Adventures in the San Luis Valley

     This Sunday I was lucky enough to explore some awesome parts of the San Luis Valley with my team.  It was a very physically tiring but spiritually refreshing day.  Center can feel a little isolated sometimes, so it was great to get out and see the fun, beautiful things that surround it.

     First, we stopped at a UFO watchtower in the middle of nowhere.  It was so quirky and cute! 

The dome-shaped building is a gift shop, which unfortunately wasn't open.  The metal deck above it is the watchtower... open 24 hours a day!  The objects strewn in front of it make up "the garden".  It is full of little tokens different people have left.  My team and I added a few silly things we had on us. For me it was a bandaid, because I am always prepared. =)

His UFO broke down.  Luckily, he had a chariot.

Not Responsible for Accidents OR Abductions!

I had to get my picture taken here because I am a Poole, and that is what Pooles do.

     We drove away from our new alien friends and headed to the Great Sand Dunes National Park for a barefoot, sandy hike.  It is such a beautiful place!

our view driving up

geeking out! photo cred: Láni

Celebrating our victory after reaching the top of a respectably tall peak. photo cred: Erin

Kyle climbed even higher than we did and took Instagram photos of us that made us look deep.

Dirty, happy team picture.

     After the dunes, we went to the nearby Zapata Falls.  It was a winding drive up a mountain and a short half mile hike to one of the most unique sights I've ever seen...

 a frozen waterfall!  It was so blue, and felt like glass.  There was just a tiny trickle of water still flowing behind the ice.

From where we were on the mountain, there was a great view of the other mountains and dunes.  Doesn't it look unreal?

There was also a great view of the San Luis Valley.  I wish I knew how to use the panoramic feature on my camera so I could have captured the whole thing, with the mountains on both ends.  (I'll have to learn and go back!)  It's such a strange, beautiful place.  Interspersed with tiny towns like Center, surrounded by snow-covered mountain ranges and desert sand dunes.  Where am I?

     School has been going great.  I've gotten to teach a few lessons independently, which feels so cool.  Also, the student whom I was helping complete his science fair project got everything done on time! 

This is his cardboard AC Generator.  We weren't able to make it generate light, but it did generate heat!

     I only have one more day of school this week, because Friday through Monday is my "spring break".  Unfortunately, I won't be coming home to Michigan because getting anywhere from Center is quite challenging and expensive.  I'll be resting in our (Center) house a lot and hopefully exploring the area a little bit more.  

     Only a few more weeks here... time is going by so fast!  Today I turned in my rankings of the Round 3 project choices.  I'm really hoping to do environmental work, tent camp and live in a state I've never been to before.  I'll post here as soon as I find out what I get, but it might be awhile!  Round 3 will also be interesting because it is a shuffle round where I won't be with my usual team.  I'm going to miss them a lot, but it will be fun to become closer with people I don't know as well.  

     Bye for now!

    

Center of the Universe

Hey!

Not much news to tell but things are going great.  I've settled into a routine... helping with ESL and science every day, childcare on Monday nights and reading club on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.  ISP's on the weekends!  I've now officially completed my 80 required ISP hours.  It's a good feeling!  Now I can still do ISPs if I want, but they're not required.

Our first Center ISP was at La Puente, an emergency shelter and food kitchen in Alamosa.  We helped prepare and serve lunch for a crowd!  It was really fun.

The next weekend we helped the San Luis Valley begin setting up their new ReStore.  It was nice to be working with Habitat again!  And nice to be working as a team... we are all split up between different classrooms at the school.  Both of these photos were taken by Láni. =)

     ESL is really interesting.  Right now we're reading the poems of Gary Soto and Sandra Cisneros... I highly recommend them! We're working hard to analyze the poems... it is something that the students will need to know how to do on their upcoming TCAP tests.  The TCAP's are 4 days of state testing that helps determine where the students are at and what kind of funding the school will get.  That's what we'll be helping with during our last week here, and then the kids will go on spring break and we'll go back to Denver. 

     The science fair that I've been helping students prepare for is on Friday.  I am nervous and excited to see how they do!

     Yesterday was the first day of reading club, and I love it.  We have about ten 5th graders attending.  Some are there because they absolutely love to read and can't get enough of it... and some are there because their parents are making them come!  I'm especially excited to get those ones excited about books.  We're going to read The Pinballs by Betsy Byars together.  

      Not much else to tell!  Helping Habitat again this weekend and hopefully going to the Great National Sand Dunes.  Bye for now!

Settling In

Hello!

     I spent the rest of my weekend continuing to settle into my house and explore.  We checked out an awesome cafe in the nearby mountain town of Del Norte called Peace of Art Cafe.  It had yummy food and lots of cool souvenirs!

on our way we found the welcome sign...

and got a closer look at the nearby mountains.  I'm sorry this blog is being taken over by pictures of the Rockies.  But they are so pretty.

outside the cafe

inside

Hopefully we'll be able to explore the other neighboring towns soon... Monte Vista and Alamosa. 

