marathoner452 | AmeriCorps trip to NoLa

I officially have off the first week of July to go back down to New Orleans. I'm going with AmeriCorps this time, gutting and mold removal and good stuff like that in the steamy southeast Louisiana summer heat. We'll be living in barracks-style housing and eating MREs and working 10 hour days but we'll be loving every minute of it. I can't wait to get back down there and continue helping people. I'm already counting the days-66 at this point, I believe. That could be the one downside to this trip-with the Red Cross deployment I had less than 24 hours to get all pumped up on adrenaline, less than 24 hours from the time I first heard about my deployment and the time I arrived in Baton Rouge. This time around I have more than 2 months until the plane lifts off and I'm already ready to go.

I ran 5 miles on Sunday night. I was stiff after a mile and a quarter and it was painfully slow and I was stiff as anything yesterday, but I'm finally getting back into distance running shape. Even if I ran 11 minute miles versus the 9:40 pace I ran in my last marathon, getting back to what I love doing makes me very happy. Like I said recently, running is as much therapy as anything else.

Speaking of which, I should get off the computer and get out for a run sometime soon. That or work on finishing up with The Tenth Circle, which was due today and has 83 holds on it. Whoops.

~Bethany

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I don't know numbers, but I know there are a bajillion new Red Cross volunteers that came forward during Katrina. It's anyone's guess as to how many of them have stuck around to really get trained for the long run, but I know I hear my emergency services director (who is currently on a much-needed vacation to Utah with no cell phone connection whatsoever) talk about how chapters have expanded their capacity and they'll only need DSHR people for the really big ones. All of which is to say that hopefully it won't hurt quite so bad because Red Cross chapters have a little extra padding.

But still, most of us aren't quite as flexible and quick to deploy as NCCC people must be. Heck, I even work for the Red Cross and disappearing for 3 weeks is a trick for me...in the "real world" it's gotta be even harder. I suspect a lot of bosses aren't as sympathetic as they should be about letting people off the hook on a moment's notice so they can fly down south and work in a shelter.

So yeah, not having NCCC people is going to hurt.

~Bethany

Pardon my ignorance (again), but what is NCCC? I know, I should just Google, but then, I should also just know. ;)

National Civilian Conservation Corps. Another branch of AmeriCorps. To the best of my knowledge, they work 10 month terms with the same group of people and live in dorm-style housing. More regimented than the other AmeriCorps programs as far as the lifestyle goes, but more flexible in terms of the projects they work on. One of the NCCCs I talked to down in New Orleans had come down to the Gulf right after Katrina for a month or so, then went back to the West Coast to tutor kids, then was back in Louisiana but gutting houses this time, and after 2 months of the gutting houses thing was going to Oregon or Washington (can't remember which) to help with invasive species removal.

They have the ability to travel wherever they're needed for a month or two at a time, whereas the rest of us AmeriCorps people tend to stay put on a project for a year or two. That's enormously helpful in the case of a disaster, seeing as disasters usually aren't considerate enough to follow a schedule. :-)

~Bethany

NCCC is the part of AmeriCorps that isn't disappearing anymore because of lack of funding. I know that for a fact because they called me last week for an interview.

I'm hooked on teaching elementary kids and NOLA trips and running at this point so I don't think I'm going to do it, but I was very happy to hear that they're still alive and kickin'.

~Bethany

AmeriCorps trip to NoLa

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