So I think I found the job I want to do after Americorps; building playgrounds across the United States. We worked with a non profit organization called KaBOOM to help build a playground at an elementary school in down town New Orleans. KaBOOM is all about building “playplaces” (playgrounds, skate parks, ice rinks, and sports fields) so that every child in the US has a safe place to go and be a kid. So long story short we teamed up with other Americorps members, a group of college kids from Florida and other local volunteers to build a playground in one day. When I say playground I don’t mean a little swing set and some monkey bars. The playground we built had 6 slides, bridges, climbing walls, swings, a basketball game, monkey bars, and more. It only took 8 hours including a lunch break to build the entire playground. We were split up into smaller groups from 5 people to about 50. The biggest group was in charge off moving this huge mound of mulch and spreading it around the playground. My group put together the swing set, a couple stair cases and the fireman’s pole. We finished those within an hour and some change so I helped other groups and the main guys put everything together. I worked with Adam (the head guy from KaBOOM) and Harold (one of the guys from PA) so I got to do a lot of the fun stuff like drilling and putting all the slides onto the platforms. We also worked on the rock climbing wall which for one reason or another we could not get assembled. The wholes on the wall and the wholes in the support poles did not line up. With a little work and a lot of “manhandeling” we finally got it up. Other than the rock climbing wall everything else went very smoothly and we were able to cut the ribbon around 3 o’clock as planned. I was pretty amazed that we could assemble equipment, build the playground, haul the mulch (safety surfacing), mix and pour concrete and cut the ribbon all within one day but we got it done. Home Depot supplied a lot of the hard wear and tools and another nonprofit group, Partners in Play, from PA donated the actual playground equipment itself. Our group plans to do more KaBOOM playgrounds in January if we are still in the area. KaBOOM has promised to build 100 playgrounds in the gulf coast area. This was numbed 79!
For more information go to www.kaboom.org
Sunday, December 16, 2007
December 3rd: First Day of Work… Good Food. Doing Good.
I keep forgetting to update this so some of these posts are going to be really late and out of order. But thanks for reading and putting up with me.
Afternoon Cooking Team (12-7ish): Me, Geoff, Dan, Bonnie, Rachel and Jess
Morning Cooking Team (4-12): Tanya, Caitlin, Cassandra, James and Erin
Today was our first day and hopefully the most hectic day we will ever have. We were lucky enough to have about a dozen chefs from around the U.S. (mostly east coast) come down and help cook with us and teach us some tips around the kitchen. The chefs were in a group called culinary corps which combines food-centered volunteer projects with culinary educational activities. They provide team members and volunteers with an opportunity to transform their kitchen skills and passion for food into community outreach tools. When they first arrived they said their main goal for us was to provide a couple of simple classes and quick lectures that will teach us about the three S’s; Safety, Sanitation, and Storage. After about an hour of some talking we started with food prep. We had one of our most intense menus of the year. We served:
Tropical Barbeque Chicken
Fried Oysters with Garlic and Lemon Aioli
Oyster Rockefeller
Minestrone Soup (Vegan)
Sicilian Broccoli Salad (Vegan)
Spicy Succotash (Vegan)
Rosemary Roasted Potatoes & Corn (Vegan)
Hip Hop Tofu (Vegan)
Rock & Roll Pear Trifle (Vegan)
Cheesy Pasta with Caramelized Onions (Vegetarian)
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing (Vegetarian)
We started prepping food around 1 o’clock and planned on serving at 5:30. Some kids from the morning shift came back and we had a couple Denver Americorps kids help out too. We split into four different groups; Starches, Veggies, Pastries, and Protein / Soups. I started working with the Proteins and Soups. We defrosted about 150 pieces of chicken and mixed up some dry spices to marinate the chicken in. One of the other chefs had also made a barbeque sauce that we were going to put all over the chicken right before serving. He added so many different ingredients but it was honestly the best tasting BBQ sauce I have ever tried. Since there was a bunch of us in the kitchen I also got the opportunity to go around to the other groups and talk to some of the chefs and pick up some pointers on preparing and keeping foods at different temperatures. Everyone had their own little secrets which they were all willing to share with me.
We were perfectly on the clock and opened doors at 5:30 on the dot. We were originally expecting a little over 200 people but were then told it was going to be around 300. Luckily it was only 260 or so people so we didn’t run out of any food. The chefs all knew to make a little more and have a back up plan. Sadly everyone had to choose only one type of oyster, but in the end it was good because I was able to have the left overs! Chef Frank (our Camp Hope head chef) brought all of the chefs and green two out to get our props and everyone loved our food. We had numerous people come up and say thank you and that they were excited to see what else we can come up with. Hopefully we can make some more good dishes even if they aren’t as exquisite as tonight’s.
