My AmeriCorps Journey

Que Viva Rojo Siete!!!

2008-07-31T04:32:00.000-07:00

It's 4:30 a.m. here in Sacramento and I haven't slept yet. In fact, I don't plan on sleeping until I get onto my plane at 9 a.m. My shuttle for the airport leaves at 7, but I have outprocessing and room inspection a half an hour before that. And, my team decided that since we're all leaving at different times, we should just wake up at 5:30 a.m. and say goodbye as we each leave. You might think I'm crazy for not sleeping, but this is just one more thing I'm adding to my list of experiences I've had during this part of my life. There's no way I would miss out on saying one last goodbye to each and every one of my friends I've made here in the Corps.

This is very unreal to me. I cannot believe that I just spent 10 months of my life serving America with 12 other strangers, in 4 different states, in one 15-passenger van. There are no words that can describe what I've seen, done and experienced, only memories that linger in my mind and my heart. I feel so blessed that God had given me AmeriCorps as my next step in life after college, because it has opened my eyes to the need that exists here in this country and I have met some truly dedicated, compassionate, unbelievable people while getting things done for America. This has been such a unique experience in that I was able to pause everything I could in my life to take these 10 months to give back to the people of this country, and do it with 12 strangers that are now and will be forever, my brothers and sisters. I have so much Red 7 pride and only the 13 of us can truly know and share this unforgettable chapter in our lives.

I am now an AmeriCorps Alum. When did this happen? It really has been 10 months? Time seems to fly when you're building houses with migrant workers in Coachella, CA, cooking food for 800 people at Camp Hope in New Orleans, restoring hurricane victims' homes in Hattiesburg, MS, and teaching children about recycling and camping in Salt Lake City, UT.

Done & done! For now. If anything, this experience has shown me that my generation really does share a passion for service and that I am not alone when I say that all I want to do in life is save the world. If that was an occupation, I'd totally choose that one. Until then, I plan to continue volunteering and becoming more civically engaged in my community. And I'm excited to "carry my commitment with me this year and beyond" through my next journey in my life: working as an Admissions Counselor at my alma mater, Elmira College.

Thank you for reading and taking this journey with me.

Your support means the world to me.

God Bless.

Peace Always,

Shaylee

4 Phases...Complete!!!

2008-07-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

We are done!!! With completing our fourth phase in Salt Lake City, it's the final weeks of my AmeriCorps journey. We had a wonderful time working for the Utah Federation for Youth, creating four WOW camps, volunteering at local festivals and mentoring refugee students through UFY. This last project was unforgettable, seeing my team work with children, let loose at the campfires, acting like kids themselves, and end the year with a bang! It was an excellent final project because we were once again blessed with amazing housing, given a fun project where we were able to be creative and we also had the most generous, outgoing sponsors any team could ask for.

I had the opportunity to be a tent leader for two of our camps, both times leading boys ages 7-9. I fell in love with my first tent group, the Green Gatorz (with a Z of course) and then my small group of just 3 returning campers, the Lime Lima beans of Lightening! I will never forget these boys and many other campers, including my pal, 10 year old, Shay. My favorite moments of this project were those that took place at the bonfire at each camp. My overall role for each camp was to teach my team skits and songs, assign each team member a song and skit and then act as an emcee at each campfire. I loved this job because my favorite memories as a child going to camp were those from campfires and it was such an awesome responsibility to take on! There's nothing like 40 kids who you just met that day, cracking up and rolling on the ground in laughter because of something funny my teammates or I did.

The final camp took place up at Snowbird ski resort, which happened to be absolutely beautiful and we invited previous campers back. We had each tent group draw out of a basket two skits in which the tent groups had to perform. It was so much fun to see the kids act out the skits that we had once performed for them.

On our last day of work we had a barbecue at our house and invited our sponsors where we reflected on our experiences and thanked them. We really were grateful to have them and we will miss them dearly.

For now ,I'm back in Sacramento, debriefing, filling out paperwork and returning gear for the next week. I will write once more before my journey ends!!!

Here's a video from the week I had the Green Gatorz (you'll notice the giant Z on Jordans face he had me paint)...we had peach cobbler for dessert and I had the boys critique the food, pretending to be Randy Jackson, Paula Abdule and Simon Cowell...they're so cute!!

