My thoughts on Baltimore (so far)

My last and final AmeriCorps NCCC project takes place in Baltimore, MD. Only 1 hour from where our campus is located. It's the city I flew to when I first left the West Coast, so it's fitting that my last project will allow me to get to know the city better than any place I've been to during my AmeriCorps journey. We are supposed to be living and working in Baltimore for a total of 8 weeks, which will be the longest amount of time I will have stayed in one place since I started NCCC.

Unfortunately, my opinion on Baltimore thus far is not a very positive one. It's a city full of anger and apathy. Twice in the past week I had to pass out flyers at local schools for an after school program and both times I witnessed a mother of a child cuss out a child that did not belong to them. Today the mother called the kid a f*cking bastard and the other day the mother told the kid her address and said if they wanted a fight then they knew where to find her. How do adults think it's ok to talk to kids like that?! I guess it's just part of that never ending cycle that people keep talking about that needs to be broken. Hopefully something I do within the next 8 weeks can influence that break in the cycle.

All around the city there are abandoned houses and buildings and the streets and streams are covered in litter. When I see trash on the streets of cities I find it a clue that there are bigger social, political and/or economical crises happening and waste management is the least of their concerns. When you don't have your basic necessities like food, shelter and clothing taken care of, saving the planet is the least of your concerns.

Being in a city that has issues like Baltimore does, along with the not so sun-shiny weather, can really wear you down. I haven't been in the best of moods lately so hopefully I can find the joys in my project and something fun to do in the surrounding areas. My project officially started today with the after school program and these kids definitely have some ATTITUDE. It's pretty hilarious actually. It's also pretty hilarious how I can't say most of their names right. They're definitely names from a culture I don't belong to.

Inner harbor, where the stores, restaurants and stadiums are, is a complete turn around from the community I am staying in. It's weird for one city to have this huge contrast within blocks. If you were to visit inner harbor, you would have no idea about the issues the rest of the city is facing. I plan on taking advantage of this facade and plan on going there on my days off to explore. They have a Barnes & Noble! Also, DC is only a $14 train ride away!

Hopefully I'll be able to update on any new thoughts about Baltimore on a regular basis. Hopefully the people and city will grow on me!

Saying Goodbyes

I'm leaving another project behind bright and early tomorrow at 7am. It's always a bittersweet feeling when we transition to the next project. I really enjoyed this project and got job experience that will be really helpful for my future. My job consisted of educational outreach to kids where I took them around the 2/3 of a mile beach loop trail to teach them about the habitat as well as doing the fund-raising and event planning for the Duck Derby that happened today. It was great to see the event come together! Also, the scenery here is quite amazing. Everyday I got to come to work and look out onto Buzzard's Bay with the sun reflecting off the ocean and a beautiful wildlife sanctuary with vibrant butterflies and flowers. Pictures never do beautiful scenes justice. However, I am so excited to be done with camping and be onto the next project. The last project.

I keep thinking about how I only have 2.5 months left! Time flew by! It's going to be really sad to say goodbye to all of the amazing people I met here. It's been great to be a part of this. People with common goals coming together to do good. It's a beautiful thing. I don't think I've ever felt like I belonged somewhere more than I have the past 6.5 months. (ok this is getting mushy... )

My goal for the next 2.5 months is too really enjoy my time. I want to get as much out of this experience as possible and see as much as possible. I'm so much more positive about AmeriCorps then when I first started!! Maybe Round 2 next year in Denver or Sac?! I might just be that crazy.

Events of the Week

Monday- Got stuck in a thunderstorm
Tuesday- Made delicious chicken kabobs for my team, got pecked at by a rooster, screamed, and he came at me again!
Wednesday- Burned myself on a poptart, got a nasty blister, and counted rubber ducks... again. Went running after work, it was nice to work up a sweat.
Thursday- Today! I am working "AHA! Night" today which is a huge educational children's festival that is partnered with the local Ocean Explorium. We made 2 liter bottles into an ocean art piece. We collected seashells, rocks and seaglass (something they have on the East Coast, it's quite amazing!) and put them inside with some water and blue food coloring. We are going to be standing at a booth and educating kids about the wonders of the ocean and giving them some coloring pages to draw on. They're expected to have 900 kids at this festival and about 200 should stop at our booth. It should be fun! I know preparing for it was. I got to spend a few hours at the beach collecting rocks and seashells, just another hard days work :)
Friday- Tomorrow. Our generous sponsor invited us over to her beach front house for a BBQ and relaxing time at the beach. It'll be nice to get away from the farm.
Saturday- ANOTHER BBQ at my teammates house in Rhode Island and a volunteer project at a Music Festival... AND 1 week until Duck Derby and my return to Perry Point, MD! I never thought I'd be so excited to go back there. This Round has been a great experience, but I'm ready to sleep in a real bed again! 

