PICTURES!

So, pictures! This is where we lived. The mural was painted by a previous NCCC team who actually built the partition. On the left is the guys' side and on the right is our side. There were eight of us living in bunks that look like...this!

This is a picture of four out of six of the awesome interns from the University of Cincinnatti who work at the Fuller Center. They are, left to right, Gabe, Jackie, Caroline and John. Troy Maria are the other two who didn't come to Baton Rouge with us.

The next one down is of my team in Baton Rouge for the Mardi Gras ball. We are, left to right: me, Jess, Kelly, Beth, Ashley, Michelle, Mary and Nicole. In front are Paul and Ben. Missing is Abe, who didn't come with us that weekend.

Well, I hope to post more soon, once I get back to Denver, but this is a small visual aid to accompany my descriptions. I'll try to get some pictures up of some of the work we've done too!

This is from about three weeks ago! I forgot I'd written it, but it provides a glimpse into the part of our lives here that I haven't talked about at all yet.

"It's Friday evening in Orange. Kelly, Michelle, Jess, Mary, Ben and I are hanging out at the church, waiting for our frozen pizza to be ready for dinner. Beth, Abe, Nicole and Buts (Paul) just walked out the door on the way to a movie. This weekend is Mardi Gras (well, really next Tuesday is Mardi Gras, but for our purposes, Saturday night will have to do) and a lot of us are going to New Orleans for the occasion. We've taken weekend trips a lot while we've been here, once to Baton Rouge for a Mardi Gras ball put on by a group at LSU, last weekend to Galveston for multiple people's birthdays, and then this weekend to New Orleans. It's been great to be so close to so many interesting places, and also nice to have such a relaxing home base to hang out in too. After being in Arkansas with only ourselves to hang out with, and with only Mena, in all its splendor, to "get away" to, living on the Gulf Coast has been absolutely awesome! Beaumont is our nearest city, with a population of about 114,000. It has a mall (*gasp*) and tons of smaller shopping centers, as well as a really nice main street, Crockett Street, which has been modeled after Bourbon St. as a pedestrian-friendly place to hang out. We ended up going there to watch the Superbowl (Go Saints!) last Sunday.

On Wednesday night, about 30 high schoolers arrived to volunteer at the Fuller Center. It's been pretty quiet for the last two weeks, so it was quite shocking to walk into breakfast this morning and find myself in the midst of a giant crowd of people all vying for a place at the sandwich table. Now that we've been here for five weeks, I feel like the Fuller Center has started to become our territory a little bit. Therefore, when it's inundated with new-comers, I start to feel a little protective. But really, they're all great workers and really positive about being here. More volunteers are always a good thing!

Every evening at the end of dinner, it's a Fuller Center tradition to do "shout-outs". If you've noticed something particularly impressive that someone did that day, this is the time to share it. Last night the high school group was so into it! It was great to see them being so vocal about their appreciation for each other and everyone they worked with.

For the past two weeks, my team has been digging a drainage ditch in the back yard of a house right on the bayou. It needs to be graded just right, so that a pipe can be laid in it and the water will drain into the bayou and away from the house. At first it was a lot of really hard digging just to get it to its minimum depth, but for the past week, it's been mostly measuring and then shaving off slight amounts to make it exactly perfect. We use this thing called a transit to sight the exact depth in various places. It's basically a magnifying glass that can be made perfectly level in order to sight the height of something relative to another point. It really just allows you to see a measuring tape from a fixed point, far away, but I feel pretty awesome and professional when I use it."

So, we're nearly done with the trench now. It's almost all filled in and drains very well. A lot of the houses we've been working on have come really far since we got here, and it's really gratifying to see the progress that's been made. I'll put up pictures next post, I promise!

NOTE: I thought this blog would be an easy way to record my impressions of this year, but it's actually proven to be quite hard to keep up with! I'm sorry for the disjointed nature of my posts, and I'll really try to post more often so I can put more thought into what I'm writing. This has been an absolutely wonderful experience so far and I cannot believe it's almost half over! Next round (shuffle round) I'll be heading to Lafayette with Terrence as my team leader and four other people from my permanent team, as well as four new people from other Water teams. We'll be working with Habitat for Humanity on some new builds as well as finishing some projects that Water 2, who had the project this round, were working on. I'm really looking forward to experiencing the Gulf in full blown spring, and really excited about still being able to eat things like poboys and gumbo and crawfish and yummm...

We're leaving Orange on Thursday, and I'm really excited to be going back to Denver to see people and hear about everyone's projects and see the mountains and hopefully hang out in the city a little.

