Drop Your Worries

This is just a journey,

Drop your worries,

You are gonna turn out fine…

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.

Bless My Mind

So, bless my heart and bless my mind,

I got so much to do, I ain’t got much time,

So, must be someone up above saying,

“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.

Shelter from the Blame

Sing it loud from the rooftops,

Come dance on the rivers edge,

Carry me on the mountain to the end of love,

Standin' in a field of voices,

Find shelter from the blame,

Even if you think it's all over,

I'll be here til the colors fade



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.

Decide What to Be and Go Be It

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.