Going away

Well, it finally happened. After days, nay weeks, of threatening our sponsor with early withdrawal of the team if they did not provide any work for us to do, we finally got the go ahead to pack up and head home. It only took 3 ultimatums. So now we're going back a week early and doing work around the base. It will be good to have something to occupy our time. Just look at what we were reduced to here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXDOy8FZ-Ow

A thing or two

Just a few quick updates:

1: As planned, the half of our team that was working at Dorsey high school traded place with the half that was working for New City Parish. Its nice to get a break from the school but man is it dull here. New City Parish is a broken organization. They have no money, no motivation, and no clue how to get things done. Theres only so much an NCCC team can do to help, and these guys need more than we can offer. What a waste of time and skills.

2: I volunteered to help run a weekly afterschool course for 8th graders teaching them how to best utilize their time in high school to prepare for college. What they didn't tell me until the night before was that I was actually designing and running the course solo. Thanks for the heads up! So I pulled that one out of my ass and got to the middle school with Sandhya ready to go. Only 3 kids showed up, none of them had been to the initial class the week before, and all of them were 6th graders. Were you planning for high school (much less college) in 6th grade? I know I wasn't. These kids had absolutely zero interest in what we had to teach and I don't blame them.

CYFC, the organization that had me doing this project, is a good group, but they have their heads so far up their own asses that they can't see what programs are working and which ones aren't.

3: Only 2 and a half more weeks til we leave this miserable city and crappy project. I can't wait for spring break. Camping at Yosemite? yes please!

a linguistic sidenote

When I say the word "cockroach," I add an extra 'a' syllable in there. "Cock-a-roach." I don't know where I picked this habit up; its just the way I've always said it. It wasn't until I heard people out here saying it that I realized the extra a is not in the word, and most people say it properly with 2 syllables. Now the linguist in me can detect a very faint sound between the k and the r that just naturally occurs because of the way our tongues work so I can see how that could get exaggerated into a full extra syllable in some dialects.

The reason I bring this up is because the other night, I wake up to find a cockaroach on me. Yes, it was fucking ON me! Crawling around on my shoulder like he owned the place. In my panic I flicked him off in the direction of Logan's cot. Logan was awake enough to realize what happened, and now a minor freak out turned into a major freak out as our scampering around trying to stomp the thing woke everyone else up, who in turn were grossed out by the fact there were cockaroaches in our basement. It was quite a sight to see. Or hear, since the lights were out.

My you-tube training prompted me to grab my camera to record the incident. I'd post it, but you really can't see anything (no night vision or lights on this thing, after all) and the audio is NOT family friendly, so I think I'll just leave that one on the hard drive for a while. G'night.

Life in L.A.

Los Angeles is...a place. I'll come right out and say that I think it sucks way more than America's REAL greatest city, New York, and I'll get into the reasons for that at some other time. But we're making the best of our living situation here. Just see what we did with our cave:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By6lNY2c-ig

The weather is nice. We go to the beach to run, and sit there some nights around fire pits.

But look, thats pretty much all this place has to offer in my eyes. The urban sprawl is out of control. You get all the congestion and traffic of a city with none of the convenience of having things close by. And the traffic is even worse because their public transportation outside of the ritzy central areas is a joke, so without a car (or van) you're pretty much out of luck. New Yorkers at elast TRY to not be racist, but segregation is still very much in play in this miserable place. The rich people living in the hills who think L.A. is the greatest are the most willfully and stubbornly blind people I've ever seen: they go about their glamorous lives completely unaware of the injustice happening just a few miles from them, and they don't WANT to know. Its disgusting. I'm not saying it doesn't happen in New York or any city in the world for that matter, but here it seems particularly ingrained in the culture.

It's also been an eye-opening experience. We were raised to believe that, while slavery and racism were bad, civil rights made everything better and as long as we don't judge people based on the color of their skin, everything will be alright. But in the ghettos of L.A., everything is not alright. The problem has not gone away just because we've convinced ourselves that it has.

Our team is split between the New Chapel Parish, who's basement we're living in, and Dorsey High School; one of the poorest performing schools in the country. I get to teach the kids algebra and geometry all day (ironic). Its really difficult because many of them have trouble with even basic arithmetic.

