Is has not fathomed me that our 1st round SPIKE is nearly over...7 days is the countdown and it seems like yesterday we just were packing up the 15 passenger Pippy Pompeo and arriving to Skidaway Island. But now as the project is coming to an end, I think it is time to move on. And moving on means heading to New Orleans and living in the Camp Hope house for the next 6 weeks.
Before we get excited and anxious about leaving, there are still things on Jekyll Island left to do. We still have more mud days, 2 Earth Day Celebrations to help at, bagging more oyster shells on Skidaway Island, AND having the finale with the oyster and shrimp roast which is going to take place a week from today. We are even pushing our travel date to next Saturday just so we can have the roast and chomp down on yummy cooked oysters. Being around them has really grown on me and they taste delicious. We are in the stage now of planting used toilets, PVC pipes, bamboo stalks, and bagged shell in 3 specific destinations where there is hard substrate mud. The sponsors picked the spots out and we just follow their lead. I am getting better and better at canoeing and it feels good. Thanks Mom for the tip on making a "J" motion in the water to turn, helped out greatly AND I taught the team a tip. The Earth Day's are tomorrow and we are working at 2 of them. I am heading to Savannah along with teammate Zac and sponsor Daniel. I am going to be doing a formal CAPping event at a table while I am there which should be fun. The other teammates will be on Jekyll Island helping the Georgia Sea Turtle Center with their arts and crafts for the kids that come. Zac and I are getting 'direct service hours' and the others are getting ISP...confusing...yes? I sure think it is!
Onto the detailed days and what we actually did this past week...
SUNDAY
- worked at the Sea Turtle Center for 4 hours doing more crafts preparing them for the Earth Day; I worked on unstapling booklets, tracing carapi on brown paper bags, and making sea turtle masks
- PT bike ride for 30 minutes around the island. Found out that the circumference of Jekyll Island is 14 miles
MONDAY
- woke up early and arrived at MAREX (Marine Extension Center) in Brunswick and stay there all day; we were working on cutting and sizing down 10 foot PVC pipes in half, then we tried cement variations and cemented nearly 1,000 poles
- we were prepping them to plant in the mud on Beach Creek
- tiring day for sure and very warm outside, it hit the 80's today
TUESDAY
- beginning of the morning began with Lauren and I CAPping event at a community college for a couple hours, the event was a job fair and we were trying to spread the word to them; a bad turn out that is for sure...ended up talking to about 50 students during the time of the fair
- came back to the team at MAREX and helped do more PVC pipes
- teammate Stan ends up tearing an AC in his shoulder joint
- a couple of us went to Walmart after the day ended and teammate Nicole gets a haircut and cuts it super short; it is amazing the number of females in AmeriCorps cutting their hair shorter...it has been about 5 so far. Last year the number was around 25!
- we then had a team meeting to discuss plans for our community meeting we are putting on for 22 other AmeriCorps teams during transition. That shall be exciting and very funny
WEDNESDAY
- woke at 7:30 and headed to MAREX for Day 3 to knock off the previous cemented PVC pipes to only re-do the mixtures and cement them again, talk about repetitive work!
- I was in charge of hand sanding down the pipes making them grittier
- when the hand sanding sheets didn't work, we then used the electric one and it made it easier BUT i was definately feeling it in my forearms and shoulders. Hope I am getting stronger :)
- began working on CAPping events in the New Orleans area and hoping to find some contacts before other teams do
- teammate's Zac celebrates his 19th birthday BUT he was sick all day and didn't work...too bad that is the way to celebrate a birthday
THURSDAY
- knocking cement off at MAREX all day as well as cementing and sanding happened today. We just could not find the correct mix of sand, cement, and lime that would work and would not peel off so quickly, when dried the other mixes seemed to peel right off.
- finally found out the correct combination and cemented roughly 900 PVC pipes
- went with a couple teammates after work to play BINGO and it reminded me of days in college
FRIDAY
- today was a very busy and physically draining day, we loaded boat loads of toilets, oyster bags, oyster shell, and palettes and took them to Beach Creek during high tide
- planted those items during low tide in 3 different spots of the creek
- canoeing was a blast and really is growing on me, but it was very tiring and I am SPENT!
So there you have it. Detailed as much as I could remember from the week. Tomorrow is the Earth Day's and am leaving at 7 AM to go to Savannah. I can't wait to just relax and lay down from such a busy week. Looking forward to the next week with what is in store and finishing the SPIKE project strong! I am starting to smell New Orleans!! I can't wait. Transition is coming up and seeing all the close friends I formed during CTI and before we left will be fun to catch up with them. I have tried my best to keep in touch with them from Ameri-mailing and calling (let alone having no service on the island, hoping that changes).