The end of the night was also a little extreme. We normally won’t be cooking so many different dishes so we won’t have as much to clean but it also didn’t help that the main dishwasher / steamer died on us and then ran out of cleaner after we got it fixed. We had to do all the dishes by hand and it took forever. We ran out of dry towels and normal soap so we had to use hand soap and chlorine to disinfect some stuff that we will be able to properly wash tomorrow. As much as it stunk to wash dishes it gave me some time to talk to some of the chefs and hear about their backgrounds and what brought them here and where they are working back at home. I had a lot of fun and hopefully I will be able to use some of the tricks and recipes I learned. We also are trying to get other chefs to come in and help out every now and then so we can learn more.
Here is the culinary corps web site: http://culinarycorps.org/
Afternoon Cooking Team (12-7ish): Me, Geoff, Dan, Bonnie, Rachel and Jess
Morning Cooking Team (4-12): Tanya, Caitlin, Cassandra, James and Erin
Today was our first day and hopefully the most hectic day we will ever have. We were lucky enough to have about a dozen chefs from around the U.S. (mostly east coast) come down and help cook with us and teach us some tips around the kitchen. The chefs were in a group called culinary corps which combines food-centered volunteer projects with culinary educational activities. They provide team members and volunteers with an opportunity to transform their kitchen skills and passion for food into community outreach tools. When they first arrived they said their main goal for us was to provide a couple of simple classes and quick lectures that will teach us about the three S’s; Safety, Sanitation, and Storage. After about an hour of some talking we started with food prep. We had one of our most intense menus of the year. We served:
Tropical Barbeque Chicken
Fried Oysters with Garlic and Lemon Aioli
Oyster Rockefeller
Minestrone Soup (Vegan)
Sicilian Broccoli Salad (Vegan)
Spicy Succotash (Vegan)
Rosemary Roasted Potatoes & Corn (Vegan)
Hip Hop Tofu (Vegan)
Rock & Roll Pear Trifle (Vegan)
Cheesy Pasta with Caramelized Onions (Vegetarian)
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing (Vegetarian)
We started prepping food around 1 o’clock and planned on serving at 5:30. Some kids from the morning shift came back and we had a couple Denver Americorps kids help out too. We split into four different groups; Starches, Veggies, Pastries, and Protein / Soups. I started working with the Proteins and Soups. We defrosted about 150 pieces of chicken and mixed up some dry spices to marinate the chicken in. One of the other chefs had also made a barbeque sauce that we were going to put all over the chicken right before serving. He added so many different ingredients but it was honestly the best tasting BBQ sauce I have ever tried. Since there was a bunch of us in the kitchen I also got the opportunity to go around to the other groups and talk to some of the chefs and pick up some pointers on preparing and keeping foods at different temperatures. Everyone had their own little secrets which they were all willing to share with me.
We were perfectly on the clock and opened doors at 5:30 on the dot. We were originally expecting a little over 200 people but were then told it was going to be around 300. Luckily it was only 260 or so people so we didn’t run out of any food. The chefs all knew to make a little more and have a back up plan. Sadly everyone had to choose only one type of oyster, but in the end it was good because I was able to have the left overs! Chef Frank (our Camp Hope head chef) brought all of the chefs and green two out to get our props and everyone loved our food. We had numerous people come up and say thank you and that they were excited to see what else we can come up with. Hopefully we can make some more good dishes even if they aren’t as exquisite as tonight’s.
The end of the night was also a little extreme. We normally won’t be cooking so many different dishes so we won’t have as much to clean but it also didn’t help that the main dishwasher / steamer died on us and then ran out of cleaner after we got it fixed. We had to do all the dishes by hand and it took forever. We ran out of dry towels and normal soap so we had to use hand soap and chlorine to disinfect some stuff that we will be able to properly wash tomorrow. As much as it stunk to wash dishes it gave me some time to talk to some of the chefs and hear about their backgrounds and what brought them here and where they are working back at home. I had a lot of fun and hopefully I will be able to use some of the tricks and recipes I learned. We also are trying to get other chefs to come in and help out every now and then so we can learn more.
Here is the culinary corps web site: http://culinarycorps.org/
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Camp Mendocino
Once again this is a little late but I'm finally getting it posted. Sorry guys. The following happened between the days of Friday November 16th and Sunday November 18th...