Most of the kids are actually really smart, but their attitudes get in the way. How do you convince a kid who has to worry about being stabbed on the way to his way home that geometry is important? They come from broken families and broken homes where they are forced to take on adult responsibilities far too early. They are never taught to respect people, to act civilly in society, to value education and prepare for their futures. As such, they have no problem talking back to teachers, walking out on class or simply refusing to do their schoolwork, and start down the path that will no pass on the same attitudes to their own children, just as they inherited them from their own parents without realizing it.

And because so many kids have no problems disrupting class, the teachers have to spend more time trying to maintain control than actually teaching. The lessons get lost, the kids don't learn and before you know it they're staring at a board of symbols and operations they don't even begin to understand. And then they shut down or act out even more. But thats where we come in: if we can sit down and talk with them one on one, and explain to them what is actually happening and why, then they see that its actually easy and become more interested. Nothing is quite so satisfying like watching that spark of understanding slowly spread over the face of a kid who thought it was astrophysics 10 minutes ago. And if they actually remember it enough to do it again the next day...what a great feeling!

Thats not to say that we're the answer to the schools problems. Most of the kids simply don't want to be helped and don't understand why furthering their education and learning how to act in the face of things they don't like or don't want to do, and a bunch of white kids from the government are not going to be the ones to change their minds. But we have to be there for the ones who do want help, and if we can reach just a few, then our time will not have been wasted.

Victory!

Hey, look, our video finally uploaded. Turns out HD stuff makes really huge files. Feel free to watch this on the biggest, highest definition screen you have so it was worth the wait time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTdukVTQX1s

How about that east coast weather? I went to the beach twice today. More on that later.

Loading

oh, hey.

So, it turns out that when my computer goes into standby, it shuts off the wifi, which in turn completely disrupts uploading movies to youtube and making you start over every time. In order to finish this thing I'd have to keep the computer from going to sleep. Between not having a power outlet handy and the slow internet making the upload take over a freaking hour, this is very difficult to do. Right now, it says 17 minutes left. I have my doubts.

In any case, the trip down to L.A. went well. It took about 6 hours. The first 4 sent us down the middle of California, also known as the Land of a Million Cows and No Hills. Seriously. It was flat and vacant the whole time, but pretty in its own way.

(I'd show you a picture right here and say "See?" beneath it, but it seems that even that is too much for this connection to handle. Use your imagination.)

We gradually made our way through the Santa Catalina (I think) mountains, which were really beautiful, and then down into the valley, with Los Angeles spread out before us.

L.A. is HUGE. the other cities I've spent any amount of time in, New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Sacramento; they all have distinct features, geographic and man-made, which help orient me and sort of set the city's boundaries. Not so here. It's just endless city in all directions, and I don't think I like it.

We're living in the basement of Chapel of Peace. Its kind of grungy, and we have to go outside and through like 3 doors which may or may not be locked to get to the bathroom. We have to drive 10 minutes to use the public showers at a nearby park. We sleep on cots. Its pretty cool and will make for an interesting 6 weeks. We're also working for Chapel of Peace, but they're not really sure what they want us to do, so I hope to work on project invention and execution on this project. Oh, and Inglewood isn't quite as bad as it once was, I'm told. Still not a place I'd walk around alone at night, or leave my stuff sitting in the car for any amount of time, but we're not going to get mugged on sight so rest easy, old folks.

Well I think this is enough of a check in for now. I really want to get some pictures and videos up so I don't want to get too much further into things until I can. Let's see, my video right now has...21 minutes left. Great. I'm going to cot.

slow moments.

OK, so I totally made a quick home video to post along with my blurb about traveling to LA, but between taking forever to render and foreverer to upload to youtube, this thing just isn't going to be available to link tonight. I'm gonna get some sleep and i'll have it ready to go tomorrow. Promise!

Departure

Well, we're all done with Sly Park. It was tons of fun, and really educational for me. Some of the weeks went by smoothly, others brought up painful issues that needed to be overcome to reach not only the kids, but their parent chaperones as well. I have plenty of pictures, but I'm too tired to post them up here. I wish there was an easier way to post up albums on here. Instead, check out this video one of the Sly Park teachers made one week. I think it gets the gist of the camp across:

The teachers were all super cool and I hope I can stay in contact with them in the future. We even had a going away party for our team at one of their houses (more on that later). Patrick, the guy who made that video, had a really neat little camera: a mini-camcorder, I think they call them. Simple video cameras designed to whip out of your pocket just in time to see that guy fall off his skate board and then upload it to you-tube. I liked it so much I got one for myself, so expect to see a lot more videos from me in the future (or videos period).

