Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back So shake him off, oh whoa
It's always darkest before the dawn
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS AN OLD POST, BUT I HAVE HAD LIMITED COMPUTER ACCESS... WILL WRITE MORE DURING TRANSITION (Transition is happening right now, by the way)
The Little Team that Could…
In the past few weeks, Green 5 has been struggling. We started the year a solid team of 8 Corps Members and one fairly confident team leader. Shortly into CTI (Corps Training Institute) we lost a member, but we were okay. We prevailed because we knew this loss would do nothing but strengthen our team. And it did. We had a few speed bumps in Artesia, NM but we all put the energy into making this team mesh and work. By the time we got to New York, we thought we had it made. A few weeks later we lost another boy due to family issues he needed to attend to. It was a tough pill to swallow, but again, we carried on.
It was early May when Green 5 hit its roughest patch. Mistakes and less than professional behaviors forced our third member out of the program. This one hit my corps members like a ton of bricks. They certainly were not fully recovered from the loss when they found out that yet another corps member would have to resign from the program for health issues. Four down and four remain. Now, at half our size, it’s hard for us to keep lacing up our boot straps and carrying on, but we do. We have exactly 8 days left in New York and then 6 days of travel before we make it Sacramento and eventually learn our fate.
Will the campus keep us as Green 5? Will they merge us with Silver 1 who also has 4 corps members? Will they merge Silver 1 and Silver 5? All we know is that we have to stay strong and stay positive. We’ll shake it off; we’ll work through and work hard and work together.
FEMACorps is not traditional and certainly not Traditional. What I mean by that is that FEMACorps is a completely new program and there are definitely no norms yet. And it’s miles away from what Traditional NCCC is. In a Traditional program, teams have about 10-12 members, work in the woods or at least not in an office, get their hands dirty (including the team leader), and most of the time all live together in tents or yurts or some sort of rugged lifestyle. The members have little connection to the outside word and solely rely on their teammates for everything and anything. Yet, here I sit in clean office in the middle of New York City with my government issued Blackberry and laptop responding to emails and text messages from work friends and friends from home. I talk to my family weekly and constantly have access to the internet. I live in an extended stay hotel where I share a bedroom with three other team leaders and have the availability to cook food or go out to eat whenever I want. I have a hot shower and clean towels regularly. I have a team of only 4 corps members who rarely leave the office these days and while they do the work, I’m doing paper work or trying to manage my budget. It’s anything but Traditional.
As we near the end of our second round, we’re still fairly uncertain what to expect when we get to our next round (let alone Sacramento). Will my team be stuck in a JFO again for 8 weeks, looking at spreadsheets and relying on our Independent Service Projects to see real damage? Will I be with my team or will they become unrecognizable in the midst of the Silver Unit? Where will we go? Oklahoma? Texas? Chicago? North Dakota? Back to New York (dear God, please NO!)? Maybe Green 5 will finally catch a break and get sent somewhere awesome and get to fix these damaged roads they’ve been looking at on Google Earth. We make tons of speculations (as a team and with my fellow team leaders), but to be quite honest there are only a handful of people that currently have the answers to these questions… or maybe they don’t- and that’s what makes this program so far from conventional. I’ll keep everyone as posted as I can when the changes begin and I’ll embrace them as much as I can.
The day was May 4, 2013. It was a warm spring day in Manhattan and love was in the air. A young gentleman with a guitar and raspy voice croons the beginning of Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” and then… THE BEAT DROPS! 10 people start dancing, then it grows to 14, and then Lady Gaga booms through a speaker and there’s dozens of people running and dancing and fist pumping and it’s all for love. And then One Direction starts up, but what’s that?! At the end of the soul train line is a man singing to a woman who is standing in the middle of the soul train and then he pulls out a ring and the dancers disperse! How romantic and theatric! All for love, all thanks to FEMACorps.
Surprisingly, that was not the shortest description of a corny finale to a Nicholas Sparks rom-com. That’s real life, people. Real life and real love- it’s a beautiful thing. About our third day on the job at FEMA, an email was sent out by a team leader asking if there were any CMs looking to participate in a super-secret flash mob to be held in May.A FEMA employee had asked the team leaders to gather their interested CMs and hopefully learn a dance to impress his soon-to-be fiancé in surprise flash mob fashion. For those of you confused as to what a flash mob is, allow me to explain. Generally, flash mobs are surprises to innocent bystanders. It starts with maybe one or two people dancing and then music starts and then before you know it more and more people, who onlookers might have thought were just pedestrians, join in the choreography. It’s what anyone who has ever wanted to be in a real life musical has ever dreamed of. When the music ends, the dancers generally disperse or go back to their previous positions as if no dancing had ever occurred. It’s always been on my bucket list to participate in one ever since I missed out at 2011 Merrimack Summer Orientation “Moves Like Jagger” flash mob. So, after figuring out the total number of FEMACorps participants in this flash mob, the committee got to planning and my dreams would soon come true.
Other than the actual events and adrenaline rush of dancing like a fool in the middle of NYC, the most exciting part for me was the planning. Do not misunderstand: I HAD NO PART IN PLANNING THE CHOREOGRAPHY OR MUSIC SELECTION (although, I do love 1D). What I mean by exciting planning is that 90% of the flash mob organization was done by a committee of 4 Corps Members. The other 10% was done by a team leader (shout out to Lisa D for crushin’ it, per usual). It was really exciting to see CMs take so much initiative outside of the work place. I was especially proud because one of the dance routines was completely choreographed and taught by one of my CMs, Curice.
Months of preparation, song selection, logistics, and whatever other planning was done- we were ready to learn the dance. Four evenings that week were spent on the roller hockey rink in the park across from our Extended Stay hotel learning the dance. The days were long and we complained, but looking back it was completely worth it. After spending 8 hours of their day in a crowded, hot, and stuffy office space it was rewarding to see the CMs working together, running freely, laughing, and having a great time learning to dance to Lady Gaga. From a supervisor point of view, it can be frustrating to see people not listening to instructions or goofing off when they need to be paying attention. I think it took being in the supervisor position for the CMs to realize this. It was refreshing for me to step back and watch them try to control a group of people and I genuinely think they gained a lot of experience just from a few days of being in charge. “I don’t want to repeat myself again” or “Guys, please pay attention” or “Let’s all try to work together this time” were just a few phrases I had to laugh at because the CMs finally started to sound like the TLs. Overall, it was a learning experience for everyone and it paid off in more than one way.
May 4th (Happy Star Wars day, everyone. May the fourth be with you) finally came around and the smell of romance blossomed around us. Not really. We had to take a bus and two subways to get to Foley Park so really the smell of crowded New York public transit was around us, but nonetheless the feeling of love was there. We exited the subway station in the south part of Manhattan, found the park, practiced a few times, and then we waited. We attempted to look as casual as possible while patiently awaiting the fiancé-to-be’s arrival, but it’s always pretty obvious that something is going to happen when there’s 95 18-24 year olds sitting on the ground and park benches not doing anything. Well, obvious to anyone who isn’t on the most exciting scavenger hunt of their lives seeking their significant other. Basically, the bride had no idea there was even a flash mob occurring until about half way through the entire thing. For the most part, the routine went swimmingly. I crushed the entire thing (obviously) except for one part during the Lady Gaga song where we are supposed to turn and have a partner next to us and I turned to find no one so I had to improvise and ended up looking like a fool though I doubt anyone noticed.