More to come. I will definately be posting one more blog before transition. Stay tuned and stay classy. Off to bed now so I can be that early bird in the morning and as I head to Savannah! Thinking about you all and praying for you (or in Ireland it is "ye"). Goodnight, and goodluck!
PS. That is insane about the earthquake hitting in Illinois this morning (04-18)...what are the odds of that?
Friday, April 18, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Week 5 @ Jekyll Island
Calling Mr. Mike Rowe...Mr. Rowe...are you there? Bring your show and camera crew/editing crew to Jekyll Island...STAT...PRONTO!
If you are unfamiliar with that name, Mike Rowe is the host of the hit television show, 'Dirtiest Jobs' on the Discovery Channel. He goes around the world trying to find the most gruesome and messiest places to work for the day and helps him/her with their everyday jobs. Well...I think that our Raven 3 team should contact him. He should come on down to Beach Creek and see how messy it is in the soupy, slimy mud planting these oyseter bags and palettes.
This week was another successful work week with the squad as we knocked out the whole Beach Creek with bagged shell within the first three days of the week. Those were the most treterous of our whole SPIKE project. But as a whole, we have officially planted roughly 10,000 bags with at least 100 palettes in the mud in the 5 weeks we have been here. Let's just say, our service is both efficient and fairly quick. We sometimes are even looking for other jobs to do if we end up finishing a couple hours earlier than expected. As the hard 3 days are done and completed, we had a more of a calm and relaxing remaining days which was very pleasant. We EVEN found out about our next SPIKE location, but I will tell more about that later...
Once again I took deligent and detailed notes on what exactly the group did each day of this week beginning with Sunday...
SUNDAY
- got together with Raven 3 and completed the Weekly Progress Report as a team
- headed down to the beach for a couple hours working on the wicked tan :)
- did the weekly ISP 4 hours at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center; this week they had us paint eggs, weigh them down with rocks, and tie strings around them for their Earth Day Celebration
- we are teaming up with the Center and volunteering at the Earth Day Event a week from today from 12-4 PM. From this event either myself or my CAPping partner will be setting up a table during the event and recruiting
- played some ultimate frisbee with some of the Sea Turtle interns and people in the Extension program for an hour which was very fun
- end up going to bed early since the tough days are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
MONDAY
- like stated above, it seemed as if we worked a total of 30 hours within in the next 3 days with the prep work, planting, loading, etc.
- spent the first part of the morning loading oyster bagged shell into about 7 boat loads with our sponsors to be distributed in the remaining destinations on the creek
- took a break for lunch, then headed back out in the afternoon and planted the shell and palettes in the hard substrate areas and avoiding the fairly soft and soupy-like areas
- planting became fun and fun as the days went on with various cannonballs and mudslides
- crew leader in New Orleans for the Summer of Service program application is completed and already emailed to the unit leader; I end up filling out the application because it seems to be a great opportunity to grow as a leader
- the program is basically teaching and aiding boys and girls ages 14-17 by doing several service project within the New Orleans area; crew leaders are in turn like the team leaders in AmeriCorps by managing a team of 10; it will be interesting if I end up getting the position (pray for me :))
- we find out if we make it to the next round sometime this coming week, which then 1-on-1 interviews are set up during transition in Jackson, MS
TUESDAY
-received an extra hour and a half of sleep due to the high/low tides and woke to moving, bagging, and loading shell for the first 5 hours
- we had to replace all of the broken shell bags by re-bagging roughly 200 that day because of carelessness of tossing them foolish-like; not trying to complain here...
- in the afternoon we canoed back into the mud and planted again, boy...does that mud really play tolls on your physical body because it fatigues you so quickly, once you climb out and end the day all you are thinking about is laying down!
- most of the time we are so worn out from the busy days, none of us are really motivated to do any social activities...it's a struggle to get people out of the house...but I managed to go on a nice 30 min bike ride after and gutted it out
- at night the squad went to a Service Learning volunteer meeting at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for a couple hours; at there we learned more about the 3 main points of concentration in their missiong statement: research, education, and rehabilitation, then we got to learn more about the injured/sick turtles by getting a tour, then ended the seminar with a quiz (I ended up winning a sweet Kemp Ridley turtle during the Bingo portion of the meeting!)