Creativity at its finest

It's 6 o'clock on a Monday evening and I'm in the house at Stone Barn farm because it's raining. It's the Worst Case Scenario for a person who lives in a tent. You may ask, what does a person do that has a lack of electricity, no internet, hardly anywhere to be alone and one vehicle for transportation?! I would answer, that's a great question and if you have any suggestions for entertainment, please let me know! You are currently reading what I do when I'm stuck inside. We definetly have to be creative when we're living in tents in an open field on a farm. Yesterday, I painted with 3 paints I found in storage. Luckily, they were red, yellow and blue so you could mix them to make the secondary colors. I made some abstract cardboard art. I'm sure it'll be put in a museum someday. After work today, I showered at a dirty camp site's shower with some fellow spiders, did some push up's and sit ups, made some vocabulary flash cards for the GRE, and now this. I've actually been taking a lot of pictures in my spare time and trying out different settings to see what they do. I wish I had some kind of instrument here with me so I could practice that/ learn how to play it or Rosetta Stone so I could learn a language while I camp. That's right... I'm an ambitious camper. I need to keep my brain going, because I'm pretty sure my IQ gets lower everyday I sit down to label, plug, or wash 1 of 6,000 rubber ducks. I think I'm going to leave my shower stuff at the field station from now and work on running there every morning. I wake up at 6am against my will anyway, so I might as well. Maybe if I wake up earlier, I'll go to bed earlier and I won't have to come up with so many creative ways to entertain myself!!

Round 3, The Farm, Massachusettes.

I made it through my first week of camping in Westport, Mass. The first day I was extremely nervous about the living situation since we are sleeping in tents and have to go as a group to get the shower which is at our work, a 3 mile drive. Luckily, I am getting used to it rather quickly. I mean I'll never get used to being eaten alive by bugs on a daily basis, but maybe I'll become one with nature like Henry David Theoreau. Random Fact: Theoreau's book "Walden" was set in a pond in Massachusettes. Guess where I am?! Next to a pond in Massachusettes!!! I'm reading it right now in the hope that it'll inspire me to love nature. :) I don't think I'll ever love it as much as our sponsors though. They don't shave their armpits and have 7 trashcans for different recyling items.

Despite the less than ideal living situation, the location is great! I've been swimming in the Atlantic 3 times now. It's slightly different than the beaches at home in SoCal. It's much more rocky and the waves aren't nearly as big. Suprisingly the water is warmer! Nothing compares to laying on the beach in California though. Today as I was swimming I made one of my main goals to be to learn to surf when I get home. I'm ashamed to be from California and not know how to surf. I love the ocean and love swimming so why not add an extra tool in there to make it interesting.

Well, I'm out of time as usual! I hope to update this everytime I get online, but that usually doesn't work out!

I love meeting people that Reinforce my idea of why I'm here.

Today at Camden Children's Garden, I worked with the most amazing teenager. His name is Isiah. He's 16 gets good grades, runs his own landscaping business, plays basketball and works two jobs. He's on his way to Villanova University on a full-ride scholarship. This kid could really talk. He told me all about his travel team and the different places he's been in the country. He told me about how learning new languages is so interesting to him, because "you never know who you'll run into." He kept talking about AmeriCorps and how he wants to join, because he loves doing community service and volunteering. I just couldn't believe that a kid that came out of that neighborhood had so many accomplishments under his belt already. I didn't ask about his home life, but living in Camden can't be such a great thing. I told him that the great thing about AmeriCorps is that I get to travel the country and meet people who inspire me to be a better person. He's definitely one of those people.

It's really important for me to remind myself why I'm still doing this program, because the days can be really strenuous and coming home to a house of 10 people who clash is not exactly ideal. When I meet people like Isiah it reinforces my purpose for being here.