On Monday we started work at the school.  For most of the day, I am helping in an English as a Second Language class for middle schoolers and high schoolers.  And for a few hours in the afternoon, I help in a middle school science class.  After school on Mondays I help provide childcare for kids whose parents are taking parenting classes.  On other days I tutor, and I'm trying to help get a reading club started.  

Even though it's pretty busy, I really like the work so far.  The staff and kids are really cool.  And I'm glad to be having classroom experiences, since I'm still thinking about becoming a teacher.  The community continues to be very welcoming... we found a box full of homemade fruit breads on our doorstep yesterday after work!  

Happy Valentines Day!  <3

Feeling "Centered" =)

Hello!


     I am writing to you from the public library in Center Consolidated Schools! It is great to be here. I had a great week in Denver relaxing.  I mostly spent time on campus, but I also

 cooked with friends...

...and ate with friends at Fire 7's house... they are local this round doing taxes in Denver.  We made an amazing vegetarian feast!

 I also got to enjoy the view of the Rockies from City Park with my team.

     We debriefed on our disaster relief experiences with all the other teams who went to New York.  It was a great way to process our time there, and we felt very appreciated and welcomed back by the staff.  Our regional director and many others sat in on our debrief to hear about how everything went.  A few other teams are heading to New Jersey to help out now.  I think they flew out yesterday!  

     Before we knew it, it was time to head out to Center.  The drive was absolutely gorgeous!

Center is four hours south of Denver.  We drove straight into the mountains.

During the drive, it was hard to put my camera down.  See my reflection?

We stopped to eat and switch drivers in Salida, Colorado.  This is what Fire 1 looks like right now.  During transition week after Christmas break, Nadav and Tobin were switched to other teams and we gained Eric (the tallest guy in the middle) and Kyle (the guy farthest right).  Recently, Conor decided to leave the program to take advantage of an exciting job opportunity.

After just a few hours, we arrived at our new home!  It used to be housing for migrant farm workers, so it has a lot of rooms, showers, stoves and refrigerators.  It's perfect for us!

We took a quick tour of the school and met our sponsor.  This building houses all of the K-12 students of the district and the town's public library.

They're the Vikings, just like Lakewood. =)  Our training to work in the school doesn't start until Monday, so we have the weekend to relax...

...make valentines...

and explore the tiny town!  This is Center's busiest intersection. =D  It reminds me so much of Sunfield.

It's a cloudy day, but I tried to get some pictures of the surrounding mountains.  This one turned out best, but it still pales in comparison to actually seeing them.  The town is nestled between a few different gorgeous, snow-covered mountain ranges.  I'll definitely be hiking during my time here.  

     The people of Center are even more impressive than Center's scenery.  It is such a close-knit community, and everyone has been so kind to us already.   Tonight we have been invited to eat dinner at the superintendent's house with his family.  I'll try to post again soon, after I know more about what my work here will be like!  Until then... =)

NYC Disaster Relief

I thought I'd try something new and make a video about my experience instead of a long post.  I hope you like it! 

Side note: at the end of the video, I say I don't know what my next project is.  A few minutes after I finished making the video and saved it for the last time, I actually found out that my team is in fact going to Center, Colorado to help at Center Consolidated Schools!  We leave a week from tomorrow. I'm pretty excited. 

1st Transition Week in Denver

Hello all!

I hope you all had a happy holiday season.  My time in Oklahoma City ended well.  On my last day of work with Habitat, I got to use a staple gun on the roof with my favorite supervisor.  It was a great ending to a great project. =)  We had safe travels from Oklahoma back to Denver.  Then, I got to go home to Michigan for a two week Christmas break and spend time with my family and friends.  I saw Chris for the first time since August!  It was such an awesome reunion.  I had coffee in the mornings with my mom and played chess with my dad.  I spent a lot of time with my sisters, and got to see quite a few friends and extended family.  Unfortunately, it went by much too fast.  But it was a really special, wonderful two weeks.

 Home for the holidays!

Airport reunion.

Family date night.

I came back to Denver on Sunday and began my first transition week.  We'll have a transition week in Denver between every project to get some important things done.  We debrief on the project we just got done with, which basically entails having a conversation with staff about it's highlights, challenges and everything in between.  We complete any additional training we need; for example, I had training for another team role I'm taking on: peer helper. A peer helper is someone on the team that receives training in active listening and signs a confidentiality agreement so that their teammates can have someone to talk to about personal issues they need to get off their chest without fear of everyone knowing their business. We brief on the project we are heading out to, which is another formal conversation with staff about our goals and what we know going in.  Overall, it's been nice!  It's good to see some friends from CTI, and we've had a little more free time this week than we did back then. I also got to have lunch with the national director of NCCC, Kate Raftery.  I was really excited to have that opportunity!

There was a residence life activity this week called the black and white ball.  Everyone was encouraged to dress "classy or trashy".. in nice clothes or in a trash bag costume!