The entire Green Squad traveled to Camp Mendocino which is about four hours away from Sacramento and is deep in the redwoods forest. The ride there was a little bit of a challenge for me because I’m not the best person in a car, and we drove down an old dirt road down the side of a mountain that twisted back and forth. When we finally arrived at camp we had to find our bags that were all mixed together. Everyone was issued either a green or red bag that we had to fit everything into, so everyone’s bag looked exactly the same. We finally got our bags and headed to our cabin. The guy’s cabin was on one side of the camp and girls on the other. The cabins were alright but not the best for the cold weather that we had. It was an open cabin which meant there were no windows and no door, only a sheet of plastic to hang over. The bathrooms were the same, which made showering a little bit hard. After unpacking we got a tour of the campus and were introduced to everyone that worked there.
We played a couple of ice breaker type games and then went on a search for one of the last remaining redwood trees in this particular forest, that wasn’t cut down. Before The Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco bought the land it was owned by a logging company that cut down every tree except for like two. The tree was apparently big enough that we could fit our whole team around it stretching our arms out but we some how couldn’t find it. Instead we walked along train tracks and played with lizards we found in the forest. Failing miserably we came back to the flag pole (the main meeting area) and introduced a couple of the other teams to “WHAA”. WHAA is a game that Bonnie introduced to our team that is to hard to explain online but if you have worked at a camp or after school program for a while you might know about. We had some dinner, which was actually some of the best food I had in a while and then headed to the camp fire site. The main fire pit was at the bottom of this amphitheater looking thing that had a stage in the front and a big fire pit in front of the stage. Each group did a skit or a team song in front of everyone else. Our team did an AmeriNext Bus skit (based off of MTV’s Next Bus). It was pretty good, but I would have to say some of the other groups did better. Green Four did a skit on how they all got poison oak, and a couple teams made up some raps.
We woke up pretty early the next morning for PT and then headed to breakfast. After breakfast we got to go to a ropes course. We started off with a ring activity where we had to spin a ring and pass it through the group while we stood in a circle. Then we spent a good portion of the time on this “crossing the river” activity which we couldn’t get. The last hour or so we got to do the “high ropes” portion of the course where we crossed a tight rope that was suspended between two trees. After ropes course we got some lunch and then headed to do our service part of the trip. Our group and another group had to clear brush from around the counselors / staff house and burn it. Since I’m a little bit of a pyro I stayed next to the fire the whole time making sure it didn’t spread to fast and didn’t catch any of the surrounding trees on fire. Mary and I built one of the biggest bon fires I had seen in a while. The rest of the group took saws and cutters and cut down every bush and tree that could bee a potential fire hazard. Having too many trees around one area would make a forest fire spread rapidly. We finished up the day with some dinner and headed back to the bon fire where we listened to James and Anthony play guitar and then Allison play an electric harp. It was the first time I had ever heard an electric harp. She played a song called “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show, which my group has not stopped listening to and singing since. Thanks!
The next morning we woke up, did 30 minutes of PT, packed the van, had some breakfast and headed back to campus.
The entire Green Squad traveled to Camp Mendocino which is about four hours away from Sacramento and is deep in the redwoods forest. The ride there was a little bit of a challenge for me because I’m not the best person in a car, and we drove down an old dirt road down the side of a mountain that twisted back and forth. When we finally arrived at camp we had to find our bags that were all mixed together. Everyone was issued either a green or red bag that we had to fit everything into, so everyone’s bag looked exactly the same. We finally got our bags and headed to our cabin. The guy’s cabin was on one side of the camp and girls on the other. The cabins were alright but not the best for the cold weather that we had. It was an open cabin which meant there were no windows and no door, only a sheet of plastic to hang over. The bathrooms were the same, which made showering a little bit hard. After unpacking we got a tour of the campus and were introduced to everyone that worked there.
We played a couple of ice breaker type games and then went on a search for one of the last remaining redwood trees in this particular forest, that wasn’t cut down. Before The Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco bought the land it was owned by a logging company that cut down every tree except for like two. The tree was apparently big enough that we could fit our whole team around it stretching our arms out but we some how couldn’t find it. Instead we walked along train tracks and played with lizards we found in the forest. Failing miserably we came back to the flag pole (the main meeting area) and introduced a couple of the other teams to “WHAA”. WHAA is a game that Bonnie introduced to our team that is to hard to explain online but if you have worked at a camp or after school program for a while you might know about. We had some dinner, which was actually some of the best food I had in a while and then headed to the camp fire site. The main fire pit was at the bottom of this amphitheater looking thing that had a stage in the front and a big fire pit in front of the stage. Each group did a skit or a team song in front of everyone else. Our team did an AmeriNext Bus skit (based off of MTV’s Next Bus). It was pretty good, but I would have to say some of the other groups did better. Green Four did a skit on how they all got poison oak, and a couple teams made up some raps.
