Long, long days

Since I last posted, I have been very busy and have worked some extremely long hours. I’m finally getting a taste of what exactly I have gotten myself into. The life of a Team Leader is definitely a tough one, but I know I can handle it.

We finished up a week with our temp teams (mine was absolutely great and I loved them-save a couple of "hidden treasures" which is what we've taken to calling our problem children). We were all pretty sad to lose our temp teams, and I think generally they were sad to have to switch team leaders, as well. We switched based on number of drivers, age, gender, and geographic diversity.

My new, now permanent, team is incredible. I have 11 CMs, 5 girls and 6 boys. The youngest is 19 and the oldest is 24, with everyone pretty evenly scattered in between. In a very strange coincidence, I have a guy from Havertown and a girl from Abington! I'm having a great time getting to know everyone and learning everybody's stories. They are a really great bunch and I'm really excited to get out and start working with them.

The amazing River 2!!!

Throughout CTI (the Corps Training Institute.. the trainings the CMs have been going through the last month), there have been some really long days and lots of frustrating moments of government bureaucracy and lack of communication. Listening to the Corps Members talk about why they’re here and why they chose to serve and to serve specifically with NCCC makes it all worth it, though. They know themselves and they are here and ready to make a difference.

Speaking of that difference, are you ready to hear about our first round project?! Yes?! Well, here it is!

From September 2 until October 23, my team will be working in 3 separate parks that are managed by the Pat Harrison Waterway District (phwd.net). We'll be at Little Black Creek, Dunn's Falls, and Flint Creek. We'll be working on a 3 mile horse trail (adding water stations, hitching posts, picnic tables, and generally beautifying it), helping with erosion control by installing bulkheads, constructing a sun deck at one of the water slide complexes, doing some painting, and renovating some of the RV and campsites that are still damaged from Hurricane Katrina. I've talked to our sponsor and he's really excited about us having a great experience as well as getting the work done. My team and I are ready to go!

Tuesday is induction and I'll be singing the national anthem with another one of the TLs and a corps member, Peter. It's a really nice 3 part a cappella arrangement that we sort of figured out on our own. I'm hoping to get a video of it so I can share it with all of you!

I'm Still Alive!

I haven't forgotten about you, blogworld. I know I owe you all a big post about my team, our first round project which will start September 2 and just how my life has been going in general over the last two weeks now that the Corps is here.

I've been insanely busy and have been using my free time to recharge and regroup and recenter myself. I've got a post in the works and I'll even include some pictures and some videos when it's ready!

Until then, just know I'm doing fine and I miss you all lots!

Love love love.

Invasion of the Gray Shirts!!

Our corps members are here!!

We spent all last week doing final preparations (making door decorations, welcome signs, welcome packets, etc) and last minute trainings (like learning to drive 15 passenger vans and getting certified to drive government vehicles!!!) and Thursday was a really long day putting all the final touches (like beds and mattresses) in place so we'd be prepared on Friday when the CMs finally got here. Needless to say, it was a really long day.

On Friday I drove one of the shuttles to and from the airport and picked up two loads of passengers with my ATD (assistant to the driver) Dan BP. Our last shuttle got back around 7pm or so and we scrambled to get dinner before our first rousing all-corps meeting! We got our temporary teams (just for this first week) and were able to put some names with faces. TLs made rounds through the dorms to make sure everyone had everything they needed and so they knew we were around in case anything happened.

On Saturday we were in groups of two teams each--mine was River 2 (my team) + Patrick's Delta 2...together = R2D2. Yes. We had a long day of uniform issue, policies training, paperwork, and teambuilders. Saturday night Patrick and I did rounds again together and then I passed out while watching a couple episodes of Arrested Development with the other TLs. Just a taste of how exhausting these next 10 months will be.

Today (Sunday) was a free day, more or less, though the TLs had some scheduled optional activities for the corps members to partake in. I woke up and went for a run at 9:30 am and it was already super hot and humid. After a nice shower and some relaxation time, I helped lead a very well-attended karaoke session and then took a shuttle full of CMs to Walmart (ugh).

In the middle of writing this blog post at around 8:30 pm, I got a call from one of my CMs that a girl had collapsed on the soccer field while they were playing a big game of capture the flag. I and a few other team leaders went running down and called our unit leaders on the way, but by the time we got there, she was up and talking and okay. One of our TLs and one of the CMs are EMT trained and we think it was heat exhaustion/dehydration. We got her to drink some water and go inside and take a cool shower. Just as we were getting back up to our dorm, we got word that a CM had just been mugged while walking in a not-so-great area of Vicksburg. Everything was handled just fine and everyone's okay, but man, do we feel initiated as team leaders tonight. Lots to deal with all at once.

I will have some great pictures and stories for you in my next post, I'm sure, because we're planning a really awesome team leader presentation as a part of our first community meeting on Tuesday morning. Keep an eye out!