After our performance, the happy couple bought FEMACorps pizzaand thanked everyone for coming out, working hard, and participating. It was a really great day to be at Foley park and witness our flash mob. It was even better to witness the woman say “yes!” So much excitement all in one day! So much love, awwww <3
The incidents like what happened at the Boston Marathon remind me of a couple things. First, that I love my city and home. I have been watching the news and reading articles about what happened and it’s really been bringing me down. It’s such a tragedy, but I know that Massachusetts is tough and they’ll get through this. Secondly, there is a reason why I am in FEMACorps and spending my time in a JFO everyday filling out paperwork. It’s all about helping people- whether it be from Sandy which destroyed thousands of homes and displaced thousands of families or from a man made bomb which injured over 100 people at the Marathon. Working for FEMACorps is all about making sure that anyone who has been through a traumatic experience gets back on their feet and gets back to where they were before.
I don’t want to keep talking about this matter because I’m sure we’ve all heard about enough of it and it’s really bringing me down- to be quite honest.Instead I will tell you about all the secret fun Green 5 has been having. Why does it have to be secret? IT DOESN’T! I think it’s more secret in the sense that Green 5 doesn’t know they’re having fun, but they are.
One of my Corps Members, Tyler, has taken it upon himself to buy Green 5 an “Everyday’s a Holiday” desk calendar and has put it on the dashboard of Goldilocks, our 15 passenger van. Every morning we hop into the van and the person sitting in the passenger seat has to say “okay, it’s about that time of year, you guys” and rip off the day before an announce the new holiday. So far highlights have included: Draw a Bird Day, Farm Animal Day, and Winston Churchill Day.
On Draw a Bird day, all Green 5 CMs were REQUIRED by me (while at work, DON’T TELL MY UL!!) to draw the best bird they could. At the end of the day, we got back in the van and everyone had to present their birds, tell us its name, and give a brief description of the bird. The most creative bird went to Jen because although she was saying all day long that she couldn’t draw, she actually drew a bird and the outline of it had all positive words that described our team.
Farm Animal Day forced Green 5 slightly out of our comfort zones on the way into work. Tyler insisted that we sing “Old McDonald” during our morning commute. So, we went around the van with each person picking a farm animal when it came their turn and then the whole team joining in on the chorus. The next part of Farm Animal Day that we assigned was that each team member had to draw a farm scene with the animal that they had said during the song. It was fun and it got us excited for the day at work.
Winston Churchill day wasn’t that exciting, but we made the most of it anyway. Not all Corps Members were up to speed about who Churchill was/ why he was so important, so I made it Tyler’s job to read the Wiki page about him, summarize it, and then send an email to the rest of the team with the explanations. The summary didn’t prove to be too riveting so instead we talked in British accents on the way home after work!
Green 5 has also been working really hard to pick a “team song” which isn’t a song that relates to us at all, but instead a song that we can turn up in the van and all sing along to. First it was going to be a Taylor song (obviously), but not everyone could agree with that. Then, it was going to be a Beyonce song, but then we realized that we were too tone deaf for that. Then, it was going to be a One Direction song, but most of the boys turned that down quickly. All of these possibilities had been discussed on the drive from New Mexico, so by the time we got to New York we still hadn’t decided and usually on the way to and from work each day we were too busy chatting or too tired, so we just listen to the radio. Eventually we started listening closely to the radio because we kept hearing the same few songs over and over and over and over… much like any radio listener in the world. We then established that we would pick the song “Just Give Me a Reason” by Pink and featuring Nate Ruess from Fun. We didn’t pick the song for the melody or the lyrics; we picked it because we had heard that same song in almost the same spot on the way home from work at least four days in a row. We then decided that not only would we learn all the lyrics to the song, but we would keep the duet style alive and sing the song according to our genders. The boys are clearly still not thrilled about this, but they are going to learn it whether they want to or not.
Another fun weekly “tradition” Green 5 has happens according to the day of the week. We have decided that Mondays suck. I think everyone can agree that Mondays are rarely fun or rewarding and Green 5 has decided that they are the worst. Tuesdays, on the other hand, are crazy! I am not sure why Tuesdays are so crazy, perhaps it has to do with the bird drawings… I also think that two CMs, Jen and Sam, decided Tuesdays would be crazy before they even got into AmeriCorps so it’s stuck and it’s reigned true thus far. Weird Wednesdays come next and let me tell you, they’re really weird. Last Wednesday was Farm Animal Day, which is obviously weird. Then, later that day Sam and Tyler sat in on a meeting between FEMA employees and State employees and they said it was wild. They learned from one of our lead POCs that “the past is history, the future is mystery” and they disseminated that information to the rest of us. It was weird, to say the least. Another weird thing about last Wednesday was the van ride home when Green 5 thought that one of our teammates had a stroke or something (joking, so no offense to anyone) because as soon as we got in the van, he fell asleep. We went over numerous speed bumps and potholes and yet Jason slept right through. It wasn’t until someone reached over and woke him up did we conclude that he was not having a stroke or anything, but he was just tired from his long day out in the field visiting schools. It was weird and hilarious and slightly scary for a second. Thursday and Friday have not been labeled yet, mostly because Thursdays tend to be uneventful and Fridays are amazing due to the weekend; however, I feel as though their labels will come yet.
On Monday, my Service Learning Initiator (SLI), Jason, along with a few other SLIs hosted a cultural potluck dinner. Four different SLIs cooked four different dishes from four different communities represented in New York City. They put up posters around four different rooms and asked the participants trivia questions about the communities after we ate the food. Two of my CMs and myself decided to stick together and work as a team throughout the event. Curice, Jen, and myself literally ran through the hotel hallways after scarfing down food shouting the answers to the questions and talking about how good the cooking was. In the first room we went to Jason cooked chicken parm to represent Little Italy. It was really good and we got to learn a little about the history of Little Italy, which is located in Manhattan. Next, we walked two doors over and got some yellow rice, pigeon peas, and fried plantains from the Puerto Rico room. The fried plantains were amazing; probably because I didn’t know the cook had put sugar on them! Regardless, it was delicious. Our third stop was at the end of the hallway where Trey had cooked stir fry tofu and green beans. I don’t know what kind of sauce he put on this food, but it was so good! There wasn’t much left by the time we had got there, so after I ate my three green beans, I had to reach over and steal one from Curice (trust me, it was necessary). Finally, we headed to the Caribbean room where I had cooked some shrimp and Sam had cooked some rice. It was obviously amazing because my team cooked it, but seriously, everyone was raving about it. The night was fun and it ended with a brief team gathering where we talked about what we learned, but then ended up joking around and getting off topic. Overall, we did learn a lot while still having fun and it showed a lot of growth between my CMs.
By the end of last week Green 5 showed a lot of improvement in team’s dynamics. The workload at FEMA isn’t as substantial as we thought, so it tends to be pretty slow, but with joyful van rides to and from work as well as PT, cultural pot luck dinners, and other team events, we make the most of it. Occasionally my team will get to go out in the field on site visits, which seems to really boost morale. I just hope that they continue to see the difference they are making and don’t get too side tracked on the paperwork surrounding them.
…The traffic starts and stops, but I need to move along
My first week working in the Big City: a short memoir by Molly.
We arrived in the Big Apple last Thursday and started working on Monday. Thursday through Sunday consisted mostly of not knowing where to go, how to get there, and exploring all the wrong places. We currently live in Whitestone, Queens, NY so it’s not the glamorous city life that everyone imagines. In Whitestone, Green 5 and 10 other teams reside in an extended stay hotel where we sleep 4 to a bedroom. It’s tight, cramped, hot, and everything uncomfortable you can imagine, but it’s not that bad because I live with three of my closest TL friends (sorry, Kimmy G- you are missed). My team is enjoying their time, but we are definitely finding it difficult to find time to hang out as a whole. I have one room of my four boys and one room with my three girls on opposite ends of the hall from each other, so gathering and bonding has become minimal. We ride to and from work together and they spend time together at the JFO, but it is a different environment than I was expecting. At least it’s not living in a yurt with one outlet like one of our teams is doing.
