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!