Tomorrow morning, we leave for our next project: 2 months in Los Angeles tutoring and mentoring high-risk youth at inner city schools, as well as helping a flat-broke community center develop sustainable projects like community gardens. We're living in a church basement in Inglewood (ground zero for the LA riots and favorite stomping grounds of Crips, Bloods, and who knows who else). Needless to say, I;m nervous.

I'm also tired. I think I'll turn in early tonight, we have a 6 hour drive tomorrow morning. Talk to you all when I get there.

Happy New Year

Well, I didn't get around to making a new post at home. See, th
is is why I can't be a writer, even though everyone says I'm good at it: I just don't have the drive to keep it up. When I'm not working, my mind is shut down and writing, even when I'm doing it for my own leisure, seems like a chore and I never want to put the effort into it. But I'll try to be better.

My flight back to California was almost a disaster. After everyone was onboard at LaGuardia, the pilot comes on and says "plane's broke, everyone off." While I appreciate not flying in a broken plane, making my connection in Dallwas was pretty much out of the question. There were only a few more flights out of New York that day, all of them full, and most of them arriving AFTER the last flight to Sacramento left from Texas. I would have had to stay in a hotel (paid for by AA) in dallas all night, then take some flight to Sacramento the following day, and get driven up to our project by an assistant team leader in a minivan sometime Monday afternoon. Instead, I managed to make both flights on standby; 8 miserable hours of flying and arriving at 11:30 sunday night, just in time to get up early the next day for the project. I kind of wish I'd opted for the hotel room. Curse my sense of responsibility!

We are now working at Sly Park. Its a science education camp for 5th and 6th grade kids to stay for a week and learn about ecology, geology, astronomy, and all that good stuff. Each team member is a cabin leader and chaperon in charge of 20 or so kids. Its a lot of fun but I feel like I didn't get a chance to see my teammates for the entire week. We're separate for most of the day and we have to be on duty 24 hours a day. You know, for the kids. Internet connection there is pretty much non-existent, so I'll only be making updates on the weekend. For now, heres some pitchas:

Homecoming part 1

Huzzah, it's Christmas break! (actually it has been for the past week and a half, but you know how I am with promptness.)

My flight went smoothly and without any delays, despite flying directly into the heard of the "storm of the century, Blizzard '09" (I guess they forgot about the other Blizzard '09s they had in January and February?) which dumped approximately 0 inches of snow on my house. Laura was nice enough to meet me there and ride the train back with me since SOME people weren't willing to brave the storm and pick up their son at the airport. Thanks Laura, you get a Christmas present now!

My time here has been...uneventful. I forgot that though I may be in vacation, most of my friends are not. And I haven't even heard from some people who I wasn't as close with but was still eager to see. Was I that unpopular? So it's been a lot of wine-and-Godzilla evenings for me.

My parents, as always, got me way too much for Christmas. I told them that the tickets home were enough, and I really meant it, but sure enough, come Christmas morning, there was a bunch of stuff for me under the tree. And to top it off my mom bought me new glasses as an early birthday present. I am extremely grateful, don't get me wrong, but the whole thing has started to bug me. For one, I really am bothered by how much my parents spent on me, and two, I am even more bothered by the fact that, at 25, I'm still almost completely incapable of taking care of myself financially. My parents buy my plane tickets and eye care, pay my cell phone bill, and have temporarily taken on my student loan payments while I'm in Americorps (possibly the most financially unsound move of my post-college life). They justify it, of course, by saying that they paid a certain portion of my sister's college expenses so this makes it even. But I still feel like if I were a better son and a better person, no justification would be needed because money would be needed. I'll pay them back someday, I swear.

Lets see, what else. Got a new phone. Rather a second new phone, cause I had to return the first new phone I got cause I hated it so much. I actually assumed I would do this; the only available phone they had in Sacramento was a Samsung and I have never met a Samsung phone I could tolerate. But I didn't want to make a cross-country flight without a cell phone, so I took it. The guy said I could return it within 30 days if I didn't like it (he neglected to mention the $35 restocking fee. Thanks, asshole, see if I ever come to your store again.)