Keep an eye out for the pictures...they're really coming soon!

Also, address in Orange is:

3810 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.
Orange, TX
77632

We're only here for another month, so any mail sent after about 2.5 weeks from now probably won't get to me. Maybe Denver is a better bet...

Ok, so I know this is not really sufficient to make up for an entire month-and-a-half without an entry, but I think I just need to give you the facts. More interesting things will come later (like pictures- oh my!) but for now bullet points will have to suffice. Needless to say, we don't have a ton of free time around here!

So, the facts:

My team has been stationed in Orange, TX since January 11th, where we have been working with the Fuller Center Disaster Rebuilders, an organization similar to Habitat for Humanity. The organization works with people whose homes have been damaged by Hurricane Ike and helps them to rebuild, with either financial or manual help from the homeowners themselves.

- We live on a stage in a gym, behind plywood walls, sleeping on bunks made out of 2x4's and plywood.

- Our first week here, there were 95 volunteers, most of whom were living at the church with us, sleeping on the gym floor right outside our room. It was a little nuts, but fun to work with everyone.

- Our site supervisor's name is Eddie Sherman. He's a construction worker from the Jersey Shore who decided to leave his work up there and come work for the Fuller Center. Since he started with FCDR, he's definitely had to give up working directly in construction, since he's basically the supervisor for all 20 or so houses the Fuller Center working on at any given time. He spends each day driving around between all the houses, checking up on the homeowners and the volunteers working there. I'm not absolutely sure how he manages to keep track of everything and at the same time remain so entirely invested in each project.

- There are six interns from the University of Cincinnati who will be here until March 20th or so. They're all either Architecture or Urban Planning students and it's been great hanging out with them. We're really in an awesome situation here, after having been sequestered in our trailers for a solid month last round with only each other for company (not that my team isn't great).

- Our team has worked on about 15 different houses. I wish I could tell you about all of them, but there have been so many and there is so much to say about each of them that I'm not sure you'd want to read anything of that length. Every homeowner has been incredibly welcoming to us (I think I've eaten more donuts here than in the last 5 years of my life!) and extremely helpful with every aspect of the work we do. It's been wonderful and moving to hear stories of the hurricane from these people and makes our work mean so much more.

- The weather here is beautiful, though sometimes rainy. It was in the mid-70's until about 2 weeks ago, and gorgeously sunny and not-dry. I love it here!

Well, I'll really try to post some pictures soon, and more details on some of the houses we've been working on. Thanks for reading!

Yes, I am alive.

I can't believe our first spike project is almost over. Although this was the shortest project round, and it has gone by quickly, I have learned so much and gotten closer to everyone on my team. We have come together as a group really quickly, which has been wonderful. This project was probably the best we could have asked for in terms of team bonding, since we live in very close quarters and work together every day. The trailers have been an adventure. I can now say that I've learned how to sleep in a bed surrounded by all my belongings and that I can change a propane tank in the cold at 6 o'clock in the morning when we run out and have trouble getting out of bed. We wake up every day at 5:30 in order to be outside by 6:15 to help load the truck with the other members of the trail crew. We leave by about 6:45 and, after an extremely bumpy ride along dirt roads through cow pastures, we arrive at the trail by 7:15 or 7:30. First, we locate our tool cache from the day before (when we're finished our work for the day, we bury our tools in the woods so we don't have to bring them back and forth everyday), then bring them to the section of trail we're working on. Since our day starts so early, we take our lunch break at about 10:30, and then work until 1:45, when we bury the tools and head back to the van.

This was our schedule for the first 2 weeks of the project. One rainy morning during the third week, Jim took us down to a section of the trail that crossed a creek and taught us how to sight for a bridge. The next day and ever since, we've been working on two bridges along our trail. They're definitely the most visually satisfying part of trailbuilding so far, aside from seeing our progress on the trail itself, and we've now practically completed both of them.

Jim has been the best project sponsor we could have asked for! Every day he finds new things to teach us, but never makes us feel like we did anything wrong. He starts every morning by saying "It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day!" no matter the weather. Every time we do good work on the trail, he makes sure that we know he's proud of our progress.

This past week, on our way to work one day, he stopped the truck, jumped out with a chainsaw, and cut down our Christmas tree. When we got home that afternoon we dug a hole outside one of the trailers and stuck the tree in the ground. For decorations, we used old chainsaw chains, bolts, tape measure, and the brightly colored tape we use to mark the path of the trail through the woods. Jim and his dog Windy came out dressed for the occasion, Jim in his reindeer hat and Windy in her Santa cap. It's definitely made Trailsville more cheery when you can see Christmas lights out your window.