So the weekend ended and reality settled in as 14 of us drove in a van down narrow city highways onto crowded city streets around busy city blocks and finally parked in a small city parking garage. We walked into the JFO having pretty much no idea what to expect and I assume that most of us walked out of the JFO 4 hours later still not knowing. It was a good introduction to how things run around here, I think. Tuesday wasn’t much better for me or my team. The system in the Public Assistance office wasn’t working properly and my team sat at a few tables doing busy work for their NCCC jobs while I worked on spreadsheets, emails, paperwork, and my Brickbreaker skills. Finally, Wednesday came and the PA department introduced Green 5 to the Transportation unit. My team has now been working directly with FEMA employees to inspect roads, buildings, schools, and any DOT entity that was affected by Super Storm Sandy. They will be going off-site many times a week to inspect the damage and write up reports of how much damage was done and if the applicant is eligible or not. Most of their work will be done inside the JFO, but there are many times where they will be able to drive somewhere throughout the day. As for me, the PA deputy chief has asked that TLs act as a liaison between the FEMA employees and my CMs to ensure that all needs and deadlines are being met. I can also be assigned special tasks at any point, however, that part is not mandatory for me as I have other work that is sometimes more pertinent, which is exactly what happened on Wednesday and Thursday.
Every Thursday the FEMACorps TLs have what is called a “Brown Bag” where we get the day off from our FEMA work to do any paperwork we have for our roles as traditional TLs. We also get the privilege to work with a new department in FEMA called the FCIT (“F-sit”) team which stands for FEMACorps Integration Team. They are the people we will communicate through to any higher-ups in FEMA and they talk to us when they need help with AmeriCorps NCCC issues. It’s all very confusing, I’m sure, but all you need to know is that the TLs have plenty of support, help, and time to do our work. During this week’s Brown Bag, a FEMA Reservist named Sheryl- someone who works for FEMA 10 months out of their year and reports to any and all disasters at a moment’s notice. She told us about how she began her career at FEMA, how she moved up to being a Reservist, and how we can use our experience here to gain a better career after AmeriCorps. Sheryl told us that she lived in Florida in 2004 when the four hurricanes hit the state causing much damage and destruction all over. Even though she lived in Orlando, in the middle of the state, she was greatly affected because the four storms came within three weeks and weakened the infrastructure and environment. Sheryl had lost everything and was having a difficult time recovery, so she looked to the Disaster Unemployment Assistance for help and found that she could actually start as a Local Hire for FEMA. A local hire is exactly what it sounds like- someone who works for FEMA because they live near the affected area. After proving herself as a sound employee and applying for a position as a Reservist, Sheryl was called back by Region IV across the country from Florida; however, as soon as they found out she was already stationed and living in Florida, they accommodated her and kept her in Florida.
Talking with Sheryl, we were all motivated to keep going strong and work our hardest to make solid connections here at the JFO. (This didn’t happen right away though because it’s currently an hour after she spoke to us and I’m blogging instead of working with the PA department- Hey! I had a rough day yesterday, I deserve this down time!) Anyway, she proved to us that this year of service will be worth it because even though many things haven’t gone our way and we have been moved, disappointed, confused, and overall “too flexible” we could end up with a job at FEMA where we could spend the rest of our days stressed out, over worked, and still “too flexible” but nonetheless helping others in need.
The rest of our days here at the JFO are spent working hard on assignments and projects and worksheets and meeting new people in all different departments. It’s a really interesting place to work even though 90% of the building is cubicles and offices. Everyone is always so friendly and they are genuinely excited about FEMACorps being here and helping out. After we leave work (we work from 8-4:30) we go back to the hotel, do PT, cook dinner, and then hang out or do more work before we go to bed. Luckily, we get the weekends off, so we plan on spending our time exploring the city and what it has to offer. We also get to do some hands-on service projects like mucking and gutting homes!
P.S: LOOK AT THIS MAP I MADE OF ALL THE STOPS WE TOOK ON OUR VENTURE ACROSS THE COUNTRY!!!!!!
I know it’s hard, know it’s hard to remember sometimes,
But you gotta keep your head up…
I’ve got my hands in pockets, kickin’ these rocks,
It’s kinda hard to watch this life go by
AHHHHHH!!!! FIRST ROUND PROJECT!! AHHH!! PANIC!!! AHHH SO MANY THINGS TO DO AND ONLY 4 DAYS TO DO THEM!!!! AHH!!!!
That’s pretty much what has been going on in my brain for the last two days because AHHH WE LEAVE FOR OUR FIRST PROJECT ON SUNDAY!!!! Here’s the real reason for panic: Our location is still UNKNOWN!!!! I guess this is what Needtobreathe means when they say “if you never leave home, never let go, you’ll never make it to the great unknown” literally UNKNOWN LOCATION.
Okay, so now that we have that panic out of the way and I have sufficiently freaked you out- let’s talk about some real stuff! Let’s talk about the sort of things that need to be done before deployment to my first project….
Aside from the formal FEMA Job Specific Trainings that we have been in for the past week all day every day, there are numerous checklists, worksheets, preparations, and meetings that need to take place before we ship out on Sunday morning. First, we have to create our Spike Prep Packet (author’s note: Spike is the term we use for our deployment projects). It’s about 9 pages of travel plans, food plans, housing information, worksite information, emergency center locations, and a Service Learning Development Plan. The travel plans consist of directions, gas stops, and lodging. We have to find directions to a locations that is either 550 miles away or 8 hours away and in the general direction to our final destination. In these directions, we must include gas stops every two hours and a daily stop for lunch. The lodging plan means that we find and book hotel, motel, or camping sites for our teams at each overnight stop. Our food plan is how a rundown of how we are going to accommodate any dietary needs on the team while living in our Spike Housing. This section is necessary because with some housing sites there is a cafeteria available or limited kitchen access or limited grocery options- just another reason we are flexible. Housing information, worksite information, and emergency center locations are each logistical information about the given place (none of which we can currently fill out because we DON’T KNOW WHERE WE ARE GOING!!). The end of the Spike Prep Packet is the Service Learning Development Plan (SLD). This section is to be filled out by the Service Learning Initiator on each team and is going to describe how they plan to make the team aware of how and why they are performing service. It is an area of service that I think is extremely important. In FEMACorps it is easy to get caught up in the day to day mundane tasks and only focus on the paperwork, but with proper reflection through service learning it is possible to realize one’s bigger purpose. Anyone who signed up for AmeriCorps NCCC FEMACorps did it because they don’t mind giving up their time for a modest living stipend and the feeling of accomplishment after they help someone in need. Reflections are the time when we look back at our work and see the affect we have had on the greater good.
After we finish the Spike Prep Packet, we must take it to our Unit Leader and present our deployment briefing to him and possibly some other staff members. In this meeting we explain our travel plan as well as our SLD. The Unit Leader can ask questions, especially to Corps Members about each other their team positions. For example, we have a Life After AmeriCorps representative; the deployment briefing would be where our UL would find out what sort of activities they have planned over the next eight weeks to help us figure out what we are going to do at the end of our service year.