Wonderful Outdoor World 1

2008-06-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Our first official program was cancelled because we didn't have enough campers signed up, so instead we played recreational games at a summer school. A lot of the kids we had that day were kids that attend WOW camp. We played relay races, tag and water games with the kiddies. The scooters were personally my favorite!

Our first camp program, WOW 1, is complete. We had a quick practice run before the kids arrived at Bend in the River Park at around 3pm and then we were non-stop until 3pm the next day. Luckily, it's only a 24-hour camp because these kids are high strung! They are urban youth and some refugee children that have never camped before. We had a great time with these kids. Sandra and I ran registration and the opening ceremony where we planned a skit for the entire staff to participate in so that they could introduce themselves to the campers. We had our team leader, Dan, dress up like Dorothy and she was trying to get to the wonderful world of WOW. On her journey to camp WOW, she met the gear lady, food staff, activities and campfire staff, all played by my teammates. I think the concept worked because it went really smoothly and they loved it! We atleast thought it was hilarious to see Dan in a dress. We had a scavenger hunt where the kids learned about the park and nature, they made rainsticks at arts & crafts, planted shrubs and trees and painted rocks that were placed at the entrance of the park so that they have a motivation to come back and show their families their contribution to the park.

The campfire was my favorite event, not because I was the host, but because it was really fun to see my teammates act silly in front of the kids and let any inhibitions go. I was really impressed with how quickly they were willing to participate in the skits and songs. It's really great to see how happy we can make these kids when they've only known us for a few hours.

The next day they took down all of their tents, went fishing, played team building activities and we had our closing ceremony. Each kid left with a certificate of participation, a flashlight, compass, t-shirt and sleeping bag. It was a smooth first run of camp and we start our next camp tomorrow!

4th phase...our final project!

2008-06-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

First I must apologize for not warning you all beforehand, but I am now in Salt Lake City, Utah! We had about ten days of transition in Sacramento, after our last project, and then we drove out here. We decided that since we had two days to make our trip and it should only take us ten hours to get here, that we'd take some time to hike. So, we stopped near Lake Tahoe in an area called Squaw Peak. We spent a few hours there, hiking and enjoying the peaceful environment. It was so beautiful there and I definitely could have spent many more hours there meditating. Then, we stayed the night in hoppin' Elko, Nevada, which really wasn't hoping at all. In fact, it was in the middle of nowhere. Then, we finished our trip and arrived in Salt Lake City where we met our sponsors from WOW (Wonderful Outdoor World) which is umbrellaed under UFY (Utah Federation for Youth). We will be working with urban youth, which happen to be refugee children, mostly from Africa, and teaching them about camping and the environment. We are all very excited because we get to finally have some sort of leadership role and get the opportunity to inspire young minds. We'll be staying in tents and teaching these kids about recycling and ways to better treat this earth, but all in 24 hours. They will only be with us for the day and we'll have 5 WOW camps total. This week we're training and planning the camps and then next week is our first WOW program. Hopefully I'll have some great pictures to post by then!

Voila!

2008-05-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

We finished the Cookie Monster House! After two weeks of cleaning, scraping, priming, painting, trimming, repairing and building we are done. The house looks so much better and the locals driving past the house stop and thank us for what we did. It never really felt like what we were doing would effect anyone other than the homeowners, but people from the community have stopped and/or honked to let us know that they appreciate what we've done. Even though we just fixed one woman's house, it's located on the corner of a busy street and according to the assistant to the mayor, it was a real eye sore for the community. She shook our hands and assured us that what we did made a huge impact. It's a great feeling and I'm so grateful to have been a part of this project. Ms. Dennison is so proud and continues to tell us how we've been a blessing to her and her family and even her teenage daughter thanks us for fixing up her once embarrassing home. Case one- complete.

Now, onto other homes and families that need our help. Ray, our supervisor, has been visiting other potential cases before we start a new one. So, we spent all day yesterday organizing and cleaning the shop. After organizing the 5 gallon buckets of paint for 2 hours, Ray realized we hardly had any space for them in the shop, so he recruited me to to build a shed alongside the garage. I, along with 3 or 4 other teammates, built the shed, with no experience in the shed-building field, and did our best. When the workday was complete and we were nowhere near done, team shed decided that we wanted to stay until it was done. After working a 12 hour day, we finished the basic structure of the shed, including shingling. It was a rough day in the beating sun, but it feels so great to have completed it!