WEDNESDAY
- this 9 hour work day began with moving shell from the recycling center on Jekyll Island into several trailer beds and taking them to the beach to be dropped off, from there we loaded into the motor boats to be dumped (remember this is all during high tide...boat riding during high and then planting during low) into the needed spots
- head-honcho sponsor, Dr. Alan Power, was very pleased at the progress of the creek and he ended up helping with the planting on monday and tuesday...first reaction pre-planting he was feeling nervous about it, but those nerves soon calmed over after glancing at our progress
- jumped in the mud in the afternoon and planted the remaining of the bagged shells
- once arriving back from the day, I received several phone calls and updates from other teams because they had found out about their up and coming 2nd SPIKE location...but our team still did not know where we were heading to...made us super eager...our TL agreed to tell us in the morning
THURSDAY
- begin the morning at the recycling center cutting and sizing down the already collected bamboo stalks
- as sponsor Daniel was discussing the layout of what the future job tasks were going to be, Andrea hands us a bagged oyster bag and tells us that our 2nd SPIKE lies inside...we ripped open the bag collectively as if we were 8 years old at Christmas!
- on the back of some of the shells were words and clues that we had to spell out the sentence, about 20 minutes later the 9 of us figured out that we are heading to New Orleans to help out at Camp Hope! SWEET! (will go into more detail about the next project in next blog and once I find out)
- we are all stoked about given the opportunity to be going to New Orleans
- in the afternoon we continue to cut bamboo and cement the tops of them; we are prepping today for next week as then we will be placing the sticks, stalks, and PVC into the mud for the Marine Extension Service to experiment oyster levels
- after a not-so-tough day, some of the team goes out to the mall and relaxes! Myself, Stan and Bill end up going to see Horton Hears a Who...and it was quite hillarious! I would recommend it!!
- we find out that tomorrow was going to be a relaxing day as well and no work will be performed, instead a nice 4 hour boat ride on the Bull Dog shrimp boat!
FRIDAY
- first of all, Happy 20th Birthday Mr. Stan...we celebrate his birthday first by going on the boat ride in the morning portion, very fun and peaceful...got the chance to soak some rays on top of the boat
- we traveled from Brunswick, GA to Darien, GA...which driving would be 16 miles and take about 30 minutes...but the boat ride took 4 hours since we were traveling at 8 MPH!
- captain Lindsey took us on the ride with crewmates Marty and John...the reason for the boat ride also was this weekend was the blessing of the fleet...in a nutshell...it is another way for several shrimp boats to gather and get a special blessing from a priest and then celebrations and gala events follow with music, games, food, etc.
- to continue with Stan's birthday the team gathered up after the boat ride and went to dinner at a place called Georgia Ribs and ate a scrumptious pork rib sandwich, along with dinner we went old-school rollerskating for a couple hours....that was a blast!
SATURDAY
- today was a very productive day that began with working with Habitat over in Brunswick for 5 hours, they had us scrapping the dried paint on the ground inside the house, then sweeping up the remains, and then using the shop vaccuum to make it accessible for the tile and glue to be put down later in the week...they have us tiling the house next saturday
- I then went to the beach for an hour awaiting our next team activity, and that was a historic tram trolly ride learning about the Jekyll Island...very interesting the tour was and alarming in some parts
- I plan on going to church in a bit on the island with Stan and Lauren, so that is very good I have the resources to go to a Catholic mass every weekend, I surely hope next project is the same with that conveinance
Well...there you have it! Seems to me like a super busy week with several tasks and things to do. Tons of positives and lots of smiles on this end. Hope everything on the other side of this update is doing fine and everyone is healthy and smiling! More to come is planting the spat sticks in the mud, helping out at 2 Earth Day Celebrations, awaiting the 2nd oyster roast, and many more. I am bitter sweet right now about the project...sad it is almost over, but super excited about transition and the social aspect by seeing all the friends accumulated from training in Perry Point. Less than 2 weeks and I am looking and feeling trimmer, getting tan, and getting stronger...can't really fret upon that...right? :)
Until next update, keep your heads up! Looking forward to the remaining 2 weeks and what is in store for us. #1 thing is staying flexible and that is the thing that our team has greatly excelled in since arriving and from this AmeriCorps journey!
If you are unfamiliar with that name, Mike Rowe is the host of the hit television show, 'Dirtiest Jobs' on the Discovery Channel. He goes around the world trying to find the most gruesome and messiest places to work for the day and helps him/her with their everyday jobs. Well...I think that our Raven 3 team should contact him. He should come on down to Beach Creek and see how messy it is in the soupy, slimy mud planting these oyseter bags and palettes.