The Spike Prep Packet is just the beginning of paperwork when it comes to deployment preparation. We have numerous checklists to complete which include, but are not limited to: van safety checklist, disaster preparation checklist, and supply request forms. The van checklist is to be completed by team vehicle and safety specialist. It is to be done every day and checks the blinkers, headlights, horn, oil level, and tire pressure. The disaster preparation checklist is to ensure that the team knows what to do if there was ever a disaster while we were on site. Where would the closest emergency center be? Who is the NCCC regional contact person? Does your team know how to react to certain disasters?
There are informal worksheets that need to be completed before deployment, as well. Green 5 CMs are required to fill out their hours worksheet- a spreadsheet I created to track the amount of hours they spend in trainings or at work; their team positions update- a paragraph typed explaining how much work they have done for their specific positions and what they plan for the upcoming round; and the van charter- an “official” document that lists the rules, regulations, and protocol for riding in our van for extended periods of time. The van charter includes such standards as: keep your shoes on at all times, don’t eat any snacks that will leave an excessive amount of crumbs, keep the music level to 25 or below, and van games will be played at least once a day.
Regardless of the fact that we don’t have a definite answers as to where we will within a week, the TLs are making the most of our time. Clearly our amount of actual work is through the roof and our stress levels have actually been evaluated as “dangerously high,” but we somehow still find time to have fun and laugh. Allow me to tell you about the three funny things I can think of that have happened within the last 48 hours….
It all started on Monday night when three of us decided to take a trip to the local Walmart here in Artesia. With it being a Monday at a Super Walmart in the quietest town I’ve ever stayed in, one would think this trip wouldn’t take too long. Evidently, we were wrong. My two friends, Dana and Lyly, and I grabbed a cart, which Lyly proceeded to sit in as I pushed her around, and started filling them with plenty of non-perishable snacks for our upcoming trips. As we made our way to the checkout, we realized this Walmart only had 2 registers open and the lines were about 5 people deep. Dana grabbed a Redbull and proceeded to drink the entire thing before even coming close to checking out. Needless to say that after spending 30 minutes in a checkout line and switching lanes 4 times, at this point the three of us was slap happy and decided to run around on our carts. Dana then took my van keys and pretended to drive away while I was putting the carts into the “carriage corral.” As she started driving away, I pretended to run alongside the van until she slammed on the brakes and nearly hit my face into the passenger side mirror. Luckily, I pulled a Matrix style move and narrowly avoided busting my mouth on the mirror by mere centimeters. While I didn’t think it was very funny at first, Dana and Lyly laughed about it for approximately 25 minutes.
The next day, I decided that I needed to email my Diabetes Nurse Educator so I doctored up a spreadsheet and sent it out. I then proceeded to tell Dana and Lyly about it and they decided that they wanted to see all my numbers and assist me in making a chart (cause I’m completely unaware when it comes to Excel). I forwarded the entire email to both of them and they each made me a graph of my blood sugar readings… All while they were supposed to be focusing on training classes or, in Lyly’s case, working on our first round logistics. Dana’s graph was a bar graph and went day by day with each bar representing a different time increment. Lyly’s graph was a line graph where she plotted the BG numbers on the Y-axis and the time increments on the X-axis and made seven different lines representing a day of the week. The best part of this entire process is that Lyly is now obsessed with making me charts that she has set up a spreadsheet that I have to fill out daily and she is going to continue to make these charts until she is bored.
The BEST thing my friends and I did to unwind from all the work we have in front of us is…… BUILD A FORT!!!!! On Tuesday night,me, Dana, Lyly, and Amanda decided to take our teams out to dinner before we leave New Mexico. After dinner, Lyly and I had a Green Unit meeting to attend so we separated from Dana and Amanda for a little bit. Our rooms here at FLETC are set up suite style. We each get our own bedroom, but we share a bathroom with another team leader. Conveniently enough, Lyly and Dana share a suite, which meant that when Dana went to Walmart to grab some last minute supplies, Lyly and I could sneak in her room and use all the blankets, sheets, and chairs we could find to start a fort. Eventually we ran out of resources… Or so we thought. I called Amanda and had her bring another blanket over and in the meantime, found an ironing board which then acted as another wall of the fort. Half an hour later, Dana walked in and found us underneath the blanket with only one light on telling ridiculous stories about our Corps Members. She was shocked to say the least, but immediately dropped her stuff and joined the three of us laughing.
Like I said, it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day routine and the stresses that come along with FEMACorps, but with friends like the ones I’ve made out here, it’s easier to see the light at the end of a long day.We are all so anxious about our deployment and what our future holds and we know it’s only going to get more intense as the days grow closer to leaving, but for now we keep our heads up and our eyes open. Between our curiosity, optimism, and absurd amount of caffeine intake, I know that we’ll all be all right and in the end everything will work out just as it is supposed to.
“Come on, girl! Yeah you got to get back up! You got to hold on.
Yeah, you got to hold on”
As I have told y’all before, no one within FEMACorps calls me Lisa anymore, unless it is absolutely necessary. Literally, everyone calls me Molly. I have even taken to introducing myself as Molly, writing it on my name tags, and getting nicknames off of Molly. My team never calls me Lisa, my UL doesn’t call me Lisa, and my friends certainly don’t call me Lisa. On a very rare occasion, if they really need my attention, they will, however, it has gotten to the point where I feel weird responding to it. I know what you’re thinking “how can someone just change their name like that? It’s so weird!” and I agree, it would probably seem really weird, but not within the AmeriBubble. We have been trapped in this little world with the same 25 or so people for the past two months and I have only been called Molly in that time, it doesn’t even seem weird anymore. What seems weird is introducing myself as Lisa and then having to explain why everyone and their mother calls me Molly. With all this said, let’s continue this blog journey with you keeping in mind that I am now Molly.
FINALLY!!! A FUN DAY!!!! (Sort of). Since leaving Sacramento, there has not been a day in our schedule where TLs have a “day off.” The Corps Members have not really had a day off either, however, they have had half days and they have not started work yet, other than their NCCC responsibilities. They also have brought their discipline on themselves, as I stated last post. But FINALLY we got a “day off” on Friday. Why do I keep putting day off in quotations? I think because it was one of the first time the TLs realized that even though we don’t have trainings and we went off campus, we are never not working or worrying about our CMs. Friday morning at 8:15am more than half of the teams loaded into their vans and we drove to the Carlsbad Caverns about 60 miles south of Artesia, NM. We arrived at 10:30am and the chaos started immediately. Teams ran out of their vans, rushed to buy tickets, asked us a million questions we didn’t have answers to, bought tickets for their teams, ran around the gift shop, and eventually entered the caves. If you can imagine 150 18-24 year olds wandering 750 feet underground in the dark without their team leader to control them and no cell phone service, then you have successfully imagined what our reality was. At 12:45pm most of the teams exited the cave to get lunch, which was also chaotic. The lunches came from the Chow Hall on FLETC and they were separated into turkey, ham, veggie, and PB&J . The PB&J were not in the cooler, however all the others were. They were also in a bag that had chips, cookies, and an apple. The sandwiches in the coolers were just sandwiches with separated bags outside of the cooler… Do you see how this is confusing? Chaos.
More chaos continued throughout the day…. Since CMs now have their government issued Blackberrys it has become slightly easier to contact them frequently- or so we thought. Some CMs thought it would be a good idea to leave their Blackberrys behind for the day making it impossible to contact them. Another challenge there is the fact that no one in the world gets cell phone service in a cave 750 feet below surface- also impossible to contact people. Therefore, when a team leader tries to text message or call their corps members to tell them to be back at the van at 3pm to return to campus, there is a high possibility that said corps members did not get the message. So, when the clock strikes 3 and there are still 20 CMs missing, it shouldn’t surprise us or stress us out, right?! WRONG.