I suppose thats about it for now. I'll do my best to get off my lazy ass and throw up another post from home before I go.

Oops.

So, I accidentally put my phone through the rinse cycle. (Tech tip of the day: don't do this). I have heard tales of electronics surviving this kind of abuse; mine did not. For those keeping score, this is the second death-by-water experienced by one of my phones, and the second major electronic device I've destroyed in as many months out here in California. Laptop? DS? I love you guys but you should probably be on guard around me.

We spent the day helping at a clinic handing out H1N1 vaccines. It was at a high school. High schools out here are weird, by the way. They're more like mini colleges, with lots of buildings spread out over a campus. I guess it makes sense in a state with no real winter, and where most school buildings were built after 1800.

But the vaccine. Against my better judgement, I got one. I don't know why I was so against it. Maybe I was afraid of contributing to the evolving super virus, or didn't want the government's brainwashing serum in me. But they gave it to me in nasal spray form. What a great idea these things are! Where were they when I was a kid? Maybe if I didn't have some nurse stabbing me with the ferocity of a serial killer back at the pediatrician's, I wouldn't be so mortified about going to the doctor today.

Anyway, enjoy getting H1N1, suckers!*

*you probably will not get H1N1

Yum

The California Burrito: a heart attack in a tortilla topped with diabetes sauce. Each bite takes a week off your life. Carne asada, cheese, sour cream and French fries rolled into a flour tortilla and I don't even know what kind of sauce. It weighs at least 4 pounds. $4.89. Open 24 hours. I think I will have one tonight.

Look, I found a blog!

*dusts it off*

Well here I am finally, back for another overdue post. I can't blame it on being too busy or lacking internet. Im usually just so tired by the end of the day, writing up a blog post always seems like too much work. Especially since I don't have my own camera, and have to download any photos I want to post from friends' facebook pages. And theres so many pictures I want to show!

Lets see, what have we missed? I went to San Francisco last weekend. which was actually pretty cool...for the most part. Remind me to not go with underage kids anymore. For all the talk of SF being a super-liberal city, they are very strict about IDing at the door. So if you don't want to face the choice between ditching your friend and wandering around all night not being able to get inside anywhere, leave the kids at home. Ill show everyone pictures soon.

Our project at the Partnership sucks. Theres no sugar coating it. Oh, we know that we're helping, and that they'd be having a hard time dealing with the holidays without us, but there is no overriding task that we're trying to accomplish. We barely interact with the poor families we're serving, and the chores we DO do from day to day are just that: chores. Busy work. General maintenance tasks that they struggle to come up with for us every day. Its pretty hard to keep team morale up. Fortunately, its almost over; just another week and a half and then Im home!

My ISPs are coming along nicely: after this weekend I'll be pushing 40 hours and have gotten my lead out of the way. That's 40% done!

Also, if anybody is looking for a killer workout, try the P90x series. We did one video for PT on Monday and my ass and thighs are still killing me.

the Balance

Man, where have I been? Between limited internet connectivity and long work hours, its been getting hard to find time to post things.

The lonliness of a deserted campus continues. Fortunately our job at the partnership has been getting busier as the holidays approach, and I've been trying to get ahead in ISP hours. Did I explain ISPs yet? Of the 1700 hours of service we need to complete the program, at least 80 need to be independent service projects that I come up with myself, or help a fellow corps member with. Today we got up at 6 to go work in the kitchen and warehouse at the homeless shelter. Doesn't get much volunteery than that!


Last friday was family night at the Partnership. We set up dinner and activity for the kids. I'm afraid that I still feel a bit awkward around children, especially when half of them speak Spanish or Russian. Their being poor also makes it hard...we can't assume they have a TV to watch SpongeBob, or can read Harry Potter...so its hard to find common ground with them. really depressing stuff.

But we try.
I can't believe we've been here over a month, and that Christmas break starts in less than a month. I really really really can't wait. And why can these posts NEVER turn out as well and interesting as I want them to?

Melancholy man

Lets see...

We switched rooms recently, to be closer to our new teammates and team leader. My new room is better in pretty much every way: more furniture, first floor, towel racks...now if only it had a reliable internet connection. So from now on, I'm afraid updates will be more sporadic from now on. Also, I broke my camera. Again. I just cant be trusted with these things.