Can't wait for what's to come our way next...

Cookie Monster Blue

2008-04-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

So here we are in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It's humid, hot and beautiful. There's so much to do here, especially since we are in the college town of the University of Southern Mississippi. We live practically on campus in a small house called the Wright House, owned by the Westminster Presbyterian Church. The church is affiliated with our sponsors, R3SM and United Way. R3SM stands for Recover, Rebuild, Restore Southern Mississippi. Here is the website for further info: http://www.r3sm.org/

Let me start off with our housing....it's a house this time! We are so happy with our home. I've taken a video of a tour of the house, just because there's no way I could describe it enough to give it justice. They really outdid themselves by giving us this place for the next 6 weeks. We feel so blessed, coming from all of us living in one huge room, in an old elementary school.

After our first day of work, we realized why they were pampering us so much. Our supervisor, Ray, is a retired Army drill sergeant. Yikes, Spikes! He is tough and from the second he met us, he stereotyped us. All he saw was a team of mostly girls, 9 out of 13, and shook his head. He had us show him our fingernails, hoping to see some girly hands. We quickly proved to him that we are girls, but we are just as hardworking if not more, than the guys. That's definitely one culture difference I've noticed about the South, the sexism in that men think women aren't as strong or shouldn't have the dirty jobs. It's so gratifying to prove that theory wrong!!!

We're working so hard here..in the smoldering sun, and extra long hours because Ray is never satisfied. He is a tough guy and always pushing us, but I love his approach. He pushes me to work harder and think quicker and I think this will be a good challenge for me. I think he's going to teach our team a lot.

This past week we've been repairing a home that hasn't been touched since the Hurricane. Ms. Dennison is the home owner and she's 72, living with her husband and their two adopted children, 14 and 16 years old. Their house was a mess and they've saved so much stuff that seems like junk to the rest of us. We're reminded by Ray that these people felt like no one was going to help them, and so they just gave up and saved everything they could. Well, we scraped their entire exterior of the house, primed it, removed and repaired panelling and frames and painted it "Old Country Blue" or as our team likes to describe it, "Cookie Monster Blue".

On a final note, although the work is very tiring and Ray is so hard on us, it's the words of the homeowners that really keep us motivated and make us realize why we are here in the first place. When we were midway painting her house, I asked Ms. Dennison what she thought about her house so far and she told us that she didn't know what to do with herself. She said "I'm 72 years old and I feel like it's my sweet sixteen". That's why I'm working for AmeriCorps. For people like Ms. Dennison. She is so grateful and feels so blessed to have us fix up her home, when she thought that they were forgotten.

Here is a before and almost after picture.

Phase 3 here we come!

2008-04-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

The Camp Hope kitchen crew is officially done!!! Our next project is in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. There we will be fixing up houses that have been hit by the hurricane. Yay! no more kitchen!!!

Phase Two..complete!

2008-03-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

We will be officially done with our second project on Tuesday! I can't believe we've been here for 9 weeks. I've enjoyed meeting the new people that come in every week, from all over the country, and getting to know the locals here. My team can agree when we say that the more we are here in New Orleans, the more we like it. It's such a bittersweet feeling to have to leave because although I feel ready to do another project, I'm really starting to love this city. I definitely recommend a visit...come down to help out a little because there's still so much more work to be done and then enjoy the New Orleans culture. The natives of this area are so proud of their home and now I can understand why. I've had begniets at cafe du monde, caught beads on bourbon street during Mardi Gras, saw alligators that were ten feet from me in their natural habitat, watched and listened to a real jazz band play on the streets of the french quarter and have eaten po' boys, gumbo, red beans 'n rice, and jambalaya. I am so grateful for this experience here because this place is such a unique treasure and I'm definitely coming back someday.

