keeping an open mind.

Day 11: So it’s Thursday. Another week almost come and gone, it’s amazing how fast time has been going by. It has been a lot harder to update my blog and have free time to unwind because I’ve been so exhausted and busy. Since I am on the fire team, we are required to do PT (Physical Training) 5 days a week. Our days that are already 10 hours long are even longer because we are waking up at 6am. I am getting very good sleep at night though, so that’s a benefit. Also, have a set eating schedule is great for my body, especially when I’m eating healthy, home-cooked meals.

Last night we found out our permanent teams for the next 9 ½ months. We have a pretty young, lour team, which should be interesting. We have 5 recent high school graduates, and 5 college graduates. We’ll see how it works out. I’m excited to get to know them all and start to learn our working styles. I found out today we will be moving into a residence hall with the other fire team, which will be pretty fun. It will be helpful for getting up for PT, cooking, and doing training together.

Today we found out where I first project will be! We will be working with Habitat for Humanity in Lafayette, LA for 7 ½ weeks. Our team is going to be working on building homes in low-income areas in Lafayette where many people relocated to after Hurricane Katrina and Rita. More than likely we will be roofing and working on exteriors of homes, which will be a fun new skill! Lastly, we will be staying in a home built by Habitat for Humanity by college volunteers. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, washer and dryer, and full kitchen appliances. When I get more details I’ll definitely keep you updated. We need to read through the project application that goes through all the details, so I will have more to report this weekend probably.

Our trainings have been pretty long and boring the last couple days. Hazardous materials, child-friendly spaces (working with Save the Children to create spaces for children in time of disaster to feel safe), specialty roles (each team member has a specific role on the team: media, service-learning, individual service projects, vehicle/safety/trainings, or recruitment), project transition (what we need to do in between projects), etc are some examples of what we have been learning about. Much of this week is about the logistics of spikes (projects) and working with NCCC.

I’m starting to feel the difficulty of being so far away from home. It wasn’t until yesterday that I started feeling homesick and wishing it would be easier to be home. I think I’ve finally started to feel out of my comfort zone, and that this isn’t just a vacation or ASB (alternative spring break) trip. The feeling of excitement and anxiousness has worn off and the reality of this experience has started to set in. It’s scary.

PT early tomorrow morning again, we are challenging the other fire team to a game of basketball. Should be interesting.