This is definately a first time posting 2 in one week. Thanks to my trusty teammate Zac and his ever faithful wireless internet, I am currently sitting outside of one of the buildings on Skidaway Island (to be exact...the Aquarium of the Marine Extension Service, where there are tons of awesome marine animals, sharks, and sea turtles). Ok now to talk about this fast and rapid first week at the Skidaway Island...if some of this sounds repetitive I apologize but I will try to go in great detail what has occurred (with a little help from the teammates of Raven 3)...Bare with me and hang on...
Sunday
- team grocery shopping at Walmart
- we as a team went on a 2.5 hour hike through the forest nearby, I took some wicked pictures of it that will be posted soon
- prepared for the orientation Monday
Monday
- teammate Zac goes to doctor because of terrible fever, runny noise, access coughing throughout the night (made it hard for roommate Bill to sleep :( )
- met our sponsors: Daniel, Alan, Courtney, Angela, Bob, Tom, and many more
- had orientation of the island, types of tasks we were assigned to do, learned about the Adopt-A-Wetland program
- took the hazardous and waste training online test...now we are certified!
- we are all getting excited and stoked about getting our hands dirty
Tuesday
- went on a boat ride with Bob and learned what trawelling was. Basically its casting a huge net out into the lake and trying to suction as much activity and fish you can gather. We waited a good 10 minutes for everything to gather. First round we only caught anchovies and little fish, but the second round we caught squid, puffer fish, seahorses, and bigger fish...much more affective round for sure. The things we did catch were used to feed the animals in the aquarium.
- went to a location called: Priest Landing and bagged several bags of oyster shell getting them prepared to plant into the mud for mating at Jekyll Island
- put in a solid 8 hour day...and we were SPENT!
- at dinner though, myself and fellow CAPper Lauren performed a practice presentation in front of freshman boys and girls. They were there on a 3 day, 2 night visit learning about marine-life. All these kids were interested in oceanography of some kind.
Wednesday
- back out to Priest Landing as a group to bag more oyster shells for the first part of the morning up until lunch time, we cleared a huge pile of oysters and loaded them in 2 trailer loads of bagged oysters (each trailer had appox. 300 bags)
- in the afternoon we helped out fellow sponsor, Harry, and fixed up a gravel pathway. We helped make it smoother and less gravel-like because handicap people were struggling getting through it. We basically filled over 280, five gallon buckets of gravel. The pathway lead into the nature walk hike. They were all very pleased. Half of us did the gravel and the other half picked up and raked all the spanish moss and access debris from the trees in the grass to spice up the place a bit
- after the day ended, Harry rewarded us with a nice BBQ dinner and it was yummy!
- Lauren and I start preparing with Power Point a presentation so it makes it easier for us to communicate with the high schools and universities about AmeriCorps. Our job as a CAP is to go out and present to at least 3 different locations over our SPIKE and recruit people to join. It shall be tons of fun
Thursday
- started work at 7:30 AM and climbed into the muddy banks and pulled out PVC piping and rebar from the shore...
- afternoon we drove over to Bamboo Gardens and cut down bamboo stalks that were interfering with a private property on the other side of the fence. Also the bamboo is going to be used for the Bamboo Festival coming up in a couple weeks
- team meeting at Starbucks to talk about our team roles and how we are progressing so far
Friday
- Painted Savannah Green and attended the parade for a couple hours and took several pictures
- the whole group drove to it and saw some pretty awesome floats, an estimated 400,000 people were in attendance!
Saturday
- today we went on a nice, pleasant boat ride with Daniel to Cabbage Island and to Tybee Island to collect oysters for the roast later tonight
- we spent until 12:30 collecting 3 bushells filled and brought them back. I caught some pretty sweet shells on the route.
- in teh afternoon we bagged shell Day 3...over 300 or so bags in roughly 2 hours. Not too shabby!
- came back and cleaned up for the roasting of oysters and they were DELICIOUS! First time with them and they slid down the throat.
- preparing and packing for Jekyll Island and doing the last bit of laundry
- sending out roughly 50 letters to Ameri-friends and hoping to receive some back :) (I love getting mail!)
- will get the address to Jekyll Island tomorrow and update you all!
That is the detailed update on what has happened this week. We roughly worked 40 hours in all and there was a lot of dirty jobs and tasks we did but it payed off. I feel I am losing weight and gaining some muscles :) Nothing to complain there...ALTHOUGH one negative about this whole experience is the ammount of GNATS that are swarming around here every part of the day. It seems as if I have chicken pox on my legs and arms from them. What do I do? I am still smiling and keeping in touch with my Ameri-friends and not trying to cause any drama or anything. So far so good, we like to work and there will be plenty more of it on Jekyll. Time to plant those bags and make the place a better tourist attraction as well as a cleaner and enjoyable place.
Another update will come mid-week or so once we get situated in Jekyll! Thanks for taking the time to read! Until next time...have a great week!!
PS. Congratulations Mitchy and my new brother-in-law Ben!
P.P.S. Happy 53rd Birthday Mom! I miss you
