"Getting Things Done"

Our project sponsors have done a great job of keeping us busy! Last week we did a variety of tasks and have really enjoyed ourselves. We have been working mostly with with the maintenance managers, Rick and Steve. Rick is...interesting. He's pretty hard to understand because he has a thick accent and he is definitely a little (okay a lot) sexist. He says some really funny things and we can spend hours talking about Rick-isms. For example, yesterday, he came into our house, saw that there were four girls and said to the 2 guys sitting in there, "Wow, ya'll should be having a huge feast!" because "women are good cooks." After several dirty looks from the girls, he tried to make it up by saying that he wasn't like that and that he does all the cooking and cleaning at home, which we certainly do not believe. He definitely gives us a few good laughs.

Steve is the manliest man I've ever met. We often compare him to Chuck Norris. We don't think he ever stops working and there isn't anything that he can't do. He's really awesome.

On the first day, we had a tour of the camp and then worked with David in the disaster center, cleaning and organizing, then we made a bunch of school kits and clean up kits.

On Tuesday we did a variety of tasks. Some of us drove around on Gators (4 wheelers) putting up signs around the camp. Most of us worked around the border of the camp clearing out brush around a barb wire fence that needed repair. Steve taught Brittney and I how to operate a back hoe which was really fun!

Me operating the back hoe...LOOK OUT!

Getting caught in some vines while clearing out the barbed wire fence area

On Wednesday we worked on a house that was about to be demolished to salvage fencing, cupboards, door, shelves, and anything that we could grab to be used for the "green" training facility that is going to be built. That project was probably my favorite of the week...however, it was a shame because the house that was being demolished was an incredible house. It was pretty wasteful but at least we were able to salvage some stuff to be recycled. The second half of the day we saw a back hoe tear the entire thing down, which was really exciting.

The house being demolished. There's Steve!

Entrance to the house. We think the owners had a big Halloween party before it was demolished because everything was painted red and there were giant "V"s everywhere.

On Thursday we fixed a bunch of barb wire fences to keep out 4 wheelers. Between Thursday and Friday, our team built 80-100 feet of barb wire fences. I, however, worked with a couple of other people doing some painting across the lake. Dad would be so proud!

Our paint job. That's Jill below and our TL, Ellen up top

At the end of every week we have to do a debrief with Steve and David, and then a team debrief. This is just a recap of the week and we talk about successes and any issues that came up during the week. For our team debrief, we decided to take out the canoes and kayaks and do our debrief in the middle of the lake. It was awesome! Everybody talked about their highs and low of the week. There were definitely a lot more highs than lows, the lows being mostly the drive here and grocery shopping. Everyone had different highs, depending on what project they liked the most.

Last night we had a great time. Christine found a trunk titled "costumes" in one of the bedrooms, and we brought it out and had a great time dressing up silly and taking pictures. Then, the entire team played a game of Cherades and had tons of laughs. Everyone continues to get along well and the team morale is sky high.

This morning, half the team went to a food bank to get ISP hours and the other half, including myself, stopped by the camp board meeting to talk about AmeriCorps. It was definitely interesting! They prayed and sang a hymn while we were there so some of us felt a little awkward, but it was a fun experience. This evening we are all going into Little Rock for dinner, then some of us are going to a movie and others to check out the local bar scene. Hopefully I'll be able to find the Duck game somewhere!

Anyway, That's about it up to now! Now that I caught up, I'll try to write more frequently.

Danielle