Past the Halfway point

2008-03-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since my last post. Wow, time flies. I'm not writing as much this spike because it seems as though we aren't doing anything new. Last phase we were trying new projects when building the houses. But here, working in the kitchen, we do the same thing everyday, so there's less to talk about. There have been a lot of perks during this spike, however, that I must admit I'm grateful for. After the Anderson Cooper visit, we volunteered at the NBA All star Rookie Challenge and because of that we were given tickets to the rest of the weekend. It was so kind of them to give us the $300 tickets to the NBA Allstar games. Thank you AmeriCorps! It's nice to know that our work doesn't go unnoticed in this community. If we wear our A in public, or our Camp Hope lanyard, or we tell people in New Orleans that we work for AmeriCorps, people actually know what it is and thank us for what we're doing. It makes our job much more worthwhile. We were also invited to the State of the Black Union that following weekend and although we did not attend, they still recognized us and thanked us.

We recently reached our halfway mark in our 10 month commitment and had a symposium in Baton Rouge this weekend. There were members from Maryland, Colorado and California campuses, including my friend from Albany who joined the Denver campus, Arielle. It was great to catch up with her and talk about our experiences with AmeriCorps, after not seeing her since my internship in Albany during my junior year in college.

I've recently applied for the Gulf Liaison Team, which is a support team that acts as a resource to the participating teams within the Gulf region. The GLT visits teams in the gulf and spends time helping them on their various projects, provide supplies that may be needed and strive to better the teams' experiences in the gulf. I was told that over 30 people applied and 9 made it to the interview process, including me. There are 7 positions open, so I'm crossing my fingers until I find out this week if I made it. Wish me luck!

There ARE some perks to this job...

2008-02-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, we have been working very hard in New Orleans, cooking food and taking care of the dining hall, however, we have been playing hard too. On Thursday night, Anderson Cooper of CNN came to broadcast his 360 show from Camp Hope!!! Earlier in the week I had helped make some signs with one of our Support Team Leaders. CNN and AmeriCorps asked that we make signs to promote AmeriCorps and New Orleans and to also have a Valentines Day theme (since that was the same day of the showing). We made about 20 signs and they were passed out amongst the corps members once we were staged. I of course kept one of mine to ensure my place somewhere in the front. Can you blame me? We waited for a very long time before our part came around, but Anderson Cooper was very funny and down to earth and kept us entertained. It was great to see how long it takes for the set to be set-up, the preparation it takes for a 30-second clip, and other behind the scenes work. We were live on CNN and the first part of the news was about the shootings at Northern Illinois University, so we were asked not to be in the shot. However, we were right there when he was interviewing people that were on that campus. It was so exciting to be live, and thankfully everyone was well behaved. I was texting my family back and forth behind my sign that I was holding, to make sure they could see me in the shot. Although the shoot wasn't about AmeriCorps, they did mention our work and that there is still so much work to be done and there's a great need for help in New Orleans. We were able to cheer in between stories, talk to him and joke around with him and hold up our signs. It was a pretty fantastic time and afterwards Coops stayed and answered questions, and took pictures. Very cool guy! See for yourself...

When in Rome..

2008-02-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

Hello all,
I'm writing to you from my new location: Camp HOPE in Saint Bernards, LA (basically New Orleans). We've been here since last thursday and I can already tell that I'm going to love this project. We are the Kitchen Crew here at Camp HOPE. Since Camp HOPE houses volunteers for Habitat for Humanity, we are essentially feeding the volunteers and camp staff. There are a few other AmeriCorps teams here too, which is such a difference from our last phase. While in Mecca, we were basically secluded from society, and here we are surrounded by people. FINALLY! :) The volunteers and locals are so thankful for the food we make them, which really makes our job great. Since meals need to be ongoing from breakfast to dinner, we are broken up into two shifts. The first shift is breakfast, and that crew works from 4a.m. to 12 p.m. Then, the dinner crew comes in at 12 p.m. to 8p.m. Lunch isn't served here because the volunteers are out on their contruction sites, however we have a salad bar and other food out for them to make their lunches when they please. It's really a good system and seems to be working.
It's been a unique experience talking with the local residents that come in for dinner. They can sit for hours telling us stories about people they knew, their family and friends and everything you didn't hear about on the news about Katrina. The stories are heartbreaking and to see the city still in such poor conditions is frustrating. My team finds it difficult at times to do our job, because we want to do so much more, especially when we drive by all the condemned and destroyed homes. But, we need to remind ourselves that what we are doing is just as important, because we are ones who not only feed the volunteers rebuilding homes, but we also have to be smiling faces and motivators. We're trying our best to make their dining experience a fun and delectable one!
Since we're in New Orleans during the Mardi Gras season, it was only fitting that we go downtown to celebrate. We went to see a few parades here and that was quite the experience. After hours of requesting beads (by just yelling and reaching), we realized that they are giving away so many that we don't need to ask, they just come falling from the sky. I can't tell you how many times I was hit in the face by beads when I wasn't looking. It's dangerous!! The people really have a great time celebrating, and it seems to be a refuge for them, away from the realities of the destruction. When the locals told us we were not allowed to cook on Fat Tuesday and that we had to go see the parades, we realized that it was the repsectful thing to do. They are really proud of their holiday and wanted us to experience it. So, we did and we saw some crazy things! Not everyone can say that they spent Mardi Gras IN New Orleans...

