We're in the south? (or, life in Wickes, AR)

I don't have too long to write, so I'll just make it short. We got to Wickes, AR late on the night of the 15th, to find our project sponsor, Jim, waiting for us at the bottom of the driveway to guide us to our trailers. The trailers are actually pretty nice, if a little cramped. We have 8 girls on our team, so 5 of us are staying in one and 3 in the other since only one has hot water. Yesterday and today we received chainsaw training, and today I operated my first chainsaw ever. I even kept one of my wood wafers to prove that I indeed sawed pieces off a log this morning.

The weather here is pretty chilly and cloudy, but apparently it was beautiful just before we got here, so I hope it changes soon. We were all expecting much more warmth and sunshine, considering we *are* in the south. We're in the Cossatot River State Park Natural Area (apparently the name Cossatot comes from the French phrase "casser de la tete", which has to do with the breaking of heads and is in reference to the skull-crushing ferocity of the rapids to be found on the river here, where a lot of hard-core kayakers come to get paddle). There are four former NCCC-ers working here now, and we'll be working with them for the duration of our project.

We had our first (nearly) sucessful food shopping expedition yesterday, but are here in town again today so we'll pick up a few things we forgot. I'm definitely on the way to establishing a system for figuring out the shopping list each week.

Well, that's actually about it for major happenings here in Wickes, so I think I'll go now and let someone else use this computer. Thanks for reading!