Day Of Service With Completely New Team

Well, this weeks blog will be the last blog about NCCC until after Christmas break. I may or may not post a blog about my Christmas break i'm not sure yet...we'll just have to see. But anyway, this past week was transition week here in Vinton and all the other teams returned home from their first spike. During that week we had different training classes and community meeting which the 2nd and final one my team had to conduct. Which was fun b/c we made a video titled "The Real World Vinton" haha. It was fun to make and we had good feedback from it. On Thursday the 17th it was "all corps service day", so everybody was sent out to different projects. The difference, though, was that we were all placed on different teams. Everybody on my team for this day was somebody that I haven't been with before. And the ATL's (assistant team leaders) were the TL's for the day and the TL's were just regular corps members. Anyway, my team had an assigment in Cedar Rapids working at 4 Oaks painting rooms. It was pretty cool because we got to paint but also got to know each other quite a bit. And especially for me, it was cool getting to socialize with new faces and get to bond a little bit with them. I had a blast and made some new friends, which I enjoyed a lot. I'll post a few of the pics down below.

A lot of taping was involved in this project and several coats of paint. The ladies that were in charge there were super nice and fed us cookies, drinks etc. And even let us sort through baskets of free Adidas shirts they received and let us pick some that we wanted. I ended up getting three shirts. Pretty sweet.

A few days before the all corps day, on Monday night, my team Cedar 7 was invited to our Spike 1 supervisor's place for a pancake dinner. Well after we ate we played this card game which I can't remember the name of, but it was pretty sweet. She also introduced us to the magic animal in her house. Apparently if you squeeze it, you receive the magic. So we passed it around and started da squeezin'.

Well, i'm home in Alabama as I type this out. Here for 2 weeks and then go back to Vinton, IA for the remainder of my service with NCCC which will be about 7 months, up until July 29th or so. I hope you all have a great Christmas and you stay safe. I'll post again soon. Maybe during break, maybe not...but we'll see! But until then , "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!

Vinton, Iowa Spike 1

Well, it sure has been a while since i've posted a blog on here but hey here it is!!! I'm now in Vinton, Iowa as you all know still with AmeriCorps NCCC. The pic above is my new team and they are AMAZING! Some of the funnest people ever! Ok so I arrived here about 2 weeks ago and from the get go I started work with this team. CEDAR 7!! Our project is in Cedar Rapids, IA which is only about a 45 minute drive from Vinton, so we ended up staying on campus for our housing. Which is nice b/c we have the entire campus to ourselves along with one other team....CEDAR 6. Also, some really cool people to hang out with. Anyway, we are working with a volunteer group out of Cedar Rapids repairing homes. So far i've done a lot of mudding, sanding, and putting up dry wall.

Last Saturday me, Trishy, and Daniel did an ISP (Independent Service Project) with the Vinton Rec Center doing 2 different activities. In the morning we helped worked what they called "breakfast with Santa". We cooked and prepared the food. Then we served it. Helped clean up and get ready for the next event which was crafts with the kids!

I had a blast helping these kids out. And what talent! Some of the coolest design i've seen. Definitely a lot of fun and would love to do this type of work again.

Two of the days this past week, we were given the day off as far as work in Cedar Rapids goes, b/c of the snow. But we did, however, still work on campus and do service.

This past Friday night we had a murder mystery dinner! It was a blast! I played the firefighter haha. Even though I came dressed as a millionaire b/c thats what i was told. But that's ok! It was soo much fun especially since that was the first time i've done anything like that.

Yesterday a few of us went snow sledding. I've never done that so that was super cool!

All in all, my first spike has been a blast.....helping rebuild/repair these homes so these communities can continue to recover and grow is such a huge uplifting thing to do. The results have been astronomical and they're only going to get better. That excites me that even after we're gone, there will be others to come behind us and continue the work. I've been blessed enough to be working on this project and i'm excited to see how the next project will be. Which by the way is going to be in Lake Charles, LA!!! Thanks guys, I hope you have a blessed day! "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!