This week was another successful work week with the squad as we knocked out the whole Beach Creek with bagged shell within the first three days of the week. Those were the most treterous of our whole SPIKE project. But as a whole, we have officially planted roughly 10,000 bags with at least 100 palettes in the mud in the 5 weeks we have been here. Let's just say, our service is both efficient and fairly quick. We sometimes are even looking for other jobs to do if we end up finishing a couple hours earlier than expected. As the hard 3 days are done and completed, we had a more of a calm and relaxing remaining days which was very pleasant. We EVEN found out about our next SPIKE location, but I will tell more about that later...
Once again I took deligent and detailed notes on what exactly the group did each day of this week beginning with Sunday...
SUNDAY
- got together with Raven 3 and completed the Weekly Progress Report as a team
- headed down to the beach for a couple hours working on the wicked tan :)
- did the weekly ISP 4 hours at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center; this week they had us paint eggs, weigh them down with rocks, and tie strings around them for their Earth Day Celebration
- we are teaming up with the Center and volunteering at the Earth Day Event a week from today from 12-4 PM. From this event either myself or my CAPping partner will be setting up a table during the event and recruiting
- played some ultimate frisbee with some of the Sea Turtle interns and people in the Extension program for an hour which was very fun
- end up going to bed early since the tough days are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
MONDAY
- like stated above, it seemed as if we worked a total of 30 hours within in the next 3 days with the prep work, planting, loading, etc.
- spent the first part of the morning loading oyster bagged shell into about 7 boat loads with our sponsors to be distributed in the remaining destinations on the creek
- took a break for lunch, then headed back out in the afternoon and planted the shell and palettes in the hard substrate areas and avoiding the fairly soft and soupy-like areas
- planting became fun and fun as the days went on with various cannonballs and mudslides
- crew leader in New Orleans for the Summer of Service program application is completed and already emailed to the unit leader; I end up filling out the application because it seems to be a great opportunity to grow as a leader
- the program is basically teaching and aiding boys and girls ages 14-17 by doing several service project within the New Orleans area; crew leaders are in turn like the team leaders in AmeriCorps by managing a team of 10; it will be interesting if I end up getting the position (pray for me :))
- we find out if we make it to the next round sometime this coming week, which then 1-on-1 interviews are set up during transition in Jackson, MS
TUESDAY
-received an extra hour and a half of sleep due to the high/low tides and woke to moving, bagging, and loading shell for the first 5 hours
- we had to replace all of the broken shell bags by re-bagging roughly 200 that day because of carelessness of tossing them foolish-like; not trying to complain here...
- in the afternoon we canoed back into the mud and planted again, boy...does that mud really play tolls on your physical body because it fatigues you so quickly, once you climb out and end the day all you are thinking about is laying down!
- most of the time we are so worn out from the busy days, none of us are really motivated to do any social activities...it's a struggle to get people out of the house...but I managed to go on a nice 30 min bike ride after and gutted it out
- at night the squad went to a Service Learning volunteer meeting at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for a couple hours; at there we learned more about the 3 main points of concentration in their missiong statement: research, education, and rehabilitation, then we got to learn more about the injured/sick turtles by getting a tour, then ended the seminar with a quiz (I ended up winning a sweet Kemp Ridley turtle during the Bingo portion of the meeting!)
WEDNESDAY
- this 9 hour work day began with moving shell from the recycling center on Jekyll Island into several trailer beds and taking them to the beach to be dropped off, from there we loaded into the motor boats to be dumped (remember this is all during high tide...boat riding during high and then planting during low) into the needed spots
- head-honcho sponsor, Dr. Alan Power, was very pleased at the progress of the creek and he ended up helping with the planting on monday and tuesday...first reaction pre-planting he was feeling nervous about it, but those nerves soon calmed over after glancing at our progress
- jumped in the mud in the afternoon and planted the remaining of the bagged shells
- once arriving back from the day, I received several phone calls and updates from other teams because they had found out about their up and coming 2nd SPIKE location...but our team still did not know where we were heading to...made us super eager...our TL agreed to tell us in the morning
THURSDAY
- begin the morning at the recycling center cutting and sizing down the already collected bamboo stalks
- as sponsor Daniel was discussing the layout of what the future job tasks were going to be, Andrea hands us a bagged oyster bag and tells us that our 2nd SPIKE lies inside...we ripped open the bag collectively as if we were 8 years old at Christmas!