We woke up pretty early the next morning for PT and then headed to breakfast. After breakfast we got to go to a ropes course. We started off with a ring activity where we had to spin a ring and pass it through the group while we stood in a circle. Then we spent a good portion of the time on this “crossing the river” activity which we couldn’t get. The last hour or so we got to do the “high ropes” portion of the course where we crossed a tight rope that was suspended between two trees. After ropes course we got some lunch and then headed to do our service part of the trip. Our group and another group had to clear brush from around the counselors / staff house and burn it. Since I’m a little bit of a pyro I stayed next to the fire the whole time making sure it didn’t spread to fast and didn’t catch any of the surrounding trees on fire. Mary and I built one of the biggest bon fires I had seen in a while. The rest of the group took saws and cutters and cut down every bush and tree that could bee a potential fire hazard. Having too many trees around one area would make a forest fire spread rapidly. We finished up the day with some dinner and headed back to the bon fire where we listened to James and Anthony play guitar and then Allison play an electric harp. It was the first time I had ever heard an electric harp. She played a song called “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show, which my group has not stopped listening to and singing since. Thanks!
The next morning we woke up, did 30 minutes of PT, packed the van, had some breakfast and headed back to campus.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Sacramento Area Food Bank
We had another day of community service where we actually got to go out and do something hands on. Our group went to one of the satellite locations of the Sacramento Food Bank. The place we went was more of a warehouse / mother center. There was no soup kitchen or really any food there, but it did have a lot of other things. It had a couple of ESL (English as a Second Language) classrooms, some rooms to help young adults get there GED, and then a bunch of other rooms to help expecting mothers. They had clothes, baby formula, and diapers to hand out to the mothers if they went to weeklys meetings. The more meetings they would go to, the more supplies they could take home.
Our group helped redesign classrooms, we sorted through hundreds of clothes, built shelves, cleaned up the outside play area, unpackaged and labeled dates for baby formula and bagged diapers.
When I was told I would be working in a warehouse sorting through diapers and baby formula I wasn't to excited. The feeling only got worse when I found out the baby formula was packaged in like 10 layers of plastic and cardboard. However we did find a way to make it fun.
This is going to sound random but I promise I will link these stories together in the end. We watched a motivational movie the other day about the Pike Place Fish market in Seattle. They had four main motiviational tools that they said people should try and use everyday: Choose your attitude. Play. Make their day. Be Present! The main thing I got out of this is that no matter what is going on in your life and what you have to do that day, you can always make it fun and you can always choose your attitude. People would come from all over to see these guys work at the Fish Market, because they made it fun. They would throw fish around, yell at eachother, talked to the customers and so on. If they can get up at 4am and have that much fun, then so can I.
Long story short, we found a way to make working in the warehouse fun. We played games, listened to music and threw things around (mostly bags of diapers). The people that worked there would keep coming in because we would make them laugh and smile. They wanted us to come back because we aparently made a large dent in the amount of work they had to get done, but sadly we won't have enough time.
Two more weeks until Camp Hope!
Pikes Place Fish Market... www.pikeplacefish.com
Our group helped redesign classrooms, we sorted through hundreds of clothes, built shelves, cleaned up the outside play area, unpackaged and labeled dates for baby formula and bagged diapers.
When I was told I would be working in a warehouse sorting through diapers and baby formula I wasn't to excited. The feeling only got worse when I found out the baby formula was packaged in like 10 layers of plastic and cardboard. However we did find a way to make it fun.
This is going to sound random but I promise I will link these stories together in the end. We watched a motivational movie the other day about the Pike Place Fish market in Seattle. They had four main motiviational tools that they said people should try and use everyday: Choose your attitude. Play. Make their day. Be Present! The main thing I got out of this is that no matter what is going on in your life and what you have to do that day, you can always make it fun and you can always choose your attitude. People would come from all over to see these guys work at the Fish Market, because they made it fun. They would throw fish around, yell at eachother, talked to the customers and so on. If they can get up at 4am and have that much fun, then so can I.