There are definitely more highlights to mention, but I have to go do the food shopping for the team. I could write a whole entry about shopping at Wal Mart, and what it's like to live here, but that will probably come later on. I'm sorry this entry is so discombobulated, but I didn't have too much time today. I just wanted to get something up about this project.

Home in less than a week and in Spain two days after that! Can't wait!

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!

Ready to go! (Permanent teams, first project, and other news.)

Hello! Wow, it's been a while since I've written, sorry about that! A lot has happened since my last post, as you can probably imagine. The latest news is that we're leaving on Saturday morning for our first projects! And now, for the official announcement:

My team, Water 3, will be heading to Wickes, AR to do work on trails in Cossatot State Park. We will also be building benches, laying stones and mixing mortar, as well as many other things, I'm sure. Apparently our project supervisor, Jim, is an extremely nice Southern man who looooves NCCC and actually comes to NCCC graduation at the end of the year if there has been a team working with him. I'm pretty excited to meet this guy!

We found out our permanent teams last Thursday, after a long and drawn out scavenger hunt which included Team Leaders bundled in sleeping bags wearing scary masks sitting creepily around campus. We were each given clues which led us to various locations on campus where we could find someone to give us another clue, which led to yet another location, and so on, for 5 clues total. I did the entire thing with my roommate, which we thought was odd, considering they told us it's extremely unlikely that roommates will be put on the same team, but we chalked it up to some kind of trick they were playing on us. However, when we finally arrived at our ultimate destination, we found a group of people waiting for us, and were told that this was our permanent team. I think everyone was waiting for yet another clue to take us to our "real" team, but it never came, so I guess this rule of separating roommates is a myth (there is another pair of roommates on our team as well). Once we had established that this was our actual team for the next 9 months, our team leader, Terrence, told us where we're going and what our project is going to be.

I'm really excited by the prospect of trail building, because of the fairly immediate gratification it will provide, as well as the opportunity to be stronger than I've probably ever been in my life. It was one of the types of projects I was most excited about, along with construction/destruction and clean-up in the Gulf Coast (which I'm pretty sure we'll get to do at some point). We'll be living in 3 pull-out trailers at our work site, each with its own kitchen, though I think we'll do communal cooking in one trailer every night. The nearest town, Mena, AR, is 45 minutes away. This is where we'll shop for food, use the internet and do laundry. I'm not even sure there will be cell phone service in Wickes, so get ready for substantially decreased communication!

Everyone on our team has a job, and mine is Food POC (Point of Contact). This is a fancy way of saying that I'm responsible for food shopping for my team (with input and help from everyone, of course) and for initiating menu planning. This should be a healthy challenge to my usually-disorganized self, since we won't really have the opportunity to go back for things we forgot once we leave Mena. For those of you who have suffered through my bouts of discombobulation, be prepared to be astounded!

There will be two other teams in Arkansas with us, stationed right in Little Rock and just outside it, so we've been making plans to meet up with them for Thanksgiving. The team just outside of Little Rock is living in a house on a lake, and I think it's been established that they will be the hosts for this meal. Although I'm sad I won't be able to go home, I think this will be a pretty good substitute.

We'll be finishing our project on December 15th and back in Denver on the 16th, which thankfully leaves us plenty of time to do laundry and pack for winter break. This is going to be a whirlwind!

The rest of CTI was fairly uneventful and included some great hikes, one in Rocky Mountain National Park and one in Boulder, at the Flatirons. Both were gorgeous, with beautiful weather (there doesn't seem to be a shortage of that around here). Denver is a great city, with the best public transit system I've ever been witness to, and possibly the cleanest streets too! I don't know how they do it! It only costs a dollar to go almost anywhere public transportation goes, since transfers are free and good for any number of changes up until a certain time, and it's all incredibly clean. I will definitely miss this city.

That's about all the news for now. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post in AR, but I'll try to write something every time we go into town. However, if anyone wants to send me letters (hint, hint) here is my address while I'm there:

Molly Weisberg
1980 Highway 278 West PLEASE IGNORE THIS ADDRESS!
Wickes, AR, 71973

Also, since I didn't post it before, here's my address in Denver:

Molly Weisberg- Class 16
Americorps NCCC
3001 S. Federal Blvd. SEND MAIL HERE! : D
Walsh Hall, Room 136
Denver, CO, 80236

As always, thanks for reading!

BIG EDIT:
Please don't send me mail at the top address, since they won't know what to do with my mail in Wickes once I'm gone! Send mail only to the bottom address, in Denver, and they will forward it. Thanks!