Steel Toed Boots

     First day of work. Lots of thorns. We planted 30 or so cacti today, pruned thorny desert shrubs and pulled desert mistletoe out of mesquite trees.

     The days are warm, the nights are cold and windy as hell!

     If I'm not use to these steel toed boots by the end of 6 weeks, they may end up being the death of me.

Lemon Honey, Hot Springs and Coyotes

     I'm just sipping on some lemon honey tea. The drive here was so long. Two days of being crammed in the van. Thank god my team rides in the van together well. Most of us just sleep until we get our second wind. My teammate, Lindsey is my favorite "safety," the person who rides shot gun in the 15 passenger van. Even though we never know where the hell we're going, we are both from the same area in MA so we chat about our favorite restaurants and laugh about the concerts we've been to.

     It rained our first night at camp Agua Caliente. It was a relatively quick storm and made the desert smell like licorice. I went to bed while the rest of the team went to the hot springs.

     The hot springs, by the way, are two out door pools and an indoor 30 person jacuzzi. All three are "naturally fed" by the natural hot springs but are all chlorinated. I find the natural hot springs intriguing but I'm not a huge fan of jacuzzis. Its a bit too much like a human stew. Supposedly though, the showers we use in the pool room are naturally fed by the springs too! 

     On our day off yesterday, we went into town early for errands and didn't get back until 10pm. Some of the girls went straight to bed but most of us stayed up around the camp fire and told scary real life stories. A few of my teammates have been sleeping outside by the fire. I however, will not be doing that. We heard the coyotes around 4am this morning in the near distance.

our tents

     I just can't wait to start working tomorrow! Dad told me to take it day by day. I'll soon acclimate and feel more comfortable living in the desert. It's great that we have the recreation room to use for storage, hangout and a kitchenette! We got a propane grill tonight too. I think we're trying to make quesadillas. 

     My Team Leader, Cydne praised me for my positive attitude and leadership role today. She encouraged me to become a team leader.

     I hear we're weeding around pools and planting cactus tomorrow.

Deep, Desert Sands of Agua Caliente

Excerpt from Green 7 press release…

  A newly formed AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) team are serving in Anza Borrego Desert's Agua Caliente campgrounds, enhancing San Diego County's Department of Parks and Recreation by preserving the desert's mineral hot springs and natural and cultural resources. The team assist the community of Agua Caliente and it's surrounding campgrounds by increasing resources to maintain and enhance the quality of life that provides protection for the regionally important natural hot springs and the deep, desert sand lands of the Anza Borrego desert.

The team removes invasive vegetation around the mineral pools into which the Park's hot springs feed. The Corps Members duties also include brush, branch and dead tree removal, erosion control, cleaning drainage areas, installing horse corrals, realigning rocks and grading campgrounds sites around Agua Caliente. Furthermore, they have been removing mistletoe that suffocates Mesquite Trees in nearby Camp Vallencito. The team assists the community of Agua Caliente and it's surrounds campgrounds by increasing resources to maintain and enhance the quality of life that provides protection for the regionally important natural hot springs and the deep, desert sand lands of the Anza Borrego desert.

Lindsey Roland, a Corps Member, expresses her enthusiasm for Round One by saying, "I am excited to experience desert life, day in and day out for our six weeks in Anza Borrego. Also, I'm excited to learn about the various tasks it takes to run a park successfully and thirdly, I am most eager to see our team in action!"

Sacramento

     It's only day 12 in Sacrament and I feel like I've been here for about three months already! I've been averaging 6.5 hours of sleep a night, which is not enough and each day I've been here feels like the longest day of my life.

     The Corps Members have a lot of trainings. CPR, First Aide, Natural Disaster, Save The Children, Driver's Ed, American Red Cross Shelter, Seminars, games, team building, team meetings or team whatever. I love it, I hate it. I'm learning, I'm living. I'm serving and hopefully I leave this program a better version of myself. What an experience.

     I'm going to the Red Woods for 4 day's of team building at Camp Mendocino with all 7 teams in my unit. My team is so diverse. Half of us are gay, one girl is from Jamaica, another is from the Virgin Islands and we all have short fuses.

my team, akina, nick, michael, shauna, me, jenna, lindsey, simeon, kayla and britt

     Living with 11 other people will bare it's challenges but living with 300 other people on campus is interesting, for sure! Though I have met amazing people who have the same passions as I do. The first three days were crucial for meeting people and I went in there as open and raw as I could be. Some new friends and I have explored downtown Sacramento, and ate at some really good restaurants!

some close freinds, cody, elise, nina, me and elaine

     Yesterday was our first community project. My team served at the oldest and biggest cemetery in town! We did a lot of fall cleaning landscaping. I was all up in 2 rose bushes, pruning away. I'm totally sliced up from thorns. Still have thorns in my sweatshirt. But getting away from campus felt great and it was amazing to get things done for my new community.

rose garden cemetery