Kind of blurry.. I decided to be batman!  

My favorite costumes of the night!  Trash bag Darth Vader and Princess Leia.  

During transition week, the staff sometimes has to rearrange teams.  A few people have left the program since Round 1 began, and the teams need to be rebalanced to make sure they are diverse and all have roughly the same number of people.  Nadav was switched from my team to a different one... we are going to miss him a lot!  Then Eric, from another team, joined ours.  We like him a lot already and are looking forward to getting to know him. 

The plans for my Round 2 have changed!  My team and I, along with 3 other teams, are going to spend the first few weeks of Round 2 in New York City helping with Hurricane Sandy relief.  Mainly we'll be working in Queens, more specifically Breezy Point and Rockaway.  I think our main responsibilities will be mucking, gutting and mold suppression.  We'll be staying either in a fire house or the sanctuary of a church.  We leave tomorrow morning... we'll fly to Philadelphia, spend a night there, and then drive to NYC the next morning and begin work soon after.  I'll be there until January 30, come back to Denver and rest for a week, and then head out on another project to finish up Round 2!  My team isn't sure what ours will be yet.  There's a slight possibility that we could still go to Center Consolidated Schools, but we just don't know.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to post on here while I'm in NY.  I doubt we'll have wifi, and I'm not bringing my laptop.  Hopefully I'll find a computer at some point!  But either way, I will take a ton of pictures and do a big update when I can.  I'm so excited to have this opportunity.  I think it will be a very challenging but very good.

Here's an interactive map of where the teams from my region will be this round. If you click on the little pins, you'll see a blurb with more info about that project!
http://www.batchgeo.com/map/4139e73cba46cd4c6df1106d86897aea

Happy new year!  I'll stay in touch the best I can.

Long Update

     Long time no post!  Things have been crazy here, but very good.  I'll share the highlights of the last few weeks. 
    
     We worked in Yukon a lot, on homes in the early stages of construction. 

With José, my team and I put up the subfascia of this house.  Which meant I got to use the nail gun a lot, my favorite tool.  

     We also got to frame a different house, which means with a huge group of other volunteers, we put up the walls!  It was an awesome experience.  It was a high energy environment with so many people there to help out.  It was really satisfying to see the drastic change that happened there over the course of just one day's work.

At the beginning of the day, the house looked like this...

We assembled walls on the ground and pulled them up together.  I can't tell you what an amazing feeling that was.

Mid-day...

The end of the day!

Everyone who helped.

This picture is for Nadav's family from the day of the framing. =)

     That weekend we explored a unique part of town called Stockyard City.  It was very... western!  

It inspired Meghan and I to change our image.

And we saw the world's largest stocker and feeder cattle market!  No one was there but us...  But it was pretty cool. =)

     That day we also walked around the free outside portions of the Myriad Botanical Gardens.  It was really beautiful and peaceful there... I highly recommend it!

partial team picture.

     Another week of work blew by, and we spent a little more time in Las Rosas, a Habitat community.  We were caulking and painting, and before we knew it, it was the weekend again.  I got to go home to Michigan for a few days and see my sister Hanna graduate college.  I also got to celebrate my dad's birthday and celebrate Christmas with some of my extended family!  It was great to be home; I am so lucky.  There are many more people I wish I could have seen during me short time there... but I will be back very soon for Christmas! 

My family.

     When I got back to OK, I had a lot of great experiences waiting for me.  Nadav led the team in celebrating Hanukkah.  He made us latke's and even shared his jelly donuts and gelt with us.

Playing dreidel for gelt.  Somehow my pile kept getting smaller.  If you eat it, you can't lose it, right?  Marcus family, thank you so much for the delicious treats!  

 Lalita and I learned how to spray insulation at a Critical Home Repair.

And we perfected our house-wrapping skills on Central OK's 700th Habitat home.

     It's been a great few weeks.  I can't believe that our time here is almost up.  Our last day of work is this Tuesday, then we drive back to Denver and disperse for the holidays.  I've loved my time here, but I'm really looking forward to break.  It will be wonderful to spend time with family and friends.  (Side note: Chris will be home from India tomorrow! =D ) And after break, I have a great project to look forward to!

     My team and I recently found out that for Round 2 we will be working in Center Consolidated Schools in Center, Colorado (about 4 hours from Denver).  The Center community is one of low socioeconomic status, and is located 30 miles from most social service agencies.  With 600 students, the school is made up primarily of students of Hispanic origin.  Of these students, 91% are on free and reduced lunch.  The Center school has become the hub for a variety of services provided to the community.  Volunteers are in short supply due to the need for residents to work long hard hours in the local agricultural economic base.  My team and I will get to provide much needed human capital to strengthen capacity and delivery of academic and social programming both during and after school!  We don't know many specifics yet, but I think we'll be serving mainly as tutors and mentors there.

     That's all for now!  Hopefully I'll be able to post again soon.