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.
wow! That's a whole lot of paperwork! When you get to your project, I hope you will be able to spend a lot of time with the actual "clients" because you're really good when it comes to talking with people and staying calm in stressful situations. I know first hand...well, I won't go into detail here but I know!! Well, safe travels on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday! I'll be praying for all of you!
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With everything I have read about all you've learned it seems you have matured and grown up.. oh, but wait!! the real LISA (not Molly) has emerged with running around Walmart and building forts!! Phew... thought you grew up too fast.. thank goodness the real Lisa is still in there somewhere finding places to show herself.. good luck on your first project!! I hope they get to see both sides of you! Don't ever lose that fun side!!
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