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
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
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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