Goodbye D.C.

We finished our last week in D.C. with our Summer of Service participants. Unfortunately I became so sick my last week that I was unable to attend any of the days. It was upsetting missing the last day where all of my team was crying and saying goodbye. I think it hit everyone that we won't be together every day anymore. My team called me and gave me cards saying goobye. It was real nice. Nicole has a video from the last day. Once I get the video from Nicole I will post it on here. It's great. This picture to the left is of NCCC after we finished loading all the 12 govy vans in the middle of a thunderstorm. We were all so happy to be packing up and heading back to the Point.

Once in Perry Point, we had a BBQ to celebrate the completion of our project and our survival through all the hard times. We prepared for our Debriefing presentation and then left for break. I am now on break and in San Diego writing this to you! Beth and I are spending some time at Chris's house. It has been a relaxing and, most importantly, non sweaty time so far. I'll be meeting up with some UNH friends as well. I am ending my vacation in Boston and will be home for the long weekend. Hopefully I will see some people in that short time! I can't believe that I am more than half way done with AmeriCorps....I don't want to think about it. I am having too great of an experience to think of that.

Operation Military Kids Camp

Nicole and I went to the Natural History Museum with our crew members.  This was a chance to show them what their city has to offer that is fun, educational, and free.  They seemed to have a great time.  Missy mentioned how she wanted to bring her niece sometime, while Rees'e told us how this is her favorite museum.  She is the crazy one with her head in the Dinosaur's mouth.  It was a great time for our team.  This Summer of Service program is coming to an end faster than I expected.  

We finished our time in the 4-H office working on projects to prepare for the Operation Military Kids Camp.  Last week was the OMK camp.  It was great to see our crew members take on the leadership roles and responsibility required for their job.  They have all made progress this summer with continuing to develop different skills.  They all had a good time with the kids this week.  It was a sad last day for all of us even though we only spent 4 days with these campers.  It was clear that our crew members were impacted by the work they have done this summer, especially this past week.  Below is Angel with her campers at Ft. McHenry.

At the end, they asked 4-H staff if they could volunteer for 4-H in the future.  The staff was pleased about their enthusiasm and agreed.  I knew that this summer was going to be a challenging experience, especially since the main age group I am used to supervising has been the elementary age.  My hope for SOS was that by this time, the end of the summer, I have developed relationships with each of my crew members and that I have a better perspective of myself as a leader.  It feels good to finally be at that place.

This week coming up is our last week with Summer of Service. This brings many mixed emotions of relief that we are done with this long journey, sadness that I am leaving these kids who have impacted me in more ways than they realize, and excitement for what is to come in the future.

Playground Build

Our AmeriCorps teams have come together the past week for a mini project.  This was a playground build for Savoy elementary School.  Some teams were at the build all week, building the playground from the ground up.  My team had the chance to join everyone at the end of the week.  It was great to see the progress that was made.  The weather has been getting hotter each week here in D.C., reaching in the 100s.  I miss the Boston weather!  I will never say it is humid again when in New England.  The crew members of my team, though hot and tired, enjoyed that we were doing something that directly benefited their community.  

Kat, Erik, and I worked on building a bridge and also the ceiling below steps.  The ceiling isn't something anyone will ever really notice or see, but it was still a good feeling when we finished.  That's why we danced on it with our steel toes.

                   It felt good to be out in the sun working construction again.  We haven't had a project like this since New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity.  I missed it!!  Most of the day was spent supervising the crew members, making sure that they had work to do and were safely working.  I enjoyed being handed projects to complete, such as the ones with Kat and Erik.  Even in the heat, it was still a good time.  The best part is knowing that we were building something that will hopefully benefit the children in the community.

Nats Games!

Since being in D.C. we had the chance to attend a few Nats baseball games.  The most entertaining part of these games is probably the running race between the presidents in between two of the innings.  This is where four people are dressed as different presidents, with giant sized heads, and run a race around the field.  Abe Lincoln won the first time, but unfortunately tripped over his own feet at the second game and that lost him the race.  

In this pic, Beth and I are enjoying the 5 dollar seats at the game.  I couldn't believe that seats were available at such a small cost.  We had actual seats and cup holders..wowwww.  It costs more at Fenway to purchase a standing room only ticket!!  But Fenway is still Fenway.  It was fun to see a different ball park, though it was definitely missing that old time feeling of Fenway that we all love.

Beth was one of three Nats fans that were chosen for the "Biggest Fan" competition.  She was on the big screen for a good five minutes cheering and dancing. It was amazing and we all know that she only lost due to the fact that her competition was some little boy.  Damn kids win everything. I wish i had a video of her amazing Nats fan performance.

