In D.C. for the 4th!

Happy 4th of July weekend!!! I missed the festivities at home (i heard left right center went well). but it is definitely a great experience being at the capitol for this holiday. We watched the fireworks seated right next to the reflecting pool. We could see the capitol and the washington monument right below the fireworks. Emma's aunt and uncle were kind enough to have us at their house for a cookout and then drove us to the fireworks sight. It was nice to still have that cookout and family thing while we are away. Her aunt Mary even made a flag cake with blueberries and strawberries. I know we've had those before... haha. it was an all around great time.

My computer is unfortunately not up and running so I am writing whenever i get the chance. That makes it hard to get pictures up as well because I can't really save them anywhere. Hopefully I can put some up soon.


The last time I posted was during transition. We are now at D.C. for the Summer of Service program. This works with the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), which is the mayor of D.C.'s initiative to provide a job to all D.C. youth ages 14-21 that want a job. Our job in this is to be the crew leaders of the workers. Serve D.C. is an organization that helps with this program. They hired NCCC people to lead their workers. Joe and I are co-crew leaders for a team of around 10 crew members. Each team is doing a different project. Some are planting community gardens outside the local rec centers, some are tutoring children. Right now, Joe and I are leading our team in a project that works with a 4-H club. The students of this club are ages 6-14. Our crew members are 16 and 17. These first two weeks have mostly been about getting to know each other and such. It has already had some challenging moments, but overall I am excited to hopefully see progress in our crew members in the next 9 weeks.



(THANKS JAY FOR HELPING ME FIND THE PICTURE BUTTON!!!)