Better late than never?...

2008-01-27T13:33:00.000-08:00

Wowzers, I haven't written in forever. But, I warned you all that I'd be bad at this. A lot has been happening since we've been back from Christmas break and time flew. We are currently done with working for the CVHC in Coachella Valley. But, before I introduce our new project, let me go back....The last few weeks, work became more interesting because we were allowed to try new things. We learned how to lay shingles on the roof, we hammered 2 X4's into the ceilings of the homes as extra support for the vents in each room, we also installed vents on the outside of the homes, using caulk and a really tall ladder. I think my favorite type of work we've done has to be working on the roof. I really love working up there, a. because we are surrounded by beautiful mountains and you can see them better from up there, and b. because I love hammering! We hammered a lot of plywood onto the roofs. And, my other favorite project was hammering in the support for the vents inside the house because the nails we used were really long and really difficult. The metal would bend from the friction when we would hammer hem, causing the nail to bend and become almost impossible to get into the wood all the way. But, the more I did it, the quicker I became and it felt so good to be efficient with it. Mikey and I were partners and we were flying through the houses, getting them done. :)

Our last week was a little bittersweet because although we were all ready to move on to a new project, it wasn't until the end that we realized how lucky we were and how much we really did love our project. Isn't that usually how we take life though? We never appreciate what we have until it's gone and that's so unfortunate. It was hard saying goodbye to the kiddies that we tutored on Thursdays. We can only hope that we've been positive influences in their lives. The last day with them was a blast,although I'm not quite sure the kids understood why we had to go... My team will especially miss our site supervisors, Mario, Dario, Alberto and Rigo. They were all such hard workers and we learned that Mario and Rigo started off as migrant workers, making their way up to the supervising position. It was touching to hear their life stories and it really makes us feel so lucky to have worked for them. It was a very sad goodbye, but hopefully they will remember us forever, as I know my team will.

As for our next project, and I will have more later, we have learned that we will be living in St. Bernards Parish in Camp HOPE in New Orleans! We will be the kitchen staff, which means we are cooking for the volunteers who come to work for Habitat for Humanity. We'll be there during the peak alternative spring break time, which means there will be thousands of volunteers coming through. We're excited for the most part and I'm happy to be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras season. Until next time....peace.

Back to Business...

2008-01-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

Hey all...
Well, I'm back from break. We were given about ten days to go home for Christmas and it was a much needed break. Work is great, but its so exhausting, so it was nice to be home to relax and get some rest. Now that we're back, we have about 3 weeks left in our first Spike. This week was short, since we just got back, but we got right back to business. We were split up into jobs and mine was roofing with Marcy, Mikey, Valerie and Lauren. We nailed in all the plywood for about 6 roofs. I've realized that with all the different types of construction we've had to do so far, roofing is by far my favorite! I really love working up there and nailing down the tar paper and the plywood. It's really exciting and its great to see a house that was once without a roof, now have a complete one, with my help! Yesterday, Mikey and I were stuck in one house all day, screwing in drywall guides. This wasn't the most exciting job we've had, but it's important for us to keep in mind that no matter how monotonous the work, it's all work that needs to get done.
I'm really excited that we are almost done with this spike. I'm a little bored with the work for now, and know that I have so much more to look forward to. I am hoping that we'll be working in an area where there is more to do in our free time and more people around us. Right now, we feel a little secluded. My team is arranging plans to try to make the most of our last few weeks in Coachella Valley, hoping to visit Costa Mesa (where our team leader is from) and also take the aerial tramway in the mountains!
That's all for now I guess..until next week! Peace.