Anyway, most of the teams left on spike this morning. There are only about 5 left on campus; the ones who are working on local projects for this round like us. The place seems abandoned. Nobody in the kitchens, or the lounges, or the halls. Garbage bins are full and overflowing, and people just left their crap where it lay, it seems (some corps members are not known for their cleanliness). It feels like we survived the Rapture... But Im gonna miss a lot of people. I don't want to think about how long its going to be before I see many of them again.

We started our first day at Folsom Cordova. More meetings, more training. I can't wait to get to work, cause Im going nutty with this stuff.


Oh, and the Leonids meteor shower peaks tonight. Try and check it out!

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?

minstrel's song

Finally back from Camp Mendocino! It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad to be back.

The trip up took about 4 hours. It was a great day and a beautiful drive through some of California's wildly varying terrain. We went from endless farmlands...


to rolling semi-arid hills...

to sheer redwood covered mountains.

I even got a turn at driving the van. It was a pain in the ass trying to maintain a certain speed and really scary going around some of the sharp turns on a steep hill in a huge 15 passenger van.

Camp Mendocino is nestled in a valley in said redwood mountains. The steep cliffs on all side, combined with the really tall trees meant that we only got direct sunlight for about an hour each day. So yeah, it was a bit chilly. Sleeping at night was difficult because the "cabins" we stayed in were little more than a roof. The doors and windows were just curtains to keep the bugs out.

Most of the time we were doing team-building activities. You know, being presented a challenge and having to figure out the best way to solve it as a team. Identifying who the natural leaders and followers were, and trying to make everyone try to participate equally. All the noble stuff that is forgotten immediately in the real world. I'm sad to say that, as usual, I find myself falling into the submissive follower role. I hate being like that, and will try to do my best to break out of it.

One of the coolest features of the place was their rock climbing wall and their ropes course. I actually managed to get to the top of the wall with only a little bit of cheating, and had a blast dangling from safety wires and ropes strung up about 30 feet in the trees and flying down on a zipline. Awesome!

On the last night, we all got fed up with the coldness in the cabins and decided to camp out next to the fire pit under the stars. The whole thing was surreal and I'm still not sure it actually happened. But it was the best sleep I had while I was out there and will remember it forever. It makes me miss real camping with my friends.

Did that post make any sense? I had a much nicer sounding post all planned out in my head but I think I'm too tired to get it across. But here I am at the ungodly hour of 10:45, filling you guys in even though I have PT tomorow at 5:30. See how much I care?

Miss you all.

Its up to you

Listen up, my droogies; heres a couple orders of business.

First: i got my mailing address: all of you should send me things!

Lee Forrest
Americorps NCCC
Class XVI / Silver 6
3427 Laurel St.
McClellan, CA 95652

I'll throw it up on a permanent sidebar so you don't forget.

Second: Tomorow we leave for our first spike. Actually its more of a mini-spike, since its only 4 days long. But I'll be out of touch for the whole time. So don't feel bad...I'm not ignoring you! We'll be going to Camp Mendacino, a summer camp for lower income kids. It's about four hours north of Sacramento, in the redwood forests surrounding Fort Bragg. Look it up on Google Maps. On one hand, Im gonna be freezing my ass off, but on the other hand, it will be nice to get away from this place for a few days. Plus: redwoods!

Alright, Im off to scrounge together a Halloween costume.

Tortoise and Hare

A woman in Western Samoa has been having visions of the future. Apparently she accurately predicted the coming of the last tsunami and earthquake that struck the islands, with such details as severity and date.

She's predicted another tsunami will strike the island in the next 24 hours. So...if another tsunami strikes Samoa by tomorrow, I'll be pretty freaked out. And you guys should probably be, too.

Don't you feel small?

I noticed that all the stores around here are just named for what's inside them. Just from campus I can see "the Waffle shop," "Kitchen Furniture," "the Music Store," "Russian Restaurant," and "Delicious Burgers." Down the road a bit is "Groceries," "Cheap Cigarettes," and "Hardware."

Don't people around here have any creativity? Props to the Vietnamese place across the streeet for putting a little effort into their name.

Jokes about finding this place have already been done.