Other than the stressors and annoyances, the Carlsbad Caverns were amazing. They were huge!! Stalagmites and stalactites everywhere!!! We walked around for about three hours making our way further and further down the caves before finally entering into the Big Room. As we walked around we saw things called “soda straws” which were really tiny stalactites; we saw the “bottomless pit” which is just a large cavern that goes down 150ft further than visible from the edge. It’s called the bottomless pit because the first explorers of it could not see the bottom and did not have the resources to keep diving down to reach it. They were truly amazing!!
The day came to a close and we eventually got all our corps members back into the vans to drive to FLETC. The TLs decided that we were still too stressed out after our fun day out so we were going to have a “very important TL meeting” aka we were going to drive to Roswell, check out some aliens, and go out to dinner. 13 of us left base and headed north for some downtime. Unfortunately, it didn’t go exactly as planned because we weren’t all on the same page about destination, purpose, and dinner, but eventually we got to the Cattle Baron Steak and Seafood House where we consumed a ridiculous amount of pretty good doof. By the end of the night we were all exhausted- mostly emotional, but some physical exhaustion as well. It’s tough for TLs to get time off out here and even when we are “off duty” we never are. I know I say it all the time, but it’s most prevalent now because we are together and we have a common bond of corps members holding us together. At dinner the conversation rarely steered away from our individual team issues or CM issues or scheduling problems or curiosity about what is to come in the future for us. There were multiple times where I would try to turn the topic to something else (mostly fish because it was a seafood restaurant and I have a ridiculous amount of knowledge on that topic #WholeFoodsProblems), but somehow it always comes back to work.
Now let me tell you about the most disappointing place in New Mexico: Roswell. Hopefully most of you know why Roswell is supposed to be cool, but if you don’t I’ll tell you why: ALIENS!!!! Roswell is known as the best place to site UFOs in the United States. Roswell is also a rundown town that still holds onto the alien theme, which is slowly failing. Even though there is still the Extraterrestrial Museum as well as numerous themed t-shirt shops and green tinted street lights with slanty eyes painted on them, Roswell is not much more. We made the most of it though by stopping at a gas station and taking our photo with a four foot tall Styrofoam green alien.
Our fun day off was short lived because we started our FEMA specific position training bright and early at 7:30am on Saturday morning.I now sit in a temporary trailer classroom with two other teams learning about what it means to be a Public Assistance specialist while working out in a JFO. It’s hard to believe that in just a few days I’ll be sent out somewhere in the country and have to put these skills to work… Well, I won’t really have to, but my team will so good thing they’re paying attention and not writing a blog…. And just as I finish writing this I see the blinking red light on my Blackberry which never seems to go away. A perpetual blinking with other tasks or questions or spreadsheets needing to be made by the end of the day and it never lets up.
So as promised I am here to attempt to explain everything that I have been throwing at you that I assume you are greatly confused by.
I realize at one point when I was still in either TLT or first getting my Pod that I explained the Green Unit, Pods, my team, the campus, my plans etc etc. to you, but I also assume that ya’ll need a refresher, so I am going to give it to you…. If you recall, before receiving my actual team of Green 5 (the team that the previous post was mostly about) I had a Pod. Pods were temporary teams that lasted only 5 days.The reason the CMs are placed into Pods before going into the actual teams is so that we have a way of organizing and keeping a track of them before they take their “aptitude test” to see what specific job they are going to get at FEMA. Oh god, I see that I have gotten ahead of myself again.
Okay okay okay…. So there is AmeriCorps NCCC which is a national service program made up of teams 18-24 years old who get things done for America. FEMACorps is a subdivision of NCCC that is sponsored by FEMA and works to assist in the recovery from disaster. In order for the FEMACorps members to “get things done” they have to be specially trained in four different areas of FEMA. They include: public assistance (that’s me!) which focuses on assessing damages made to public property, the community, or local businesses; individual assistance which is focuses on assessing the damages done to personal homes and property; logistics which is warehouse work and inventory; and community relations which focuses on spreading word of FEMA and engaging with the community members.
Ok, so back to it… Months ago I found out that I was on the FEMA Green Unit. I’m pretty sure I told ya’ll about it- how it’s made up of 6 TLs and our Unit Leader is named Josh. Okay, well that’s what it is. Anyway, my Pod. My Pod was awesome, but it ended and now I have Green 5 which is forever and always my permanent team. Green 5 is made up of 7 members: Tyler, Jennifer, Samantha, Andrew, Jason, Curice, and Jeremy. We are all part of the Public Assistance section of FEMA. We will be working directly with FEMA supervisors in Joint Field Offices across the country and helping public entities get back on their feet after disasters.
Before we can get to that point, however, we must go through some specific FEMA trainings. Those all started this week. We have been having eight hours of direct trainings a day for since Tuesday. We learn the total overview of FEMA, their mission, their history, and their operations. From there we learned about the different jobs that each FEMACorps team will be doing. These trainings are lengthy, but they are still fairly broad. On Friday we will pack up our vans and leave Sacramento for Artesia, New Mexico. In New Mexico we will first be getting the CMs officially FEMA badged so that they are able to access the secure government buildings just like the TLs are. After that they will be issued their laptops (like the one I am typing on right now) and their Blackberrys. The following week and a half will be spent teaching us the ins and outs of our designated jobs. I will be learning all about filing and properly filling out paperwork, while my team will be learning how to deal with the customers, answer phones, fill out papers, and generally assist the public during such hard times. We are going to be going non-stop for the next 16 days or possibly more. Once the two weeks in Artesia, NM are over and we are fully (as fully trained as we can be without actually helping anyone) we will pack up the van again and head out onto our first deployment project. All of this will come after we have done copious amounts of paperwork for both FEMA and the NCCC Campus in Sacramento. We are still very unsure of where we will end up come the end of March. It could be anywhere from California to New York to Florida for hurricane season. It all depends on FEMAs needs at the time, but it doesn’t really matter to any of us because we just want to help those in need while learning to work for the federal government and emergency management.
Being a TL is great. It’s such an amazing opportunity especially since we will be working directly with the federal government and underneath some important supervisors at the JFOs and I am truly grateful that I am here having this experience and meeting so many hardworking, amazing and talented people. With all that said…. Damn, I’m tired. I’m tired because it’s such hardwork and I understand that this job is 24/7. That’s kind of the cool part, but also the tough part. As TLs we joke around a lot about how much easier it would have been if we were just CMs. We think about how great it would be to not care that much and to just sit in trainings and not have to stay up until 11 every night doing paperwork and waking up at 6:15 every morning and making sure 8 other people have breakfast, packed lunches, and food for dinner that night. We joke about how nice it would be for someone else to drive the van for us and budget our meals and plan the cleaning schedule. But at the end of the day we look down at our Green shirts and we know the responsibilities we have are because we deserve them and because we were hired to handle these challenges. It becomes more evident every day that we are TLs for a reason. It’s weird to think so highly of myself because I’m not an overly confident person, but when I sit at a “roundtable discussion” with the National Director of AmeriCorps NCCC and the Regional Director of the Pacific Region and hear them both say that the Team Leaders are the hardest working and most responsible people in the program, it really makes me take a look at myself. I don’t want to come off as being cocky or anything because I’m truly not. I’m not even fully convinced I’m a good team leader, what with the way my team treats me sometimes, but I know that deep down I do have the ability to stern and show my team that I demand respect. This year is somehow turning out to be exactly how I expected it, but also like something totally different and opposite. I always knew coming into this that I would become great friends with also every other TL because that’s just how my life is. At Orientation at Merrimack, I hung out more with the other leaders than my own group of first year students. On MORE retreat, I strongly with the staff and the leaders, as well, and out here it is no different. However, I’m finding myself more aware of the fact that I am not supposed to be friends with the Corps so the fact that I rely so heavily on my other TLs is probably a good thing. It’s totally opposite in that I thought I would get this group of people on my team who were just dying to be my friend because I was the TL and they couldn’t be my friend, but I am actually doing the opposite. I’m pretty sure I’m scaring them off with the minimal amount that I talk to them or involve them in many decisions. It’s so weird for me to think of this group from such an outside perspective like I am right now, but sometimes I think it helps to bring me back into that leadership mindset I need to have for this year. Thinking about the sense of leadership in myself is something I’m definitely not used to yet, but I find with each passing day it’s coming out more and more and it’s getting easier to notice natural leader qualities in myself. I’m hopeful that these feelings will continue through the year and make it one of the best experiences of my entire life.
