant piggy for one of the games we were playing. I tried climbing a rope ladder, it looked easy, and it is easy, my body just didn't want to do it, even though my mind did, I went up one rung, and then I fell onto the inflatable cushion below it, I guess I'm no longer a gymnast anymore. We didn't find a place to stay at until 1:00 in the morning, everywhere was booked. The next time we go out for the weekend, I think I will make some reservations. It was a good time though. I'll be on campus until Friday, then I am headed to Omaha. My team and I will be working with Habitat for Humanity, Tuesday through Saturday. What will be cool is that Mom and Dad are gonna come and visit me over Labor Day weekend, so we can go to the zoo, and have some fun. Once my four weeks in Omaha are done, I will be heading straight for Henryville, IN, to work on our fourth round project. I will be very busy all the way up until November.

Youngstown, Ohio

It took the team a day and a half to get here. Oak 1 is the farthest team from campus now. We are helping out with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development. WE are cleaning out vacant lots and homes. Last week was busy, and so was today. I am here for 3 more weeks, then we are off to Vinton again for a couple days, then heading to the second part of Project 3 with Habitat for Humanity in Omaha Nebraska. I am looking forward to that, I have wanted to work with Habitat for a while. The time is coming sooner and sooner to figure out what to do once this is over, I am still thinking of being a support team leader in NCCC, but I am not fully sure. There is just so much to think about, and it is still a ways off, but also just around the corner. Why is life so hard??

5 Months

Well, I am done with the first half of AmeriCorps NCCC, these last 5 months have gone by really fast. It is really hard to believe that it is the middle of 2012 already. I have had fun so far, living in the Forest for 6 weeks, and staying on campus for 2 months. Tonight I am leaving for home because summer break has started. I can't wait to get home. My mommy is picking me up today around 5:15 PM. It will be so good to see her. I also can't wait to see my Daddy either, and all of my other friends back home!!! I have become good friends with someone here, which is good. It is important to make strong friendships, they will last longer, and help you get through the hard things in life, and he has had plenty of hard things in life, I'm just glad we are friends, so he has an upside to look at now. I went to the Cracker Barrel not that long ago. I had fun. It was my first time there, and my friend who took me kept embarrassing me cause I kept acting like a 5 year old at Disneyland I guess. I also acted the same when we went to Dave and Buster's as well. That was my first time there as well. It was super fun. I won 500 tickets, so I was able to get a big yellow teddy bear. I named it Sunshine. Working at Tanager Place was pretty amazing. They made sure we had snacks every week, and always made sure we were doing okay, and had what we needed. It was more of a painting job than much work with the children, but at least once a week we all had a chance to play kickball for the last hour as part of our workday, and that was with the kids. Those days were fun. I am going to start packing up all my stuff, and get ready to bring it all home. I might leave a few things here, but I am not sure. I don't want to forget anything when i am ready to comeback, and I also don't want to bog down the car that is comeing to pick me up to terribly, although I think I should face reality and realize that I have to much stuff, and that I am going to bog down the car that picks me up. At least my Mommy will be in it. I can't wait to see my Mommy and Daddy, and my brothers and everyone else back home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

25 years

The round two project my team is doing is a split project again. It is divided into 2 months, and we are staying here in Vinton for both of them. It is a nice change. Internet access everyday, and cell phone service, but I really miss the forest. During the month of May we have beworking with the Vinton Parks and Rec Department. We have been cleaning up from the windstorm that hit the town last July, and helping get the pool ready, and cleaning park in the town. Next month we will be working at Tanager Place in Cedar Rapids, which is a place that works with youth. It will be cool. Also a nice switch from working in the sun all day, I think, that I;m not really sure on, I guess. So, in about 10 days I'm gonna be 25 years old. It came to me, and it was like, what am I going to do with myself after this is done? I'm just an unsure person. I am thinking of going to Wadena MN to get a massage therapy degree, and a third option is working in Alexandria MN with the AmeriCorps Vista program. Sometimes I just don't know. It can be very hard to make these decisions. I just don't know, there are a lot of uncertainties.

Chapter 2

Well, my team and I have been back in Vintonfor about a week now. It has been pretty good. There was the three days of transition, which I don't remember much of, but it went well. Oak 1's second project is a split project. For the month of May we are working with the Vinton parks and rec department. It is mostly clean up. There will be a couple different times when we will be planting trees. So far, the only bad thing is the weather. As interesting as Iowa might be, if its always this humid, I won't want to live here. Thursday and Friday were so hot because of the humidity. I wad really tired so many different times this morning, the afternoon wasn't that much better. I hope the humidity will go away soon. I was sad leaving the forest. I did get some poison ivy, but only in two or three places, and i didn't really break out in it, just a couple red bumps. So that was way better than some of my other team members. Ticks were the other major problem. I think only three actually bit me, otherwise any ticks I found were crawling on me. I really enjoyed sleeping in the tents and staying in the middle of the forest. I will miss kyaking too. I really enjoyed that. And it is wonderful to do if you want to go in the lake, but not get totally drenched. I am looking forward to owning one in my future. Well, all done for now. Until next time!!!!