I'm not dead I swear.

I'm just super busy.

Round one is over, and I've literally left my home state for a second time. I absolutely loved Camp Ohiyesa and all of the staff there. It's good to know the they're only an hour away from home and I can visit there when the program is over.
The last week before leaving, teams have to fill out forms and do debriefs and briefs for this project and the upcoming projects. So I have literally had zero time to go online. The closest is checking my phone when I'm working, which isn't all that much.
In any case here's what's going on! We have a week in transition before going to our next project. Back in good ole' Vinton once again, but only for a little because then I'll be in...

Iowa city! (just outside of it really)

So an hour away from campus, for eight weeks. The first half we're gonna be working at a Quaker school and helping them with maintenance , farming and organic gardening...I'm excited about that part.

The second half we're working with the U.S. Army engineers and doing trail maintenance and removing evasive species.
Which I'm pretty interested. But...considering the news about all those tornadoes in the south, there are talks of us being pulled from our project sites to go down there for disaster relief. Apparently teams from Maryland and Colorado have already been sent there. I wouldn't mind being sent...I kinda want to go and help there more then the project we're going to go to.


Anyway, that's what's going on with me right now. During transition we have a bunch of meetings we have to go to but it will be a little easier going online so I will try my best getting on as soon as I can. Pictures from camp on facebook soon!

Good news til the end of the week: no government shutdown! Now it's just a matter of time to see whether or not NCCC is in the budget by Friday or not. If not, then it'll be a sad story and I don't know what our next move is, but if we're in, then we'll keep trucking along.

Oak 3 has kept busy though! Today half of the team including myself worked program activities at the camp with high school boys from a Christian prep school. Seventy of them. Can I just say that it is a waaaaaay easier working with fifth graders then it is with high school boys? You would think since they were older they wouldn't be as rowdy...

The Final Countdown

I'm sure you've heard about talks going on with the nation about budget cuts and how it's going to effect a great deal of people and government programs directly. NCCC is greatly affected if it happens.

I have til tonight to know whether or not I'll still even be in this program anymore. I love what I'm doing and what Americorps stands for, and it's hard knowing I set aside a about a year for this and now have to anxiously go through today wondering if I'm still a member by tomorrow. Hopefully things work out, I'd like to serve for the full ten months.
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Camp Ohiyesa!

Whew. Long time no see. I had originally had a long post ready as soon as we were leaving for our first project, but my phone decided to be mean and delete the whole thing! Needless to say I was a little discouraged from posting for a while.

Besides, it's easier putting pictures on here with neat tiny font underneath it.

We've officially have been at our first project for the past  week and a half and it has been a blast! Oak 3 (our team name) is currently stationed back in the good ole' mitten in Holly, Michigan. I've already gotten jokes about how our team came to Holly because I'm the only Holly around in the Vinton campus. We are the YMCA Camp Ohiyesa (pronounced oh-e-yesa) working on a variety of projects.

So far we've been trained to work with kids for the camp programs and activities, stuff such as the rock climbing tower, archery, and the zipline to name a few. There's also a giant swing that completely terrified me, because you have to go through the activities to learn how to work them, and I had to learn to deal with going up heights very slowly.

And then letting go of the ripcord!

Besides kids, we've also been working with the maintenance staff for the camp grounds. So far I've learned how to split a log, use a chainsaw and drive an ATV. I can't even imagine my mom's reaction to the chainsaw. I really liked splitting wood...right until I bruised my hand and couldn't do it anymore.

Corps Training Mini-Project

Tomorrow our team will be doing a three day mini-project after physical training to simulate how the next nine months are gonna be with our real 4-8 week projects.

I'm excited for sure, because we'll be working on our current campus to repair and renew the building that has been so graciously letting us stay here.
Of course in terms of timing, having a super awful cough doesn't really help. I hope it goes away but chances are I have a feeling I'll be outside working with a cold. Lame.

On top of our mini-project, each person has an individual role in the group that either spreads the word about Americorps or helps find sponsors for new projects. My role is media representative...so I'll be blogging on top of this while getting to talk to reporters or doing any other outlet of media you could possibly think of.


As for tomorrow, I believe we're doing some landscaping and painting inside the building. I know some other groups got mini-project trips that were farther so they had to stay there...I am a little sad we're staying on campus for this one, but hopefully that means our real first project will be far away.


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Independent Service Projects

It's been a while and here's the latest.

Aside from main projects that last four-six weeks, we're required to volunteer on our own time. The goal is to reach 80 hours of ISP's and I've gotten a head start!

I just got done helping out at a hands-on science museum, nothing fancy just yet....just some data entry and helping packaging their magazines for public schools all over Iowa. But they are getting ready for the summer series of classes, so that'll be fun to help out with between main projects.

Speaking of projects, our team is going on a mini three day project next week as a part of training. We won't know what we're doing til a few days from now. I can't wait!

I leave you with a few pictures from the science station today. Til' then!
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I could sleep for days.

This past week has been jam packed full of training! I get tired just thinking about it how crammed the schedule is for the next three weeks.
As of this past week I am now CPR/First Aid certified, have taken a road test to drive a 15 passenger sized van (affectionately named Jaws). Oh and I get up at 4:45 in the morning for physical training. LOVE IT!



It is funny though, having to wake up around six o'clock or earlier. Now that my body is adjusted to it, I consider waking up around nine in the morning to be late.

The best way to tell you what team I'm on is to just think of Harry Potter and the sorting hat. There are about 220 of us in the school campus, and we are divided into three units: Cedar, Oak, and Maple. I am in the Oak unit, Team 3.  So far my team leader is pretty cool, and the rest of us are beginning to know each other better. I feel like the first few days kind of dragged for a bit, but only because we gotten used to our temporary teams.


This lack of internet access is making it hard to update all the time. But I promise I'll try to be better at updating when I know I can. Also, expect pictures soon!