- on the back of some of the shells were words and clues that we had to spell out the sentence, about 20 minutes later the 9 of us figured out that we are heading to New Orleans to help out at Camp Hope! SWEET! (will go into more detail about the next project in next blog and once I find out)
- we are all stoked about given the opportunity to be going to New Orleans
- in the afternoon we continue to cut bamboo and cement the tops of them; we are prepping today for next week as then we will be placing the sticks, stalks, and PVC into the mud for the Marine Extension Service to experiment oyster levels
- after a not-so-tough day, some of the team goes out to the mall and relaxes! Myself, Stan and Bill end up going to see Horton Hears a Who...and it was quite hillarious! I would recommend it!!
- we find out that tomorrow was going to be a relaxing day as well and no work will be performed, instead a nice 4 hour boat ride on the Bull Dog shrimp boat!
FRIDAY
- first of all, Happy 20th Birthday Mr. Stan...we celebrate his birthday first by going on the boat ride in the morning portion, very fun and peaceful...got the chance to soak some rays on top of the boat
- we traveled from Brunswick, GA to Darien, GA...which driving would be 16 miles and take about 30 minutes...but the boat ride took 4 hours since we were traveling at 8 MPH!
- captain Lindsey took us on the ride with crewmates Marty and John...the reason for the boat ride also was this weekend was the blessing of the fleet...in a nutshell...it is another way for several shrimp boats to gather and get a special blessing from a priest and then celebrations and gala events follow with music, games, food, etc.
- to continue with Stan's birthday the team gathered up after the boat ride and went to dinner at a place called Georgia Ribs and ate a scrumptious pork rib sandwich, along with dinner we went old-school rollerskating for a couple hours....that was a blast!
SATURDAY
- today was a very productive day that began with working with Habitat over in Brunswick for 5 hours, they had us scrapping the dried paint on the ground inside the house, then sweeping up the remains, and then using the shop vaccuum to make it accessible for the tile and glue to be put down later in the week...they have us tiling the house next saturday
- I then went to the beach for an hour awaiting our next team activity, and that was a historic tram trolly ride learning about the Jekyll Island...very interesting the tour was and alarming in some parts
- I plan on going to church in a bit on the island with Stan and Lauren, so that is very good I have the resources to go to a Catholic mass every weekend, I surely hope next project is the same with that conveinance
Well...there you have it! Seems to me like a super busy week with several tasks and things to do. Tons of positives and lots of smiles on this end. Hope everything on the other side of this update is doing fine and everyone is healthy and smiling! More to come is planting the spat sticks in the mud, helping out at 2 Earth Day Celebrations, awaiting the 2nd oyster roast, and many more. I am bitter sweet right now about the project...sad it is almost over, but super excited about transition and the social aspect by seeing all the friends accumulated from training in Perry Point. Less than 2 weeks and I am looking and feeling trimmer, getting tan, and getting stronger...can't really fret upon that...right? :)
Until next update, keep your heads up! Looking forward to the remaining 2 weeks and what is in store for us. #1 thing is staying flexible and that is the thing that our team has greatly excelled in since arriving and from this AmeriCorps journey!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Mud, mud, and MORE mud!
“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” That is basically the quote that wraps up this week of work. Once again another tiring and grueling work week with lifting, carrying, unloading, and planting several bags of oyster shells. More than half-way through our first SPIKE project and I am aching in all of my upper body! I was expecting the nice weather, positive attitudes, and being blessed with given this project…and believe me I do feel those all, BUT there are still the nagging bite marks, constant scratching, and soreness from a nice, long 9 hour work day. Our group has scheduled ISP hours on the weekends from now until we leave the island in efforts to get all 80 hours done quickly. One of our goals as a team was to be the first Raven team to accomplish all 80 hours amongst the 9 of us before any other Raven team…the incentive= a pizza party compliments of our unit leader.
I feel that this blog has gotten off to a negative start, so ENOUGH with such negativity and hostility…onto the good and happy events that happened this week! Although it was a tough and strenuous week on Jekyll, there are still the wonderful positives. Do what your parents have told you when you were younger, “don’t sweat the small stuff.” I left off last update last Sunday, so picking up where I left off…
SUNDAY, March 30th
- attended St. Xavier’s Church over in Brunswick at 8:30 AM with the regular crew of Stan and Shannon (and YES…I can wake up early to go to a mass that early) Father Leo is great and he reminds me fellow St. Thomas priest, Father Dave and also my student-friendly priest down at Bradley University, Father Stanley. Father Leo has great sermons that reach out to all demographics in attendance. He is one of the fewest priests that actually reach out to the congregation instead of standing at the ambo delivering his homily
- later in the afternoon our team gathered up and worked at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for 5 hours cutting paper and performing crafts for the up and coming Earth Day celebration
- our Raven team is helping out with both Earth Day celebrations both in Savannah, GA and down here at Jekyll (half going to one and the other half going to the other)
- After working for roughly 5 hours, we had a service learning event by actually walking around to the sea turtle tanks and also getting the chance to see the x-rays of some of the turtles. Since the turtles are suffering from one disease or injury in some way, we got to analyze and see where on the body it was. Very interesting!