Rave at the Memorials

Erik's birthday was August 2nd.  It was possibly the best night since being here in D.C.  After dinner we all met up at the monuments and walked around.  When we got to the Lincoln Memorial there was this girl protesting in favor of Michael Vick, writing messages at the memorial with glow sticks.  None of us really understand why, but thanks to her we received endless amounts of glow sticks and were able to have a rave dance party next to the reflecting pool.  We also wrote a happy birthday message to Erik with them.  We continued to take crazy pictures with the glow sticks when one of them looked like Jordan was blowing up the Washington Monument.  That picture is below. 

SEEDS FOR EL HATILLO

Hey everyone! Below is a message from my friend Danielle Costanza.  She is a good friend of my from UNH.  She recently entered the Peace Corps and sent this request via Facebook.  I figured that I would copy it and pass the message along to anyone I know.  i know help is needed in many places and in many ways, but I figured I could at least pass the message along to those who may be able to help out!

-Colleen

Hola! Greetings from Nicaragua,


I am writing this letter in hopes of acquiring some financial support for the small town of
El Hatillo, Telica, Leon. This will soon be my new home for the next two years, during my
time here in Nicaragua as a Peace Corp volunteer. I recently had the pleasure of visiting this remote northern village and meeting my future family and Nicaraguan counterpart. The community received me with open arms, and they are very hospitable and hard working people.


Delever Jose’ Juarez Machado, my counterpart with whom I will be coordinating projects, is a graduate of the University of Managua, with a specialty in seed engineering. He has worked in the fields all his life with his father, and is very knowledgeable and organized. We have brainstormed many options as to how to raise the standard of living in El Hatillo.
The most decisive and appropriate way would be to improve and increase farm production. The mission of the Peace Corp volunteer is to assist the town in initiating and maintaining improvements that are sustainable. There are no financial resources here to jump start this project which we have named, “Seeds for El Hatillo.” 


Delver and I would like to purchase the appropriate fertilizers and seeds ( fertilizantes nigtrogenados fertilizantes compeletos y semillas adaptadas) that are necessary for the planting grounds in order to yield an abundant harvest. The community will be brainstorming
their own ways of raising money for this cause, but the hard fact is that money is scarce and difficult to obtain.


Life is hard here and the poverty is heartwrenching. People do not have even the most basic needs. There is malnutrition among the children as well as the adults. Some families subsist on only one meal a day. The town does not have electricity, or a road that vehicles can travel on. People must walk or ride a bicycle (if they have one) to go to the next village.
Delver and I would like to address some of these problems by trying to elevate the state of nutrition, availability of food, and provide a source of income by planting crops. We anticipate we need about $ 400 to $ 500 to get started on this project, but the people of El Hatillo would be grateful for any donation no matter how small. Our goal would be to purchase the seeds and fertilizer by September in time for this year’s planting. However, realistically speaking, we see this as an ongoing project and we will use the resources for the following planting year if we can not meet this September time frame.


Please join us in solidarity with our friends in Nicaragua. Please give the people of El Hatillo an opportunity to help themselves and a chance to transform a barren earth into a garden of hope for the future. 


Donations or checks will be placed in a special bank account (Seeds for El Hatillo) at Meredith Village Bank. 


Checks can be made to ;
Danielle Costanza: Seeds for El Hatillo


Mailing address: Danielle Costanza
c/o Sara Costanza
PO Box 1048

Moultonborough, New Hampshire

03254



“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to plant, and time to pluck up that which is planted;”
Ecclesiastics 3:2


Thank you for your generous giving and understanding. Please keep the people of El Hatillo in your prayers and in your thoughts. Thank you for all your letters, packages, well wishes throughout my training period. Your support has helped me immensely.


Peace and Love to you All, 
Danielle Costanza PC
Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz

I want all of you to go and read Jay's recent post about our time in D.C. (feel free to read on after that as well. He is a great writer, especially compared to my amateur style.) Jay is from Boston, too. (jay is laughing at this sentence right now. did i mention i am a great writer?) We met day one of our AmeriCorps travels on the plane ride to Perry Point. Little did we know that our two teams would be spending most of our AmeriCorps year together. Below is the link to his blog. CHECK IT OUT : )

http://jay-americorps.blogspot.com/


Last Friday our teams were all involved in preparing for a free event called Street Soccer US Cup. There are teams from across the country that play 4 v. 4 matches all weekend. This is a program that works to help fight homelessness. Each soccer team is made up of men and women who are, or were at one point, homeless.

"Join this team, change your life." This is what SSUS offers to people in 16 cities across the country. It is a chance for personal development through participating in a sport and other opportunities the program offers. I think this was a great experience meeting these strong individuals, especially for our summer of service participants.

Next week is the Operation Military Kids Camp. All of my participants are looking forward to working with kids again. I can't believe we only have 2 1/2 weeks left of Summer of Service. These 9 weeks went by faster than expected. Our 10 months is almost up. SO STRANGE. I knew it was going to go by fast, but I wasn't expecting it to be this fast.