*FLASH FORWARD*
All 22 TLs and their Corps drove for three days starting last Friday from Sacramento, CA to Artesia, NM for our official training in FEMA specific jobs. We are staying at a base called FLETC (pronounced Flet-C) which stands for Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. It is where most DHS employees are trained. This week we share the campus with Border Patrol Officers in training. The rules of this facility are much more strict than they were on our home base in McClellan Park. Allow me to explain what I mean by that. Prior to arriving at FLETC, we were told that it was a federal facility and it was to be treated with the utmost respect and we were to hold our CMs to the highest standards… Which we did, until they decided to not take it quite as seriously as we intended. The first night we were here, there was an incident in the rec center and the CMs have been banned from it ever since. Other rules that followed the discipline from the incident include: wearing uniform from breakfast until bed time, walking in a clean formation, never being able to walk around base alone (CMs always need to have a buddy), unit cleanings of the base every night, and finally a 9pm curfew (it’s not that bad because they have TVs in their rooms). Needless to say, the CMs were not happy. Since then, we have loosened up a bit, but not by much.
Another exciting aspect of this past week was the arrival of the Denver Campus FEMACorps. We have been so busy that we haven’t had much time to interact with them, but from what we have seen, it’s obvious the differences between regions. The Sacramento group (my campus/corps/team whatever you want to call it) is strict. Prior to the rules enacted last week, we had our CMs in their black boots with their uniform every day. We don’t allow any breach in policy and we like to act comepletely professional in and outside of trainings. The Denver campus, we had been warned, is evidently not as strict. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s just interesting for us to experience different leadership styles. We have met a few TLs from Denver and we have a meeting scheduled with them tonight and everyone has been nice so far!
Saturday through Friday is when we start our position specific trainings where my team will learn the definition and the actual motions of being a FEMACorps public assistant. We will be in training sessions from 7:30am until 4:30pm every day and then we still have to fit in PT as well as our AmeriCorps NCCC jobs. It’s busy busy busy, but we are (kind of) making it work. I’m trying my hardest to fit in time to write to everyone and blog, but I’ll be honest- it’s currently becoming nearly impossible. We still haven’t found out where we are heading, but I feel like we are getting close. I should probably get back to focusing on training now…. I’ll write soon……. I think.
There was a dream and one day I could see it Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free itAnd there was a kid with a head full of doubt So I'll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out
There's a darkness upon you that's flooded in light And in the fine print they tell you what's wrong and what's right And it flies by day and it flies by night And I'm frightened by those that don't see it
Let me tell you about the day Green 5 crushed life so hard. It all started at 5:30am on a cool but clear Friday morning. Green 5 awoke with fire in their eyes and determination in their hearts. We knew it was going to be a long day, but we were mentally and physically prepared. Baseline started with a bang when my team blew their previous scores out of the water. If you recall, baseline is the physical fitness testing that corps members and team leaders go through three times a year. It consists of two minutes of pushups, two minutes of sit ups, a mile and half run, and finally the sit and reach test to measure flexibility. My team crushed it; I crushed it, too on Wednesday evening when I had my second baseline of the year. I took an entire minute off of my run time! Okay, but back to Friday. I stood on the corner cheering on the corps members during their run and doing random jumping jacks and singing “Eye of the Tiger” for motivation. I saw so many CMs pushing themselves and really trying to beat previous times. It was awesome to see two Green 5 team members running together and motivating each other; especially because they were the two I didn’t think would get along very well due to conflicting personality types and what not, but they proved me wrong on Friday-a theme that played out throughout the day.
So, after demolishing baseline we showered up and headed over to 943 for a training called ‘structured team building’ which sounded like forced team bonding aka torture. HOWEVER, we were wrong…. Sort of. I mean, it was basically forced team bonding, but it was so fun! We played Human Knot where you connect hands of the members in your group and have to untangle yourselves. The first time we did it we were allowed to talk and it was genuinely amazing to see how my team communicated with each other and who took charge. In the end, we had to interconnected circles, which apparently doesn’t happen a lot, but BOOM Green 5 did it; surprising me yet again. The second time we did it we were not allowed to talk, which was super hard and unfortunately time ran out before we were untangled. The next challenge was called Helium Stick. The facilitator gave us a very thin wooden dowel and we had to lower it to the ground, but we were only allowed to use the sides of our pointer fingers. There is no hooking fingers around the dowel and everyone’s fingers must be touching the stick at all time. I had played this game before and had not succeeded, so I was ready for disappointment, but alas I WAS WRONG AGAIN. As a team we discussed ways to get the stick lower because as everyones fingers stay on the stick it inevitably rises. Finally, we realized that if we put half of our fingers on the top of the stick and the other half stay on the bottom side of the stick we could control it better. We got it to the ground in about less than a minute, way before any other teams did. We then tried to do it again, but only keeping our fingers on the bottom of the stick and were unsuccessful. It was a great moment for Green 5 though because previous to this we weren’t known for our team bond- basically, we were the underdogs of the day. We had somehow gained the reputation of being the least connected team. After Helium Stick we went outside and played some other team building games. One included having to fit our team into a small taped area of a tarp. We also had to use string and a bungee cord to move a bucket and finally walk on a certain number of paper plates to avoid stepping on the pavement. I realize that this probably all sounds really confusing, but I am hoping you can understand what kind of activities we played that would build our team chemistry. The point isn’t the games, the point is the communication and working together. My team walked away from Structured Team Building with a better sense of conflict resolution and communication techniques, which I think we will really use when we start working at FEMA.