MONDAY, March 31st
- beginning in the morning until around 2 PM, we hopped into the mud and began planting the already placed oyster bags and palettes into the 25 destinations our sponsors mapped out; we got to use the canoes and kayaks. Let me tell you…I surely need to attend Canoeing 101, because I am really bad!
- The mud was a blast and surely difficult to walk around in, the technique is to roll and “shimmy” yourself free if you feel like sinking. We actually received mud training for when the times get uncomfortable.
- I was surely parched being out in the mud for 6 hours because it literally drains a lot of your physical energy out of you, but from results of it, I feel I am getting stronger with both upper and lower body
- It was nice working the legs in the mud because for the past couple weeks it has been mostly using arms, biceps, forearms, etc. Good counter balance of a workout.
- When we finished in the mud, we rinsed off and drove over to MAREX over in Brunswick, GA where shrimp boat captain, Lindsay, was waiting for us to help him cut shrimp nets.
- We finished with 20 or so big, honker nets under an hour and a half and headed towards another ISP opportunity; nearby was a group of middle school students and supervisors working on a glass bottled mosaic; they were making a wall using the glass beer bottles that had been polluted on the beach shores and were going to shine a light through for the affect
- We helped by mortaring the bottles together and received an 1.5 hours of ISP
- Came back from the long, busy day and rode the bikes for 30 mins
- Finished the day with a team meeting to discuss how the report of the team was doing
TUESDAY April 1st= April fools day
- we were supposed to go back into the mud today, but were later told that we accomplished so much of the creek yesterday, that we were going to drive down to Savannah, GA and cut down more bamboo
- before we began cutting bamboo, we stopped at the nearby strawberry picking patch and spent an hour or so collecting the freshest and delicious strawberries we could find; I ended up gathering nearly a pounds worth of them
- when we finished the work day, I had my 1 on 1 meeting with TL Andrea to talk about how things are holding up, that is when she gave me the application for Summer of Service
- SOS is a 3.5-4 week summer commitment for any Corps members that wants to become a crew leader and improve their leadership skills. You are in charge of a team of 14-17 year olds to perform service-like projects in the New Orleans, LA area; I really want to become one and really hope my past positions will help me with the selection process…wish me luck!
- When the work day was over, I came back and rode the bike to navigate the island more for over an hour…but unfortunately came back in the pouring down rain
- Our team at night gathered up and went dollar bowling, tons of fun…I bowled a 150 and then a 162!
- Oh, also that happened today was I won 10 bucks scratching a scratch-off lottery ticket! WOO!!
WEDNESDAY April 2nd
- I was appointed the first Team Leader of the day, randomly selected by Andrea; she wanted all of us to become team leader for a day at some point to see what it is like to be one. I know some of the team is thinking about applying to be a team leader next year. WOW…tons of paperwork involved with being one, it was insane to see how much weekly papers need to be completed
- In the early morning we headed over to MAREX (I feel we practically live there now since we go over there to help a lot!) and cut more shrimp nets, power wash a couple boats, and other small tasks that they gave us
- I was in charge of power washing, which was a great experience and yet a painful one too…cut my fingers up a bit, so THAT is why they say don’t touch it J
- When the tide was low enough, we climbed back into the creek and finished up the creek with the oyster bags. Mud should be our middle name
- PT bike ride came later for 30 mins, and let me tell you…it is sometimes a struggle completing all 2.5 hours of PT after a solid, hard and draining work day
- Had a meeting with Andrea at the tail end of the day to talk about how I did as TL
- Teammate Stan and Lauren cook up an excellent meal consisting of spicy eggs, shrimp, lots of veggies, and topped it off with a delicious chocolate cake
THURSDAY April 3rd
- For the first 4 hours of the day we drove to MAREX and cut nets together and they also had us bag up bilge socks for sailors. We ended up bagging roughly 500 bags
- After that we headed over to Tidelands and helped them with some small jobs; my job was to clean all the rocks in the sea turtle (fresh and salt water) tanks using a scrub brush and bleach, then I was in charge of re-filling the alligator tanks and cleaning the fish tanks’ filter
- On our way home from the work day, our group spotted a large, inflateable slide in a parking lot…we thought how cool would that be to stop by and check it out…fortunately that we did Lauren and I got out of the van and began talking to the lady in charge of the event
- The event was for high school students that wanted to improve their leadership skills, so we asked if it would be ok to do a CAPping event and set up a table to talk to the students about our AmeriCorps program…the lady agreed
- We cleaned up, put together a power point with pictures, and arrived back to the place at 7 PM; the 3 of us (Stan, Lauren, and I) all got the chance to interact with a good majority of the kids
- Came back from the day and did 30 minutes of calesenthics in the room and went to bed…what a busy day, but yet a good one!
