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!