Long story short, we found a way to make working in the warehouse fun. We played games, listened to music and threw things around (mostly bags of diapers). The people that worked there would keep coming in because we would make them laugh and smile. They wanted us to come back because we aparently made a large dent in the amount of work they had to get done, but sadly we won't have enough time.
Two more weeks until Camp Hope!
Pikes Place Fish Market... www.pikeplacefish.com
Friday, November 2, 2007
Camp Hope
Hey guys, so this will be a very short blog but we found out today where we are going on our first strike. Green Team 2, along with I think seven or eight other teams will be heading down to Louisiana to go work at Camp Hope (right near New Orleans). While other teams will have different duties our team is going to man the kitchen. What this means is that all 12 members of Green Team 2 along with a couple of professional chefs (hopefully 3 or 4) will cook for an estimated 500 volunteers a day. I'm pretty excited about the idea yet also really scared. I was hoping to do some manual labor like construction or destruction but they say we should be able to do some on the weekends or our off time for ISP hours. Either way it will be good to get back to the gulf. Our team will be split into two groups, one to work the morning shift (4am-noonish) and the second to work the 2nd shift (noonish till 7ish). As you can probably tell I don't have all of the details yet so I'm still lost on a couple of things.
But here is the web site for what I believe is Camp Hope. Its called the New Orleans area Habitat for Humanity... http://www.habitat-nola.org/index.php
I'll keep you guys all up to date with everything else as soon as I find out more information.
-Matt
But here is the web site for what I believe is Camp Hope. Its called the New Orleans area Habitat for Humanity... http://www.habitat-nola.org/index.php
I'll keep you guys all up to date with everything else as soon as I find out more information.
-Matt
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
FYI / Acronyms Guide
Hey guys, here is a cheat sheet if you will of things you might want to know or things that might help you understand my blogs...
My Address:
Matt Walenciak / Green 2
Americorps*NCCC Western Region
3427 Laurel Street
McClellan CA, 95652
If anyone read this before I wrote my address wrong... its 3427, not 3437. But I will be getting another address at camp hope in two weeks anyways.
My Team: Green 2
Americorps NCCC Acronyms Guide:
ARC - American Red Cross
BDU - Battle Dress Uniform (NCCC Pants and Shirt)
BX - Base Exchange
CM - Corps Member
CTI - Corps Training Institute (What we call the 5 weeks I'm going through now)
ISP - Independent Service Project (We have to do at least 80 hours of community service on our own)
Muster - The place we meet up with our groups, usually in the morning
NCCC - National Civilian Community Corps
PPE - Personal Protective Equipment (Boots, Safety glasses, gloves...)
PT - Physical Training
SPIKE - When we go on projects outside of campus, its called a SPIKE
TL - Team Leader
UL - Unit Leader
My Address:
Matt Walenciak / Green 2
Americorps*NCCC Western Region
3427 Laurel Street
McClellan CA, 95652
If anyone read this before I wrote my address wrong... its 3427, not 3437. But I will be getting another address at camp hope in two weeks anyways.
My Team: Green 2
Americorps NCCC Acronyms Guide:
ARC - American Red Cross
BDU - Battle Dress Uniform (NCCC Pants and Shirt)
BX - Base Exchange
CM - Corps Member
CTI - Corps Training Institute (What we call the 5 weeks I'm going through now)
ISP - Independent Service Project (We have to do at least 80 hours of community service on our own)
Muster - The place we meet up with our groups, usually in the morning
NCCC - National Civilian Community Corps
PPE - Personal Protective Equipment (Boots, Safety glasses, gloves...)
PT - Physical Training
SPIKE - When we go on projects outside of campus, its called a SPIKE
TL - Team Leader
UL - Unit Leader
McClellan Air Force Base
So we are living on an old Air force base about 15 minutes outside of Downtown and Old-Town Sacramento. Americorps has a little corner of the base that consists of an office building (922), a cafe (943), and three dorms (941, 945, and 946). I live on the first floor of 946 in a suite. For those from Salisbury reading this the dorms are like St. Martins. They are two bedrooms that share one bathroom in between. I have one roommate and three suite mates in the other room. Ironically, two of my suite mates ended up being on my team...
Last week we went on a scavenger hunt to find clues about what team we were on. I am proud to say that I am on Team Green 2! Teams are made up of 11 or 12 corps members and a Team Leader (TL). We use abbreviations all the time, so get used to it. My team has 11 members and our TL is Mary. I'll try to get some pictures up on here or another web site and I'll show you who my team is. We have only been with our team for about a week now, but I already know its going to be a lot of fun. We all seem to get along really well and work off of each others strengths and weaknesses. This Thursday our team has been challenged to a laser tag game against Team Green 4. I told my team if we lose I'm quiting Americorps so hopefully they will step their game up.
