made it through another busy week. this week my pod made it through 1 week of some very boring trainings. we also had corps baseline to place them in running groups this week. That was pretty organized, but then all corps training was a little chaotic. although its much easier to wake up at 5:30 when 299 other people are too, because they are not quiet! we start all corps PT by gathering at the (wet) field and doing jumping jacks and stretching together. its oddly militaristic because we all jump together and count out loud together. but that's where the similarities to the military end:). we then either do calistenics (i have no idea how to spell that, forgive me) or go with running groups. i am in a running group with the other team leader i'd been running with during team leader training and we sort of lead it together. i say sort of because she runs in the front and i run in the back, so i'm not sure if that's helpful, but its the perfect pace for me so no complaints. our running group is about 30 people, so its important to keep us all together, especially in the dark. although we do get to use those really great safety vests so we hopefully won't get run over.
my pod has also realized that i pretty much always get lost. we do at least one u turn everywhere we go. lucky for me they think its funny and not annoying (or so they tell me.) so this weekend we went to a service project and i finally gave in and brought my GPS. We participated in Make a Difference Day which is a nation wide thing (i think!). We started the day at the Sacramento Theater Company where we heard a forum on homelessness. We heard the fabulous Karen Baker speak again. She is so excited about young people, especially americorps and volunteering and doing good stuff. she should speak to us weekly to remind us why we're here! We also heard from directors of local shelters and a formerly homeless man. The forum ended strong with a DVD made based on data from the point in time survey (a national survey where local communities count the number of people who are homeless living in their communities). It was a powerful DVD showing actual homeless people and citing reasons for homelessness such as mental illness. I think this DVD really made homelessness hit home for a lot of corps members. Many people forget that homelessness really can happen to anyone. Great thing to think about throughout the day as we served in organizations serving the homeless.
After the forum we went over to a place called Serna Village (http://www.cottagehousing.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=61&Itemid=117) that is a transitional living facility for families. I had 2 pods with me because my suitemate was away for the weekend. So I was kind of nervous about keeping 25 people busy, especially when they are 18-24 years old and so ready to go because they had been sitting in trainings all week!). We did finish our tasks very quickly, but I was proud of both pods for relaxing and hanging out and taking in their surroundings in the down moments. We emptied and rinsed garbage cans, did trash pickup, rinsed out dumpsters, cleaned community rooms and bathrooms, painted doorframes, washed doors and worked in gardens. There were kids running around all over, so the corps members played with them too. Heartwarming. The organization also got us pizza and then we had a reflection time. I hadn’t prepared anything special, but I feel really good about how it went. We talked about what made the day a good experience and encouraged them to seek out each of these things at their projects in the future. The forum provided great background information and put the whole project into perspective for all. If half the year is as good as yesterday this will be worth it.
Changing direction a little bit, the team leaders who had been in samoa came back this weekend. They were on a few different flights and came in at different times, but they are all officially back now. We are doing debriefs tomorrow so we will hear about their work in samoa, so I’m looking forward to that. Its good to have blue unit back together again! We worked a little bit to plan for the unit and team reveals which are coming up soon. Though I can’t say when in case any corps members are reading this. (its supposed to be a surprise!) Staff all warned us not to get attached to their pod, but I do like my pod a lot and I will be sad to see them head their separate ways. Some of them I will still see a lot because they will be on blue unit, but of course it won’t be the same.
one more note. i'm pretty sure half the team leaders going to samoa was a blessing for me because it allowed me to get to know people that remained here that i may never have known otherwise. thankful for that.
Think that’s about it, more later this week.
