New Orleans, Take 2

Our second spike in New Orleans has proven to be a totally unique experience. I have been having a great time getting to know the new members of the team. I have found myself going out more than ever before - Café du Monde, exploring the French Quarter, and going to the movies. Our quick team bonding is a positive side effect of our cramped housing, as everyone on our team takes any opportunity to get out of the house for a while.

I have been going out to the levee almost every day, taking in the beautiful view of downtown from across the Mississippi, as the tug boats pushing the huge barges slowly go by in the foreground. Unfortunately this view has been changed dramatically since 419,000 gallons of oil were spilt into the river last week. Now, the banks are black, and instead of seeing beautiful white herons on the shore and fish jumping out of the water all I see are workers in hazmat suits trying to clean up this gigantic mess.

The work that I have been doing this round is also completely different from last round in New Orleans. A number of us have been working in a summer camp in the lower 9th ward for the past few weeks. We are working with 15 to 25 4-9 year olds. I have never worked with kids before and I could not believe how quickly I became attached to them. At times they have been really hard to handle, and it has definitely been the most exhausting work that I have done yet in AmeriCorps, but we have all been thoroughly enjoying it.

I love how easy it can be to please a little kid, twirl them around a few times, let them jump on your back, let them play with your hair, or eat their play-doh sandwich. It isn’t always that easy though; we find ourselves retreating to our “safe zone” of the kitchen where the kids aren’t allowed. I may or may not have found myself in there sitting in the corner hiding… just kidding, not that the thought didn’t cross my mind! :)


In the photo: I'm slicing watermelon for snack, while Kayla recuperates from playtime.

~ Katie

Summer Camp in the Lower 9th

Ever since I was a child, I was constantly overwhelmed with anxiety over being around children who were much younger than me. This anxiety has only grown with me as I've gotten older. Because of this, I have done the best I can to deliberately avoid interaction with young children as much as possible, and I've done a pretty good job at doing so...that is until nearly three weeks ago.

My AmeriCorps shuffle team (which is full of phenomenal personalities) and I have been living in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, working with the organization called lowernine.org. Initially, our job description was to help re-construct houses which is something not unfamiliar to quite a few of us. But another job that lowernine.org recently took on was to run a summer camp for some of the children living in this area. One of the several volunteers asked to be a consistent counselor for this camp was...me? My natural first reaction was, "Oh man, I wish I could help you out, but I'm going to decline and continue my days working construction... Thanks anyways!" My guilty conscience and yearn for overcoming my fear of children fortunately took over my selfish mentality and I quickly, albeit reluctantly, accepted the role of a 'summer camp counselor'. This was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Within my first day at the camp, my fear of these little tykes almost immediately diminished, and I found myself interacting with them the way my mother interacted with me when I was their age. In fact, when speaking to some of these children, I would have to stop myself and look behind me to see if my mother was right there; I found this to be a wonderful quality that I am happy to have discovered about myself. These children were some of the brightest and most beautiful children that I've ever encountered and I feel so grateful to have been given the chance to work with them and play a part in their lives... and they have played more of a part in my life than they will ever know.

The kids helped us prepare a present for our sponsors at lowernine.

This summer camp was created to help these children have a memorable summer and to learn how to establish healthy relationships with one another. I feel that this summer camp was also created for me, to enable a warm perspective of the beauty and brilliance in children that I was too blind to see before. I am so incredibly thankful for this experience.

~ Mallory

Video: Lowernine.org

Third Round Spike Travel

Spike travel was pretty chill. We had a three-day trek out to New Orleans that took us through New Mexico and Texas. The first two hours were kind of rough, what with having to say good-bye to my Earth Three teammates, but once I got out of the ATD (assistant to the driver) seat and realized I was going to have an entire bench in the van to myself, I got over it a little bit. We spent the night in Amarillo, and then woke up bright and early the next morning to make our way to Tyler, TX.

The lovely thing about Tyler is that if you didn’t see any AmeriCorps teams the first night of spike travel, you’ll run into at least eight when you get to the hotel there. Immediately following our arrival, the pool was swarming with Corps Members, and there was a trip to the local drive-in movie theater being planned (we went and saw WALL-E. It rocked.).

We pulled up to our housing at about 5pm Central time on July 10th. It’s a house in the lower ninth ward, within walking distance of all of our project sites. I’m stoked about this project and I can’t wait to give updates on how it’s going.

The team at a historical marker in Pueblo, Colorado

-Kayla D.

Video: Is This Thing On?

Kayla and I are new to the blog... and the camera

-Keegan

Shuffle Round

Welcome to Shuffle round, when all the teams get switched around just to spice things up a bit. There are people who are really nervous about shuffle round (who are these people on my team now?!) and people who are really excited about it (more good friends to make!). I, for one, am a little of both. Although it is the shortest round, third round will present new team dynamics and more interesting challenges as a team leader (will this team get along as well as the original team?). The Earth Oneders will now consist of six new members and three original members. The other original members are on projects in Illinois, Missouri, and western Louisiana. Now that we've finished with transition and summer break, the new team will be leaving for.... drum roll please... New Orleans! We will be working with lowernine.org, an organization that helps families rebuild their hurricane-ravaged homes. Those of us who were just in New Orleans are excited to return and those of us who haven't been there yet are really excited to be going there. We have already been warned of the scorching summer heat down there, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll survive another round on the gulf. Now the shuffle team has been selected, and we're ready to head down to the Gulf!


Maria C.