To explain teams a little more... There are five different colors: Green, Blue, Red, Silver and Gold. Each Color Team is then split into six numbers: 1-5. As of right now there is no real reason for the colors that I know of except for pride and to build bonds with other colored teammates. The numbers on the other hand delegate who you eat with and cook for. There are 6 different kitchens and every number has a certain kitchen. In other words once a week Team Green 2 will cook for all for the other team 2's, and every other night the other team 2's will cook for us and everyone else. Cooking for 60 something corps members is going to be different but I'm excited to see what we can do. Some of my team members have already expressed an interest in cooking, while others want nothing to do with it and said they will do the dishes afterwords. We are planning on making some sort of homemade pizza's on Friday when we cook for everyone else.
Yesterday was the first day we started cooking. Up until now we have been catered by a local restaurant. The food was alright but could easily be compared to high school cafeteria food and half the time they would run out of one thing or another. The first day I went to breakfast they had run out of cereal, milk, and all the fruit. All they had left were some stale cinnamon buns with massive amounts of sugar icing on top. I kind of felt bad for them because they definitely didn't seem used to cooking for up words of 500 people and everyone would give them a hard time. But at the same time I'm happy we finally get to make our own real food that will hopefully taste a little better.
Across the street from our dorms is Holmes Field (where we have PT), a SAFE Union Bank (my west coast bank) and then behind that is the Base Exchange (BX). You have to have a military ID to get in, but there is no tax on anything. It is kind of like a really small Wal-mart that is run by the military. It's the closest store and it's in walking distance which is nice, but they don't sell any food. There is also a Burger King, but I haven't eaten there yet either. Every now and then one of the TL's will get a van and drive a group of kids to the actual Wal-Mart, Target or Whole Foods store down the road.
It's almost time for Lunch so I'm going to have to end this here, but I will hopefully start writting at least every other day to keep everyone up to date!
-Matt
Last week we went on a scavenger hunt to find clues about what team we were on. I am proud to say that I am on Team Green 2! Teams are made up of 11 or 12 corps members and a Team Leader (TL). We use abbreviations all the time, so get used to it. My team has 11 members and our TL is Mary. I'll try to get some pictures up on here or another web site and I'll show you who my team is. We have only been with our team for about a week now, but I already know its going to be a lot of fun. We all seem to get along really well and work off of each others strengths and weaknesses. This Thursday our team has been challenged to a laser tag game against Team Green 4. I told my team if we lose I'm quiting Americorps so hopefully they will step their game up.
To explain teams a little more... There are five different colors: Green, Blue, Red, Silver and Gold. Each Color Team is then split into six numbers: 1-5. As of right now there is no real reason for the colors that I know of except for pride and to build bonds with other colored teammates. The numbers on the other hand delegate who you eat with and cook for. There are 6 different kitchens and every number has a certain kitchen. In other words once a week Team Green 2 will cook for all for the other team 2's, and every other night the other team 2's will cook for us and everyone else. Cooking for 60 something corps members is going to be different but I'm excited to see what we can do. Some of my team members have already expressed an interest in cooking, while others want nothing to do with it and said they will do the dishes afterwords. We are planning on making some sort of homemade pizza's on Friday when we cook for everyone else.
Yesterday was the first day we started cooking. Up until now we have been catered by a local restaurant. The food was alright but could easily be compared to high school cafeteria food and half the time they would run out of one thing or another. The first day I went to breakfast they had run out of cereal, milk, and all the fruit. All they had left were some stale cinnamon buns with massive amounts of sugar icing on top. I kind of felt bad for them because they definitely didn't seem used to cooking for up words of 500 people and everyone would give them a hard time. But at the same time I'm happy we finally get to make our own real food that will hopefully taste a little better.
Across the street from our dorms is Holmes Field (where we have PT), a SAFE Union Bank (my west coast bank) and then behind that is the Base Exchange (BX). You have to have a military ID to get in, but there is no tax on anything. It is kind of like a really small Wal-mart that is run by the military. It's the closest store and it's in walking distance which is nice, but they don't sell any food. There is also a Burger King, but I haven't eaten there yet either. Every now and then one of the TL's will get a van and drive a group of kids to the actual Wal-Mart, Target or Whole Foods store down the road.