Needless to say today was a good day, I even got to go running!

Running.

All I want to do is go running.

New Round, New Adventures and a New Blog!

I made it to my second round location in Camden, New Jersey today where I have wifi in my house! This should make for a much more exciting and active blog now that I will be able to post more often.

Before I get into what I expect from this 2nd project, I want to touch on what an amazing experience New Orleans was.

I really fell in love with the city and the community of New Orleans. I have never been to a place where people are so passionate about their home. If you're looking to regain hope for humanity, New Orleans is the place to go. It was amazing to see the organization I was volunteering for, Habitat for Humanity, get by from mostly volunteer work. The houses they build, as well as the donation center where they receive some funding, is almost entirely run by volunteers. It's truly amazing to see how many people want to help out. I have had people ask me or make jokes about "Why rebuild New Orleans?" To me this question is so offensive. Many people, including myself, have put forth so much effort into rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. With that said, the answer to this question is simple: 1) The people are so passionate about their city, 2) anyone can go to New Orleans and fit in, it's a place that anyone can learn to call home and 3)No one's home deserves to be given up on.

Now onto Round 2! Time has really been going quickly! This round we are working with Camden Children's Garden to "green" the city and bring in fresh produce. Large supermarkets tend to avoid the city of Camden due to it's political corruption so it has come to be considered a "food desert." What we're going to be doing is planting gardens to produce some crops for the locals. We will also be doing a lot of environmental education with children in the area. I hope that this project will mean as much to me as my first. 

AND back to my blog about Rick in March, just to point out how random he is, here's a letter he wrote to my future husband for me, after he proceeded to steal my notebook:
April 2011
Dear Future Husband, I think about you a lot. Do you like to wash feet? I like clean feet. I enjoy making breakfast-in-bed for others so can I make that stuff for you? Do you like station wagons? I like them as they are mostly rare. I am gorgeous beyond words so you better put up with my manicure. -Melanie

Point Proven. 

Soon I'll post up some pictures of my time in New Orleans and the project I'm working on now!!

Road Trippin to New Orleans

Today began the real journey of AmeriCorps. We left this morning at 8:30 for Knoxville, TN. It took us 13 hours to get here. We got lost along the way and I had a minor bout of car sickness, but we made it. We leave tomorrow at 7:30, (bright and early!) for New Orleans. I just want to get there already. All 11 of my team members and I are going to be staying in a 3 bedroom house with 1 bathroom which should make for an interesting shower situation. We're going to be working on Habitat for Humanity which builds houses for Hurricane Katrina victims as well as other disadvantaged families in the area. I'm really excited for this project. It will really remind me why I signed up for this program in the first place which was to experience new exciting places and help people in need.

Induction into AmeriCorps

 

This is at our Induction ceremony into AmeriCorps. It's all the girls and Rick who happens to be one of the most funniest and random guys in AmeriCorps. We're all doing the "Riiiick" wave.

AmeriLife

I am going to do my best at explaining the last month of my life here in AmeriCorps, but so much has gone on it's hard to sum up in a few sentences. For the first three weeks we went through a lot of different trainings having to do with diversity, CPR, power tools certification and "child friendly spaces." (whatever that means) The good that came out of this is that I am now officially certified to use power tools, give CPR and use an AED (automatic external defibrillator, the electric shock thing that gets people's hearts to beat again). I won't lie training could be pretty brutal sometimes considering it was 8 hours of sitting in back to back lectures, but it's over now!





Well as usual I ran out of time to write, but there's an update.
I'm going to New Orleans for 6 weeks! I'm so excited!!!!

Don't have much time to write a full blog report, but I just want to send out an update to my friends and family. I've been in Perry Point for about 2 weeks and I'm still alive! It's a really really small town, with nothing interesting in walking distance. Fortunately, I'm super busy during the week so the only time I have to worry about filling up free time is on the weekends. So far, I've been doing A LOT of different trainings and preparations for our projects. I got my team assigned to me, a few of the members are going to be challenging to live with for 9 months, but overall I love my team. There is 1 girl who actually went to college in California at San Jose who majored in Psychology who will be on it.

I'm going to Philadelphia tomorrow with my roommate who has a car here. I'm so excited to get out of Maryland!

This has to be quick, but hopefully I'll have more updates and pictures soon. Miss you guys!