Tour of a house we help build

2007-12-22T17:40:00.000-08:00

You may have to tilt your head a little...

Want tickets to the gunshow?

2007-12-09T17:18:00.000-08:00

This week has been both mentally and physically challenging for all of us on Red 7. We've been working so hard to get the homes in Unit 21 completed. Our goal was to get these homes finished so that the families can move in for Christmas, and since we worked so quickly and efficiently, they will! Go us. We laid sod in the front yards of four homes and nailed tar paper sheets onto the roof of two homes. Those two assignments were the most fun after digging for days the week before. It's been really great doing the final touches for these homes and seeing the owners come home after working all day and seeing the work we've done for them.
Wednesday through Saturday was the most challenging part. We left Mecca and went to the Northshore area, which was our original assignment location. These homes are still in steel frame mode and are in the beginning stages. Our job this week was to dig ditches so that we can lay the electrical wires in the ground. We had to dig 4 feet deep into the ground for about 120-130 feet alongside the houses. The first day was difficult because we didn't know what we were doing, and the ditch turned out to be wide and curvy, but by the end of the week we became pros. We can dig a 130 ft. straight and narrow ditch in less than 3 hours. We did this for about 6 homes!!! Since the homeowners come home around 4 after work and the sun goes down around 5, they only have an hour a day to work on it. Also, they don't have nearly as many people as we do, so it would take them forever to get these ditches dug. It's really great that we have 13 people on our team to do it for them. One family brought us lunch, they were so grateful. Things like that really make my job worthwhile. :)

2007-12-03T11:37:00.000-08:00

Hey all...sorry it's been a while. I've been so busy with finishing CTI and transitioning into my first phase. We left Sacramento last Monday for our first Spike in Coachella Valley, CA. It was supposed to be an eight hour drive and we left at 7:30 a.m., but since we got lost and seperated from our team leader in the cargo van, we didn't end up arriving at our housing site until 11 p.m. Yikes, spikes. We've been here for a week and already I feel so accomplished. We're currently working for the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (see website: http://www.cvhc.org/). We're helping build housing for migrant workers in the Valley and finishing up the final touches on the homes that are almost done. This past week I installed a sprinkler system at one home with three of my teammates, and with my entire team we dug trenches in the backyards of about 10 homes, so that they have a proper drainage system when it rains. With this program, the workers are building their own homes, under the supervision and guidance of contractors, etc., so that they have a sense of pride and ownership in these houses; we just assist them. The wonderful thing about this is, what would take these migrant workers 2 weeks to do, we can do it all in 2 hours. So, although it can get tiring, it's really motivating to see the joy and relief in the homeowners eyes when they see how much time we've saved them.

We wake up tues-fri at 4:50 a.m., do PT until 5:45, then get to work by 7. We work 7-11, have ciesta from 11-2, and then go back to work until 5 p.m. On Thursdays, after ciesta, I go to the local tutoring center in our housing complex, along with Meggan and Mikey, and we tutor children from Kindergarten to 12th grade in Math and English, and then play outside once they're done. I'm not done yet...we also work on Saturdays, from 6a.m.- 2p.m., then we have Yoga, and the weekend begins after that. So, we have a pretty intense schedule and it's very hard work, but it's rewarding and I feel good at the end of the day when my body is sore from shoveling dirt for 7 hours.

Red 7 to the rescue...

2007-11-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

Me, in my "A". We spent 7.5 hours at the zoo again on Friday. We took down an entire cage, including the wire walls, ceiling and then all of the boards holding it up. They needed us to take down this cage so that they can expand on another building.

My team is amazing. We all worked together and it felt so good to complete the task. It was our first time doing this kind of work and now we all feel a special conection to this zoo...

Lions, Tigers & Bears...