It's almost time for Lunch so I'm going to have to end this here, but I will hopefully start writting at least every other day to keep everyone up to date!
-Matt
6 AM Sprinklers
So I keep putting this off, and i am going to go back at some point and explain the past week, but in the mean time I'll start with this week...
We started PT (Physical Training) yesterday at 5:30. Last week we had our baseline, where we ran a timed 1.5 mile run and did as many push ups and sit-ups as we could in two minutes. Depending on your time / number of push ups and sit-ups, you were put into one of four groups. The groups were (fastest to slowest) Group A, B, C1, and C2. I made Group A! We will have PT four times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Yesterday was our first day and it consisted mostly of stretching for 20 minutes, then doing Abs and Push Ups for 25 minutes, and 15 minutes of Sprints. We do all of our work outs on Holmes field which is right across the street from where my dorm is. Well, long story short someone forgot to tell the grounds crew that we were starting yesterday and about half way through our work out the sprinklers came on. It was bad enough the ground was already wet, it was pitch dark outside and it was still freezing. Minus the freezing cold water and wind it was still a lot of fun. I haven't hurt from doing Abs in a while so it was good to get that feeling back.
Today we had our second day of PT. It was a little bit more of what I was used to because we went for a run. After 15 minutes of stretching we started off on our run. We went for about 2 miles and stopped and did 75 push ups and a couple minutes of Abs and Planks. Then ran back to the base. We split Group A into maybe 5 or 6 smaller groups for our run and I got to step it up with all the other kids who actually like to run. Our last mile back was in a dead sprint. I haven't ran for a while so it was really nice to still see I had some speed under my legs and I could keep up with the other guys. I'm really excited to see how PT goes for the next couple of weeks.
My team also more or less decided I was going to be on of the two PT cordinators for our team. Every team has a couple leadership positions which I will go into at another time. Tanya and I are going to be the two PT coordinators. What that means is I work out with Willie (The head PT trainer here) a couple times a week and then when we go on Spike I will be in charge of coming up with work outs for the team and making sure everyone is staying healthy.
I will hopefully be able to get back on the computers later and give a run down of everything that has happened so far.
-Matt
We started PT (Physical Training) yesterday at 5:30. Last week we had our baseline, where we ran a timed 1.5 mile run and did as many push ups and sit-ups as we could in two minutes. Depending on your time / number of push ups and sit-ups, you were put into one of four groups. The groups were (fastest to slowest) Group A, B, C1, and C2. I made Group A! We will have PT four times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Yesterday was our first day and it consisted mostly of stretching for 20 minutes, then doing Abs and Push Ups for 25 minutes, and 15 minutes of Sprints. We do all of our work outs on Holmes field which is right across the street from where my dorm is. Well, long story short someone forgot to tell the grounds crew that we were starting yesterday and about half way through our work out the sprinklers came on. It was bad enough the ground was already wet, it was pitch dark outside and it was still freezing. Minus the freezing cold water and wind it was still a lot of fun. I haven't hurt from doing Abs in a while so it was good to get that feeling back.
Today we had our second day of PT. It was a little bit more of what I was used to because we went for a run. After 15 minutes of stretching we started off on our run. We went for about 2 miles and stopped and did 75 push ups and a couple minutes of Abs and Planks. Then ran back to the base. We split Group A into maybe 5 or 6 smaller groups for our run and I got to step it up with all the other kids who actually like to run. Our last mile back was in a dead sprint. I haven't ran for a while so it was really nice to still see I had some speed under my legs and I could keep up with the other guys. I'm really excited to see how PT goes for the next couple of weeks.
My team also more or less decided I was going to be on of the two PT cordinators for our team. Every team has a couple leadership positions which I will go into at another time. Tanya and I are going to be the two PT coordinators. What that means is I work out with Willie (The head PT trainer here) a couple times a week and then when we go on Spike I will be in charge of coming up with work outs for the team and making sure everyone is staying healthy.
I will hopefully be able to get back on the computers later and give a run down of everything that has happened so far.
-Matt
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Black Widows
We finally got to do something hands on and out of the classroom. We went on our first "mini spike" (one day trip) to a local urban farm about 15 minutes away. The project was called Soil Born, and it's a small urban market garden and non-profit education center, thats mission is to "strengthen and support local food systems by educating youth and adults about food, nutrition, sustainable living, and ecological farming." Its pretty much a place where locals of all ages can come and learn how to farm so they can raise food for themselves to eat and to sell to local businesses. They had another farm in a different part of Sacramento but the farm we went to was just recently purchased. The group that had previously owned the farm left it in terrible condition and our job was to restore it.
