Home > Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The Return of Chelsea!

I don’t often contribute to the blog directly anymore. I’m pretty sad about this fact and wish I had been as hard on myself for diligent writing as I have my team, but that is neither here nor there so I guess I will just catch you up a bit.

This round has been a fast pace intensity fest; there is no better way to describe it (I care not try). It’s been one thing after another with the move from the old Camp Hope to the new one, Anderson Cooper’s visit (very charming guy and he gave us free shirts), finishing Saint Bernard’s first Habitat house, Anderson Cooper coming back, and finally all of my team has vacation time that they are ready to cash in. All in all this is a pretty decent project. I like jumping to adapt to an ever-changing condition. Duane, our supervisor is pretty great to work with. It’s easy to see there is a lot on Duane’s plate, but I feel like my team’s shoot for the moon nature works well with his style.

Some of the things I look forward to most in my workday are:

Breakfast at 6:30am with Edmund. His energy so early drives me to snap out of my sleep coma and start functioning effectively.
Driving to get ice. The ice machine still doesn’t work here at Camp Hope, so I drive my truck to a trailer that generates ice on the side of the highway. Once I get there I say good morning to a guy named Ricky (He’s the only one who will stop and help me each and everyday). Ricky just smiles, grabs his Bobcat (the vehicle, not the feline) and fills up the back of my truck.
Popsicle breaks.
Seeing my whole team daily in random situations.
Wiggling, and making Orlando embarrassed to be a member of my team.
Taking off my steel toes and letting my feet relax in my Birkenstocks.

Duane said to me a few days ago that if a team ever had the right to complain, it was mine. For this I am proud. Every single one of them wouldn’t mind life being easier then it is, but they get the circumstances of this place and give themselves to this cause of service without restraint. Whole heartedly (I like to believe, but can’t truly profess) they face each uncertain morning. I see in each of their faces unspoken troubles, but they will give what I ask because… I’m not sure.

I tell myself it is because I am honest with them. I tell myself it is because they understand the truth of me wanting only for their success. I tell myself it is because they do take me as their leader, right or wrong I am what they have and I will in return give all I have to offer.

This week we had three volunteers making this a busy week. Our first was a volunteer who this is his second trip down here. Leroy is a student, trained medically, who was first here a few days after Katrina. He actually was part of the recovery relief and saved people in a lot of the neighborhoods we’re working in. I’ve heard a lot of Katrina survivor stories, but this guy was the first volunteer rescuer I met. Unique perspective.

This week our volunteers spoiled us. Laura, a veteran AmeriCorps volunteer, fed us pizza for lunch. This may seem like a small gesture, but when you live off of PB and J for 2 years you can’t help but fall in love with the bringer of variety. On that same note our third volunteer, a really nice lawyer named Paul, took my whole crew out to dinner. Paul was just so surprised we’d been down here all summer and wanted to do something nice. Success.

These volunteers aren’t far-fetched out of this world, hippies committing their life to peace and love, they aren’t firemen, or service workers, they are regular everyday people who used their vacation and off time to make a difference. Without them our efforts here would get nowhere. I wish we had more than three volunteers, but it’s been a good week so I can’t complain.

Week Highlight:

I went out to dinner with a few on my team; Orlando and Erin seem to be coming down with cabin fever from their office jobs. By the end of the day when the rest of us get back from our build sights, they’re just bursting to hit the town. So we went to a diner at a place called Par 3 (it’s a golf themed place on Paris and Judge Perez). I ordered the pancakes I’ve been longing for for over a month.

Side note: My team makes fun of me for the bottle of syrup I keep in our van just in case we run into some pancakes—I never want to miss an opportunity!

So back to my highlight, I got pancakes, toast and chocolate cake, all of which has nothing to do with the story I just feel the need to look back fondly at the food consumed. Vanessa on the other got a BLT with French fries. Vanessa doesn’t normally salt her fries and I have inkling to as to why this is.

Red picks up the “salt” shaker and just dowses her fries in salt. Red’s upset because the salt came out way too fast and the rest of us die laughing that the speed was her biggest concern. We just watched her from beginning to end poor sugar all over her fries. I laughed so hard it brought on a fit of the hiccups, which, if you know me, means I yelp really loud like an injured toy poodle. Meanwhile everyone in the dinner is starring at the commotion we’re causing.

I love my team.

This is our 4th and final project. We have less time left together then anyone chooses to believe. Every project we’ve had this year has been physical and trying, no “easy” projects.

We’ve sweated together enough to fill a river and literally wore our steel toes out (thanks Nikkole for getting us new ones so fast!). I guess I am finally in a place of reflection. Sitting here with enough time to write out where this year has taken my and begin to plan the years of my future.

I will be starting school in January at Northern Arizona University. I’m not going to know a soul. It will be a fresh new start. This for me is one of the ways AmeriCorps will most traverse my normal life. I can’t get comfortable for too long. There will always be another step to move up to and resting makes you blind to the mountain ahead and the valley below.

Moving, not restlessly, but aware of my own potential will keep me from settling falsely.

Once again that is neither here nor there so I guess I will wrap this up before I start writing solely in tongue.

It’s been a good week.

- The Tribe