2007-10-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had our first mini project with our official teams. Earlier in the week we were told that we would be participating in the Sacramento "Make a Difference" Day, and that every team would be working in the community somewhere. We found out in the morning that we were assigned, along with one other team, to the Folsom City Zoo and Animal Sanctuary. It was so exciting! We were there to help wherever they needed us, so they split us into groups of 3-5 people and told us what they needed us to do. My first assignment was to clean out the Tigers cages. It was great because they really kept it up nicely, that all we had to do was rake the leaves and some hair out of the cage. Then, when we were finished, we took a picture of us inside the tigers den and once we got out, they let the tigers into the cage. We then moved on to the Bears cage and filled some holes they had dug with dirt, raked more leaves and laid out food for them. It was great to finally get our boots dirty for the first time. Later, we weeded around the Fox cages, moved some large rocks from a garden, and then removed dead cattails from the wetlands (30 large trash bags full!). It was a very long, hot and dirty day, but it was very rewarding work to see how happy the people who worked at the zoo were. My team absolutely loved this project, not only because it was our first hands-on project together, but because it was real, hard labor and we felt productive and the zookeepers were so thankful for our help. I'm looking forward to our next project...

Phewph!...I'm here...

2007-10-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

After a very, VERY long day of flying from Buffalo to Cincinnati to Los Angeles to Sacramento, I am finally here! It was not an easy task however. My first flight left at about 6:45 a.m, eastern standard time, and with my connecting flights and all of the rushing in between the close-calls, we didn't arrive in Sacramento until 2:15 p.m. pacific time. It was great because there were four of us from the Buffalo area who were all flying the same flight plan together. It was nice that we had eachother because I might have cried if I was alone when I found out my luggage wasn't in Cali with me. Once we arrived here we were informed that our luggage was missing. There were six of us, each with two bags claimed. They somehow placed 12 bags on the wrong fight. Nice. So, we sat around outside of the airport playing cards, laughing, feeling exhausted, and getting to know eachother for a little over 2 hours. It was a great bonding experience, but very tedious. When we finally arrived here, it was chaotic, most of the people had gone through the check-in stations and they were closing down. So, we'll have to finish all of that tomorrow at some point.
My roommate is one of the girls that I spent the day with from Buffalo. Her name is Linsey. (Hold the D) She's a nice girl, pretty young, first time living in a dorm setting, so I'm excited for her. I hope we get along, at least for the month we have to live together.
I am beat. This whole time zone thing is killing me. I have to be up at 6 a.m. tomorrow for breakfast and the rest of the festivities, so I must get to bed. I miss everyone already. I hope this makes some sense. Keep in mind I am jet lagged. I hope to write a better blog in the future, but this will do for now. I love you all!!!
Peace.

4 days...

2007-10-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

Really? Just four?...Yikes, spikes. I've known about this since March and since then I've been itchin to get out there to Cali and so excited. But, now that it's only four days away, I'm getting nervous and sad. I know what's ahead of me is going to be amazing and life changing and a positive experience, but thinking about being away from my family and friends for so long is what gets to me. I've been used to being away from home for a couple of months at a time, being away at college for four years, but I would make trips home when I needed to, for holidays, or even if I was just homesick. Being committed to AmeriCorps, I won't be able to make that trip home when I want to. I won't be home until Christmas and then after that, I won't be home until my term is completed in July. That is such a long time.
Despite my anxiety and fears, I'm looking forward to the next ten months of my life. I hope it leads me to better things. In fact, I have no doubt it will.
If I don't get to personally say goodbye, then here it is. I will be thinking of you all and missing you. Please feel free to read and comment my blog. I don't think I'll have a lot of phone time or email time, so this might be the only means of communication. I don't know what to expect, but I imagine I'll be given some time to post here. Wish me luck!
God Bless.
Peace Always,
Shaylee

Oh, the anticipation...

2007-09-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

I've decided to get this lil blog ditty started in my anticipation of the beginning of my AmeriCorps journey. Although I do not know how often I will have access to the internet to post, I will try my best to keep my family and friends up-to-date. I plan to let you all know what kind of projects I'll be involved with and also put up some pictures to give you all an idea of what I'm doing. I'm not the greatest at these sort of things, but I'm worse at writing emails and letters. Feel free to check my blog whenever you want, since I might not be available to personally tell you to. Hope you like it!