We arrived to the farm around 8:00 am and were met by two other Americorps teams and a dozen local volunteers. The two guys running the farm, Shawn and Marco, had also previously been Americorps Volunteers about 15 years before. By the end of the day another 3 Americorps teams had showed up and we stayed till around four. Team Green 2 started off clearing trash, brush, rocks, random wood and metal from around the corals. Something I soon learned about Sacramento is that there are Black Widows all over the place. I had never seen a Black Widow before until I lifted up a sheet of plywood from one of the pig pens and there were about three of them running around. For as deadly as they are, they were really small. After barely escaping death we moved onto something a little easier... repainting the two corals. This was surprisingly pretty entertaining because there were chickens and pigs still running around and attempting to eat the paint. My favorite pig was nicknamed whiskey because he had trouble staying on his feet and looked like a drunk. After a couple hours of painting we switched up jobs with another group so the paint fumes didn't get to us and we started to plant garlic. Yes, i just said planting garlic. And no, not a couple of pieces but easily a thousand cloves of garlic. After planting we had to mulch the field with straw. It took about 30 bails of straw and a good hour to make sure everything was covered.
We stopped for lunch and I was able to try an all organic vegetable chili. As most of you know, I'm normally not the kind of person that would eat something that was organic and only involved vegetables but it was some of the best chili i have ever had (Sorry mom!). All the food they grow on the farm are organic.
The final project I worked on for the day was transporting wood from the farm into dumpsters down in one of the fields. I believe we filled three large dumpsters with wood alone. As a whole group, we also moved numerous bathroom fixtures (toilets, sinks and tubs), metal fences, gates, logs and sticks, cement slabs, plastic roofing, rocks, and tons upon tons of garbage.
I got to talk to a couple of the local volunteers who were really excited to see all of us there. They said they usually go to the other farm every Tuesday and work all day then have a potluck dinner at night. They invited us out and I'm hoping to get a small group of CM's together to go and help next Tuesday or one a free weekend. They also said that there are usually a couple of family's that work on the farm everyday so they are able to make a little money and bring home some food. The whole idea of this Ranch was pretty cool. Shawn and Marco were also really chill and I can only hope that Americorps has such a large impact on my life as it did on theirs.
We arrived to the farm around 8:00 am and were met by two other Americorps teams and a dozen local volunteers. The two guys running the farm, Shawn and Marco, had also previously been Americorps Volunteers about 15 years before. By the end of the day another 3 Americorps teams had showed up and we stayed till around four. Team Green 2 started off clearing trash, brush, rocks, random wood and metal from around the corals. Something I soon learned about Sacramento is that there are Black Widows all over the place. I had never seen a Black Widow before until I lifted up a sheet of plywood from one of the pig pens and there were about three of them running around. For as deadly as they are, they were really small. After barely escaping death we moved onto something a little easier... repainting the two corals. This was surprisingly pretty entertaining because there were chickens and pigs still running around and attempting to eat the paint. My favorite pig was nicknamed whiskey because he had trouble staying on his feet and looked like a drunk. After a couple hours of painting we switched up jobs with another group so the paint fumes didn't get to us and we started to plant garlic. Yes, i just said planting garlic. And no, not a couple of pieces but easily a thousand cloves of garlic. After planting we had to mulch the field with straw. It took about 30 bails of straw and a good hour to make sure everything was covered.
We stopped for lunch and I was able to try an all organic vegetable chili. As most of you know, I'm normally not the kind of person that would eat something that was organic and only involved vegetables but it was some of the best chili i have ever had (Sorry mom!). All the food they grow on the farm are organic.
The final project I worked on for the day was transporting wood from the farm into dumpsters down in one of the fields. I believe we filled three large dumpsters with wood alone. As a whole group, we also moved numerous bathroom fixtures (toilets, sinks and tubs), metal fences, gates, logs and sticks, cement slabs, plastic roofing, rocks, and tons upon tons of garbage.
I got to talk to a couple of the local volunteers who were really excited to see all of us there. They said they usually go to the other farm every Tuesday and work all day then have a potluck dinner at night. They invited us out and I'm hoping to get a small group of CM's together to go and help next Tuesday or one a free weekend. They also said that there are usually a couple of family's that work on the farm everyday so they are able to make a little money and bring home some food. The whole idea of this Ranch was pretty cool. Shawn and Marco were also really chill and I can only hope that Americorps has such a large impact on my life as it did on theirs.
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