After team building we headed over to the football field for AmeriOlympics. Unfortunately, Green 5 did not champion in AmeriOlympics, but we are the kind of team that just wants to have fun and play because we don’t think winning is everything. At AmeriOlympics, we competed in such events as a 3-person-4-legged race, a sack race, a boot toss, an egg on a spoon race (which we did win!), and finally the team leaders had to participate in a PPE race. PPE is Personal Protective Equipment, so we ran about 50 feet and had to put on coveralls, a hard hat, protective eye glasses, and a safety vest and then run back to the start line. I did not win this event, but we still had a lot of fun. One of my corps members made up a Green 5 chant that we sang at each event and it goes “Never stop, never slow, G5 G5 G5 GO!” It’s pretty epic, to say the least. The next training we had was based on something called an ILP which is an Individual Learning Plan and it is a tool used for setting goals for the year. My team and I sat on the grass and discussed possible goals they have about education or life after AmeriCorps or PT. It was a great time for us to talk about what we are all really hoping to get out of the program and it gave us all insight into how we can work together to help each other reach our goals. It was also nice because it calmed everyone down after being jacked up from the Olympics. The last training of the day was called the Newly Team Games and yes, it was a team version of the Newlywed Game. Josh, the Green Unit Leader, asked questions such as “which team member is most likely to be found at Chuck E. Cheese?” The corps members were split in half and stood across the room from each other. They picked the name of the teammate they thought best fit the scenario, walked to the center of the room, and tried to match the other half of the team. (I’m assuming everyone knows how the Newlywed game works, so sorry for the poor explanation.) Other questions included “most likely to find AmeriLove,” “most likely to motivate the team for PT,” “most likely to be on a reality TV show,” and other such scenario questions. My team had a lot of fun playing this game and it was funny to see who they picked for each question.
Friday was fun-filled and it never seemed to stop. Post trainings, we had a community meeting where we showed off our Green Unit chant again because the Green Unit is awesome and then we had a catered BBQ dinner which was SO BOMB. Seriously amazing doof. The best part of the day came after dinner when the Team Leader Peer Helpers organized a “pie a TL” event. Allow me to preface this by telling you that on Thursday night I drove my 15 passenger van to Walmart to purchase 20 cans of whipped cream (some light, so not too much sugar!). My friend Dana and I stood in the dairy aisle for a solid 10 minutes discussing the most cost efficient way of buying so much whipped cream. At one point we had 3 other customers discussing the possibilities with us. So at 6:30 on Friday evening, we put our pride behind us, put on old t-shirts, protective eye glasses (which turned out to be pointless), and allowed our CMs to throw plates of whipped cream at our faces. It was literally the most hilarious , yet disgusting thing I’ve ever been a part of. Of course in the end it just turned into the TLs putting whipped cream on the plates and chasing each other around and pushing it into others faces. It was a great day, even if I still smell like moldy whipped cream. Last Friday really solidified my confidence in my team that I had been skeptical about prior to the activities. It was a real learning and growing experience that was necessary before we head out to our first service project.
Monday marks the end of traditional CTI training for us and Tuesday begins our FEMA specific trainings. On Friday morning we will pack up our vans with all our stuff and head down to Artesia, NM for even more FEMA training. We will drive for three days and make two overnight stops and arrive on Sunday between 2 and 4pm. It’s crazy to think that I will be leaving Sacramento because I have gotten so comfortable here. It’s also weird to think that in two weeks I will be completely alone with just my team. I think my friend Andrea said it best the other day when she said that at the beginning of TLT she just wanted to get her team and start our projects and not have to worry about all these trainings, but now that it’s approaching and after all our bonding it’s a weird feeling to leave and go out on our own. I’m still excited, obviously, and wouldn’t be out here in the first place if I didn’t want to do the actual work, but it’s bittersweet. I have made so many close friends out here and in two weeks we will be separated and scattered throughout the country. I’ll only have the seven Green 5 members to rely on at my immediate disposal. It’s going to be challenging, but I’m prepared- nervous, but prepared. I plan on writing another blog this week explaining so other details about FEMA, my upcoming trip, and maybe more about the actual Green Unit because I think it’s the most important part of my time in Sacramento and I’m sure you’re all confused as to what it actually is.
The song for this post is by The Avett Brothers who I have been basically listening to nonstop since moving to California. I first heard this song back in college while studying in the library and I stopped everything I was doing to listen to the lyrics because they are so meaningful. In my opinion, they can fit into everyone's life at some point. He writes about having hope even in the darkness. "Like a bird in a cage, I broke in and demanded that somebody free it." He sees the potential, just like I see in Green 5. I may have had a head full of doubt before last Friday, but I know now that there is a road of promise ahead of us and we are going to make these next nine months amazing. If there was still any lack of confidence on my part, my team has since proved me wrong and this song has helped.
So when negativity surrounds, I know some day it’ll all turn around
All my life I’ve been waiting for, I’ve been praying for
That we don’t wanna fight no more, They’ll be no more wars and our children will play
One day we'll all be free and proud to be Under the same sun singing songs of freedom
Not much has changed here since my last post. Same old same old…. Oh wait, just kidding. Everything has changed. The savages aka the Corps Members (CMs) have come and they have completely taken over. They roam around this campus as if they’re the only human beings in the world; they act as though the rules and policies don’t apply; THEY’RE CRAZY!!! Okay, maybe they’re not that bad, but for real there are a lot of CMs on campus now and from a TL stand point, it’s pretty weird. Last Tuesday marked the official end of TLT and began CTI (Corps Training Institute) and thus began the beginning of one very long week.
As I have told you before, we are not put into our permanent teams immediately. Instead, we are put into temporary teams known as Pods. We had our Pods for exactly one week before we took an assessment and then were placed with other members according to our skill sets and these would become our permanent teams. Last week was full of lectures on policy and standards along with uniform issuance and boot fittings. Apparently in the week time that the CMs have been here, the Green Machine has gained quite a reputation. I believe it’s because we are the best Unit around, but the others seem to think it’s because we have an intense chant that we do at community meetings and because we always dress our CMs in the same uniform and we are (allegedly) the strictest Unit. Regardless of all these facts, my Pod ruled. We (mostly) functioned like a well-oiled machine: always getting to trainings on time- I mean, we had a few minor setbacks, but we still crushed it!- always looking super sharp in our uniforms and not a single written incident report (WAY TO GO POD 16, REPPIN!!) To be quite honest, I’m nearly positive that my Pod had the most pride… I mean, “pod 8 pod great” had their moments and Pod Team Lyly might have made their own Facebook page, but my Pod wrote me Valentines about how amazing we were and that was one their SECOND DAY. But alas, our time together had to end. :’(
And now I sit here writing after an already long day waiting for the clock to hit 8:30 when I am going to go to the grocery store for the third time this week. These past two days with my permanent team have really tested my limits and they have shown me just how much I learned during TLT. I honestly never thought I could be a strict team leader because, seriously it’s me, but since my supervisors have taught me so well, it’s becoming progressively easier to be confrontational and take control of situations. Basically what I’m saying is that Green 5 is having some struggles. Regardless of these setbacks and incidents, we push forward and I genuinely see my team coming together throughout the year and growing together and working towards a singular goal.Some highlights of the week, (other than getting my Team) include meeting with our FEMA mentor to talk about our specific jobs and what it will really mean to be a Public Assistant at a JFO. We also got certified in First Aid and CPR, which is pretty cool because I have never been certified in either of those before. On Friday, we had a community meeting here on campus, which is the only time when all staff and corps are in the same room at once. The Regional Director gave a speech about what being on a team means and the standards of NCCC. He also gave a short talk about attitude and how important it is to have a good attitude when working with your team. Later that same day, the Green Unit was introduced to their Unit Leader and he gave a similar talk. I think these talks hit home with my team in particular because by the end of the day they were bonding and sharing stories about their lives before AmeriCorps. It’s amazing what a good attitude will change about people.
The “AmeriBubble” has captured us all and is holding on for dear life. On Fridays when the work week is done the TLs generally find a time to hang out all together because we don’t see each other much during the week. While we’re hanging out, the conversation usually starts about work, then someone will interrupt and say “let’s not talk about work or the corps” and then we move on for about 5 minutes before it always gets back to work. It’s definitely an interesting life out here, but I am genuinely enjoying it. I realize that this has not been the most informative or exciting blog post, but at this point I am so tired of talking about work that I just need a minute to decompress.
