Dawning is the Day

Sorry for being out of touch this past week. It's been crazy busy and my new room is JUST far enough away from the wireless router for a sketchy connection. Laptops, I have come to realize, are otherly worthless without the internet. They're just expensive mp3 players that you can't put in your pocket.

This was the final week of CTI (Corps training institute). We're finally done with all the mindless lessons and repetitive team building excersizes. Physical training will now take place later in the day. We can even drive the vans without a team leader being present! We had a nice induction ceremony today and got a piece of paper that I ought to find a frame for. Now I'm a REAL AmeriBoy! Now, all the teams are going their separate ways on Monday to start their first projects.

Our first spike is actually right here in Sacramento, at the Folsom Cordova Community Partnership, about 45 minutes away from base. I'm actually looking forward to staying in Sacramento. it will really give me time to get to know the are and make it feel more familiar. Its hard to maintain that optimism in the face of teams who are psyched to be going to Utah or the gulf coast, but it should get easier when they're gone. We all will have a project in Sacramento sooner or later; its good to get ours out of the way early. It will be weird, though, wandering around campus with only 4 or 5 other teams.

The Community Partnership is dedicated to improving the lives of low-income families int he Rancho Cordova area. They provide nutritious foods, education, and economic aid to parents who are trying to better their lives. They also have day care so parents can have time to take classes. They already work with a few Americorps VISTA members, but their terms are up this month, so they'll be leaving the Partnership just in time for winter and the holiday season (when demand for its services increases sharply). Thats where we come in.

It sounds like a really impotant project; we'll all be directly fighting poverty and helping people find better lives. And thats why we're here, right?