FRIDAY April 4th
- for 9 hours of the day we constantly did the same thing…which was unloading oyster bags into the boat during high tide, then coming back and planting the bags into the mud. We took about 7 boatloads over, great weather for planting and I have gotten a little bit of burnt and tan doing this
- instead of using canoes and kayaks today, we ended up swimming up the creek and got great PT out of it…Alan Power (the head honcho of the project was there observing and checking our work) led us up stream and we had to move some of the bags in differently locations of his likings, no big deal
- Although swimming back with the STRONG current was brutal!
- At the end of the work day we had a team meeting amongst ourselves as well as with our sponsors to see how the progress with the Beach Creek is going…so far so good!
SATURDAY April 5th
- felt really nautious and light headed when I work up to my alarm for Habitat this morning, decided I was not feeling good so I backed out of going for the ISP; I was so excited early in the week because we were shingling the roof today!
- Ended up attending church with Stan tonight which by then I was feeling a little bit better, I think it was because of the lack of sleep I was getting throughout the week and just needed some time off
So…there you have it. A detailed outline of the week and what all we did. Things accomplished: Summer of Service application done, 1 CAPping formal event, and a job well done on the Beach Creek. There will be many more posts to come and more information to inform you all. Have a wonderful week this week! Always remember to smile J
I feel that this blog has gotten off to a negative start, so ENOUGH with such negativity and hostility…onto the good and happy events that happened this week! Although it was a tough and strenuous week on Jekyll, there are still the wonderful positives. Do what your parents have told you when you were younger, “don’t sweat the small stuff.” I left off last update last Sunday, so picking up where I left off…
SUNDAY, March 30th
- attended St. Xavier’s Church over in Brunswick at 8:30 AM with the regular crew of Stan and Shannon (and YES…I can wake up early to go to a mass that early) Father Leo is great and he reminds me fellow St. Thomas priest, Father Dave and also my student-friendly priest down at Bradley University, Father Stanley. Father Leo has great sermons that reach out to all demographics in attendance. He is one of the fewest priests that actually reach out to the congregation instead of standing at the ambo delivering his homily
- later in the afternoon our team gathered up and worked at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for 5 hours cutting paper and performing crafts for the up and coming Earth Day celebration
- our Raven team is helping out with both Earth Day celebrations both in Savannah, GA and down here at Jekyll (half going to one and the other half going to the other)
- After working for roughly 5 hours, we had a service learning event by actually walking around to the sea turtle tanks and also getting the chance to see the x-rays of some of the turtles. Since the turtles are suffering from one disease or injury in some way, we got to analyze and see where on the body it was. Very interesting!
MONDAY, March 31st
- beginning in the morning until around 2 PM, we hopped into the mud and began planting the already placed oyster bags and palettes into the 25 destinations our sponsors mapped out; we got to use the canoes and kayaks. Let me tell you…I surely need to attend Canoeing 101, because I am really bad!
- The mud was a blast and surely difficult to walk around in, the technique is to roll and “shimmy” yourself free if you feel like sinking. We actually received mud training for when the times get uncomfortable.
- I was surely parched being out in the mud for 6 hours because it literally drains a lot of your physical energy out of you, but from results of it, I feel I am getting stronger with both upper and lower body
- It was nice working the legs in the mud because for the past couple weeks it has been mostly using arms, biceps, forearms, etc. Good counter balance of a workout.
- When we finished in the mud, we rinsed off and drove over to MAREX over in Brunswick, GA where shrimp boat captain, Lindsay, was waiting for us to help him cut shrimp nets.