I chose this song because on Thursday I was really having a rough day with my pod and one of my friends told me to listen to it. The lyrics really struck a chord and I realized I needed to stop beating myself up about the difficulties I was having with my team. It also fits into the theme of AmeriCorps and how we are getting things done for America to better our country.
Trying not to be lost in sound but that song is always on
So you sing along
I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby...
...The highway don't know you're alive
The highway don't care if you're coming home, but I do, I do
(The song has no relevance to anything, but it's SOOOOO GOOD and it has Taylor so <3 <3)
I know you’re all probably wondering where I have been because it’s been such a long time since I wrote anything or probably spoke to most people who read this blog. Well, let me start off by saying that don’t worry I’m fine! Everything here is going great and I’m having a ton of fun! I know what else you’re wondering:what could I possibly be so busy with? And when do I actually do work or talk about FEMA?? Well, I’m about to give you a breakdown of all the lectures, classes, and policy reviews I’ve been going through. To start off, I should probably attempt to paint you a little picture of what my day to day life is like here in Sacramento.
There are two types of mornings around here: mornings we have PT and mornings we get to “sleep in” aka wake up at 6:30 instead of 5am. So say it is a Thursday here at McClellan Park (that’s the name of the campus, it used to be an Air Force base). On Thursdays we have PT from 6-7 in the morning, which is planned by a committee of 6 TLs who have taken on the role of PT coordinator for my Unit -Let’s back up again…. In AmeriCorps each group of members is broken up into multiple Units which are then broken up into multiple teams. For FEMACorps there are four units: Blue, Green, Gold, and Silver and each unit has 5 teams plus a Support Team Leader who will act as an extra support and service while we are out on deployment. For the remainder of the year I will be Green 5. My Unit Leader’s name is Josh and he is by far the best of the four ULs. Just to give you all the players around here my unit consists of myself, Ali, Andy, Lyly, Colleen, and Jessica. I honestly think that the Green Machine is the best Unit here and that I am going to be able to learn a lot and rely a lot on my fellow TLs in and outside of my unit.
Ok, so now that those basics have been covered, let’s get back to a typical Thursday. After PT, which can be anything from yoga to weight lifting to sprint-jog-walk , we go back to our dorms to take showers. The campus is big, but NCCC only uses four of the buildings. I live in building 946, but will be moving into building 947 on Tuesday to accommodate corps members. Both buildings are just dorms with one kitchen in them. The other two buildings are 943 and 922 (yes, we have to call them by their numerical names at all times, it gets kinda annoying.) 922 is all of the offices on campus, so I really only go there to see my UL or check mail or get room keys, things of that nature. 943 is where we have been spending the majority of our time here in Sacramento. 943 is basically just one big room that has nothing in it until we set up tables and chairs. It also has a large area in the very back that has 16 kitchens and is where we will start cooking dinners once the CMs arrive. So after I eat breakfast and shower I put on my khaki cargo pants that are 2 inches too short, my green t-shirt and/ or hoodie (making sure to tuck the t-shirt in), and my black belt and head over to 943 where the day begins promptly at 8am. Around 8am a faculty member will stroll in, read us a STEW (encouraging words on being a leader), and then our lectures begin. Recent lecture topics include: policy handbook training, team leader 201, discipline, and safety; riveting subjects as you can imagine. About once or twice a week we take a break from the lectures and have a more informal approach at teaching leadership. For example, last week we had mental health first aid and this week we had diversity training as well as corps health. These trainings all teach us a lot, but they include more group discussions and are more pertained to real life scenarios. After about 3 cups of coffee and fidgeting more than a toddler in my seat, it is usually about time for lunch. All 23 TLs walk from 943 back to 946 and make our lunches. 23 people making lunch in one small kitchen. It’s more fun than I can even put into words….not., but alas we work through it.
After lunch we head back to 943 for more discussion or lecture. Once a week we have “Week in Review” after lunch. This is just a trivia game that the ULs put on to make sure we are paying attention to the topics. The day ends around 4:30 or 5pm and the Green Machine generally has a small muster with Josh before heading back to the dorms to eat dinner and make a plan for the evening.
I just realized I haven’t explained our food routine to you! Well, now it’s about to get exciting on this blog woooo!!! There are five food groups among the TLs which are sectioned off by last name. In my food group there is Amber, Allison, myself and Chris. We go grocery shopping about once or twice a week and decide what kinds of foods we like (there is a lot of variety because we all eat everything and not one of us is a picky eater, so that’s pretty cool) then we work together to prepare, cook and clean up the meals. On a typical Thursday we will make dinner around 6 or 7 and then clean up the kitchen. Eventually we all look at each other and say “should we go to karaoke tonight?” and the answer is usually YOLO!!!! And we end up at the hotel bar which is all of 20 yards away and sing karaoke for the remainder of the night. Fridays we wake up and do it all over again except we end with PT instead of starting!
Well now that you’re all cleared up on my day to day life schedule, allow me to tell you exactly (or what the TLs have figured out to be true) about what I’ll be doing while here at FEMACorps. For a long time, we were frustrated. When I say a long time, I mean the three weeks prior to this week. Let me explain why: we all came out here with the mindset of being a FEMACorps team leader, however, while sitting in lectures and talking to staff it seemed that we had been given mixed signals. Our uniforms are green just like the Traditional NCCC and we take all the same trainings and we learn nothing about FEMA, not even when we ask specific questions. We were getting quite annoyed with everyone telling us to “be flexible” and that “FEMAcorps is a new program. We are working out the kinks” or that “it depends” and other such vague statements. Well, I think our mindsets all changed one day after having a roundtable discussion with the Regional Director of the Pacific Region Campus. He told us that we do have to be flexible because FEMACorps is a new program and they are working out the kinks, however, FEMACorps isn’t even a real thing because it is technically AmeriCorps NCCC- FEMA. That means the majority of our training will be the same as the traditional program because the “FEMACorps” is simply a branch off of it. They are the same except instead of focusing on projects only in the Pacific Region, we will be working with FEMA and going where ever a disaster maybe. So, it dawned on us that perhaps we were being too hard on this program; I mean, it isn’t even a year old and we are the very first class to experience it in Sacramento- we are the pioneers!
Eventually, the FEMA liaison and our Unit Leaders had a real talk with us and spelled out what we will be doing in the very near future and it looks a little something like this: On February 12, the Corps Members will come to Sacramento for Corps Training Institute or CTI. We will have three weeks where we prep them, get them acquainted with the program, meet their units, their teams, etc etc. In early March we will pack up our 15 passenger vans with all of our stuff and head to New Mexico for three weeks to be trained to work for FEMA. The CMs will be badged and given laptops and blackberrys (or as Dana calls it: blacktops.) After three weeks of training and badging, we will drive our vans from New Mexico to New York to start working in Joint Field Offices (JFO) or Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC). There are about 6 different jobs the CMs will have and each team will be assigned one job. For example, Green 5 could be part of the public affairs team (not sure exactly what this means, but we will learn that within the next week.) As a TL my job will be just to oversee and manage my individual team while working alongside FEMA managers. So, as it turns out we will not be mucking and gutting homes on the Jersey shore for the next 11 months, but that’s okay. At first we were a little resistant to this idea, but once it was explained out to us and we realized the opportunities that can come with working directly with FEMA supervisors, we warmed up to the idea and now are looking forward to our new jobs. I will hopefully be writing more frequently now that I have a computer I can actually use. Talk to y’all soon!
