Game on!

Day 4 in sunny Sacramento! As many of you already know, I made it to California a week after the government shutdown ended. My first day was Thursday, October 24th, but I feel like I've been here for multiple months! I'm settling into my dorm, meeting tons of new people, and have even completed a full day of service working in community gardens in the Sacramento area!

On my first day, I was exhausted and a little nervous. I departed from the Dane County Regional Airport in Madison at 5:50am and landed in Sacramento before noon west-coast time. It was a very full morning of travel and by the time I arrived, I just felt like going to bed! It was surreal getting to campus after all of the delay and uncertainty. I think everyone felt the same way. I spent my first afternoon feeling a little awkward and shy. I was also worried that I had made the wrong decision. I missed home and I missed Kelly and I just felt out of place. That evening, however, we had a community meeting where the region's director, Jose Philips, spoke passionately about our program's mission and our place within that mission. He really made me feel hopeful and inspired about this year. I remind myself everyday that I'm here to get things done for our country. It's totally a personal journey, but it's also a personal challenge that I willing gave myself: work with and for the team to make a difference. Since then, I've been enjoying the unique experience of living and working as one small part of a larger unit. It's not necessarily easy for me, but I love the intentionality of the challenge and I keep in mind that this is a 10 month commitment to service...not a vacation :)

Yesterday, my team spent the morning at a beautiful horticulture garden. I learned about so many cool Californian plants. Did you know that pomegranates grow here!?? It was beautiful. There were herbs and flowers and fruit trees everywhere. There are also so many hummingbirds all around here! I've seen at least five of them and I've also seen a couple black phoebes, which are pretty spectacular little birds! After the horticulture garden, we moved on to spend the afternoon at a church where members are working incredibly hard to develop a huge community garden space. We hauled decomposed granite all afternoon to make wheelchair-accessible paths through all of the raised beds. My forearms are burning as I type this from all of the wheelbarrow loads I carried, but it really felt good to do some physical labor with my team. I love community gardens. It was amazing to see how a dry, empty, gross-looking lot can be completely transformed by a few garden beds full of vegetables. The space looked beautiful and welcoming. I want to return to the church for a service someday just to meet the community that will work in the gardens. It was also very touching to know that if I ever return to this area and drive by that church, I will know that my  steel-toed boot prints are in the granite pathways forever.For the next ten months I'll be traveling around this region doing similar projects and I love knowing that I'm leaving a piece of myself at each site just as they are sending a huge part of their selves with me.

I'm getting kicked out of the computer lab in a minute so I have to cut it short, but thanks for reading and I'll try to update again soon...at least before we leave on our first spike on November 14th!

Titles and Shutdowns

Naming intangible things has always been a challenge for me. A puppy, a car, a person...easy: Edgar, Sheila, Francisco. Simple as that. But a blog. I can think and think for ages and never decide on a clever title to catch the eyes and minds of readers everywhere. I've been wanting to start this Americorps blog to chronicle my 10 month term with the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) for many months, but the first step in creating a new blog has postponed the operation until this very last minute: "Title:" 

I decided to go the simple route. I'm one of many young adults who choose a year of volunteer service before, after, or instead of college. I'm one of many who will serve our nation and address various community needs to the best of our abilities. One Americorps journey in a sea of others. Some of us will come from similar places. Some will be as different as squirrels and birds. Fortunately, both creatures spend a significant amount of time rustling around in trees, eating, and squawking amongst themselves. None of us are all that different, after all. We've joined the same program and committed – at least for a year, but maybe a lifetime – to the same goals and guiding principles.

One other thing we all have in common: this government shutdown is messing up our plans!! For the Pacific Region Class XX of Americorps NCCC, October 9^th 2013 has been a countdown date for months.  We have received our duffle bags, said our goodbyes, and mentally prepared to leave our homes for the great unknown. With eight days left on the countdown clock: SHUTDOWN rings across the nation from local Daily Heralds to the New York Times. We wait. Americorps is a federal program that can only afford to help the nation if it is funded by the nation.

We’re beyond party politics at this point. We have become an ungovernable nation pulled into a wildly burning building by a small group of old hypocritical white men (and Michele Bachmann) who would rather destroy our country than not get their way. Are you reading the news about the World War II Memorial? The very same republican (sorry, I know I said this was beyond party politics but there’s no denying that the republicans are to blame for this disaster) congressmen (and Michele Bachmann) that – for years – have been celebrating the possibility of shutting down the federal government are now posing for photo–ops with World War II vets saying that the shutdown “SHOULD NOT close their Memorial: Cut that tape, gentlemen.” Hypocrites, the lot of you.

In many ways, I’m sick of this country and would like to leave it for a more normal place that takes care of its citizens and actually has a working democracy. Yet, in my heart, I know that there are more beautiful, wonderful places and people here than there are bad. “Love it or leave it,” the long time slogan of so many close–minded individuals could not be more ridiculous. Love it. Be critical of it. And FIX it, I say. Now open up the government so I can start to do my part with Americorps, please!