- We finished with 20 or so big, honker nets under an hour and a half and headed towards another ISP opportunity; nearby was a group of middle school students and supervisors working on a glass bottled mosaic; they were making a wall using the glass beer bottles that had been polluted on the beach shores and were going to shine a light through for the affect
- We helped by mortaring the bottles together and received an 1.5 hours of ISP
- Came back from the long, busy day and rode the bikes for 30 mins
- Finished the day with a team meeting to discuss how the report of the team was doing
TUESDAY April 1st= April fools day
- we were supposed to go back into the mud today, but were later told that we accomplished so much of the creek yesterday, that we were going to drive down to Savannah, GA and cut down more bamboo
- before we began cutting bamboo, we stopped at the nearby strawberry picking patch and spent an hour or so collecting the freshest and delicious strawberries we could find; I ended up gathering nearly a pounds worth of them
- when we finished the work day, I had my 1 on 1 meeting with TL Andrea to talk about how things are holding up, that is when she gave me the application for Summer of Service
- SOS is a 3.5-4 week summer commitment for any Corps members that wants to become a crew leader and improve their leadership skills. You are in charge of a team of 14-17 year olds to perform service-like projects in the New Orleans, LA area; I really want to become one and really hope my past positions will help me with the selection process…wish me luck!
- When the work day was over, I came back and rode the bike to navigate the island more for over an hour…but unfortunately came back in the pouring down rain
- Our team at night gathered up and went dollar bowling, tons of fun…I bowled a 150 and then a 162!
- Oh, also that happened today was I won 10 bucks scratching a scratch-off lottery ticket! WOO!!
WEDNESDAY April 2nd
- I was appointed the first Team Leader of the day, randomly selected by Andrea; she wanted all of us to become team leader for a day at some point to see what it is like to be one. I know some of the team is thinking about applying to be a team leader next year. WOW…tons of paperwork involved with being one, it was insane to see how much weekly papers need to be completed
- In the early morning we headed over to MAREX (I feel we practically live there now since we go over there to help a lot!) and cut more shrimp nets, power wash a couple boats, and other small tasks that they gave us
- I was in charge of power washing, which was a great experience and yet a painful one too…cut my fingers up a bit, so THAT is why they say don’t touch it J
- When the tide was low enough, we climbed back into the creek and finished up the creek with the oyster bags. Mud should be our middle name
- PT bike ride came later for 30 mins, and let me tell you…it is sometimes a struggle completing all 2.5 hours of PT after a solid, hard and draining work day
- Had a meeting with Andrea at the tail end of the day to talk about how I did as TL
- Teammate Stan and Lauren cook up an excellent meal consisting of spicy eggs, shrimp, lots of veggies, and topped it off with a delicious chocolate cake
THURSDAY April 3rd
- For the first 4 hours of the day we drove to MAREX and cut nets together and they also had us bag up bilge socks for sailors. We ended up bagging roughly 500 bags
- After that we headed over to Tidelands and helped them with some small jobs; my job was to clean all the rocks in the sea turtle (fresh and salt water) tanks using a scrub brush and bleach, then I was in charge of re-filling the alligator tanks and cleaning the fish tanks’ filter
- On our way home from the work day, our group spotted a large, inflateable slide in a parking lot…we thought how cool would that be to stop by and check it out…fortunately that we did Lauren and I got out of the van and began talking to the lady in charge of the event
- The event was for high school students that wanted to improve their leadership skills, so we asked if it would be ok to do a CAPping event and set up a table to talk to the students about our AmeriCorps program…the lady agreed
- We cleaned up, put together a power point with pictures, and arrived back to the place at 7 PM; the 3 of us (Stan, Lauren, and I) all got the chance to interact with a good majority of the kids
- Came back from the day and did 30 minutes of calesenthics in the room and went to bed…what a busy day, but yet a good one!
FRIDAY April 4th
- for 9 hours of the day we constantly did the same thing…which was unloading oyster bags into the boat during high tide, then coming back and planting the bags into the mud. We took about 7 boatloads over, great weather for planting and I have gotten a little bit of burnt and tan doing this
- instead of using canoes and kayaks today, we ended up swimming up the creek and got great PT out of it…Alan Power (the head honcho of the project was there observing and checking our work) led us up stream and we had to move some of the bags in differently locations of his likings, no big deal
- Although swimming back with the STRONG current was brutal!
- At the end of the work day we had a team meeting amongst ourselves as well as with our sponsors to see how the progress with the Beach Creek is going…so far so good!
SATURDAY April 5th
- felt really nautious and light headed when I work up to my alarm for Habitat this morning, decided I was not feeling good so I backed out of going for the ISP; I was so excited early in the week because we were shingling the roof today!
- Ended up attending church with Stan tonight which by then I was feeling a little bit better, I think it was because of the lack of sleep I was getting throughout the week and just needed some time off
So…there you have it. A detailed outline of the week and what all we did. Things accomplished: Summer of Service application done, 1 CAPping formal event, and a job well done on the Beach Creek. There will be many more posts to come and more information to inform you all. Have a wonderful week this week! Always remember to smile J
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