Samuel in Pain

"Moments before"

It was a peaceful day when I broke my right ankle. I was working very hard and I slipped. All my team members were very helpful. The foot I broke was my soccer and good foot. I miss my right foot a lot. I am sometimes mad when I see other people walking with their two feet or playing soccer. I was in so much pain on that day.

This month was not my month and I will never forget this project in Minot. I will be so I happy when I heal. Some days I am okay but some days it feels like I am in a different world of pain. I have had a great AmeriCorps year with my awesome team Maple 4.

~Sam

Land of the Vikings

A surprising fact about Minot is that it is home to the largest annual Scandinavian festival in North America: Norsk Høstfest. Although the flooding may have led to the cancellation of the state fair (which also occurs in Minot), those dang Vikings could not be robbed of their annual pilgrimage. Our sponsor organization, Lutheran Disaster Response, hooked us up with complimentary tickets and the day off to indulge in the festivities. First we drove over to the local Scandinavian park to tour some traditional buildings.

Full wodden church in Scandinavian Park

Upon arriving at the fest, we were greeted by a giant troll man.

Team poses with funny troll

Then there was the Swedish Dala horse, a Scandinavian mascot of sorts.

Not to mention traditional foods all over the place. Gaby and I went on a quest to eat them all. I had some Swedish meatballs, and we tried this dessert called Rommegrot, which is incredibly caloric and delicious treat made with cream, butter, and copious amounts of cinnamon sugar. Here is Gaby, initially deciding whether she likes it or not:

Rommegrot posing with Gaby

There were also a ton of vendors and people showcasing their arts and crafts. There were Lots of wood-workers, and performances including an accordion player's rendition of "Sweet Caroline," a Boston favorite, Vikings fighting with real swords, and girls dancing on skis. I can't make this stuff up, people. I didn't take a very good video, but there's one online if you want to see what it's all about. Which, of course you do.

Ski Dancers dancing to Chi Mai by Escala

Our second day at the festival was spent working with some volunteers from LDR to serve food cooked on site by Scandinavian chefs. Spiffy outfits, right?

All in all it was a fun time, and like I said, a surprising turn of events. Minot, the Viking capital of North America? Go figure.

~ Darcy

The challenging challenges that challenge Maple 4

View of Granville

There are many things that come with each project that are challenges. In the past we have had the challenges of sleeping in the same room or cold work days. I am finding that with our last project in Minot, ND there are many hard parts.

One of the hard things is living 22 miles outside of Minot. With construction and roadwork this can be anywhere form 30-40 minutes. Every project we have had prior has been less then 2 miles away to travel to each morning. So a typical day now we have to leave at least 45 minutes before we start to arrive at work on time. On top of this Minot is the closest city to us that we can shower, do laundry and grocery shop at. Most days we leave at 7:15am and arrive back home anywhere from 8-9:30pm.

Studs in a home that was flooded

Another challenge for us has been power washing homes. This is done after houses have been mucked and gut. The next step is to clean the wood of any mold or dirt from the sewage that has been left from the flood water. The process is long and often involves getting completely soaked by the powerwasher. Many members of our team have finished the work day covered with mold and dirt.

After a few hours of power washing

Although the team has found these things challenging - there is nothing more rewarding then meeting the homeowners and hearing their gratitude. What 9 people can do in just a few days would take many of these homeowners with families months to accomplish.


~Gaby

Why not, Minot?

Team prepared to powerwash a home.

For our final project, our team is working in Minot, ND on houses that were flooded in June. We have been mucking and gutting the houses and sanitizing the houses so far. Later we will be buttoning them up for winter. The organization we’re working with is called Lutheran Disaster Response. They are currently focusing on homes first that are in the most need; families that are low income and disabled or elderly people who can’t afford or are unable to clean up their houses on their own. The families and people we have had the privilege of meeting so far are welcoming and have nothing but gratitude. It has been amazing to work with such generous people even after they have lost so much.

Hillary & Gaby at Granville town sign.

Because of the conditions in Minot we are staying in a town called Granville 22 miles away at a church that is connected to LDR. Our housing situation this round is very interesting, we are in a basement in a room with an oasis palm tree theme, in a town with 250 people and the only two establishments that haven’t closed down or been burnt down are the local bars right across the street from each other.

~ Hillary

Day of Service – September 11, 2011

I only have two memories of a specific hallway of my middle school. The first is from seventh grade (2000) when a classmate of mine joked that Gore was going to win the presidency. The second is in eighth grade (2001) when a close friend of mine told me with the most stone-cold look, “The Twin Towers have been attacked.” I had no idea what the Twin Towers were or why anyone would want to attack them. Over the next 24 hours, I learned quite a bit.

For the tenth anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001, AmeriCorps NCCC members from the North Central Region provided service to the communities surrounding Vinton, IA. Our team was selected to help the Cedar Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity (HFH). When we were first told of this project, we were extremely excited to pay our respect to those that lost their lives by helping build up the community and that we would be working with other NCCC teams from our campus. Specifically for September 10th, our selected service day, HFH was working beautify the exterior of Esther’s home. Esther does not have the financial or physical means to keep the outside of her home in the most pristine condition, so along with HFH, we were glad to help.

Team Leader Darcy painting back of house on scaffolding.

Our first goal was to paint the garage and her siding. Previous volunteers had already painted a first coat on much of both buildings, so our job was mostly to make them look nice. Our second goal was to replace her crooked, broken gutters in order to move rainwater away from her foundation (which was flooding her basement) and into the storm sewers in the road. At first, it just felt like what we had done on a mini project during our training with Block by Block back in March. I was literally doing the same thing, too: painting an old garage in Cedar Rapids.

Phil and Hillary painting Esther's House

Then I started to think about why I was actually there. It wasn’t to fix up a house damaged by the flood of 2008 in hopes that someone would move in. It wasn’t to practice working with my team so that we can correct any big problems before we drive 600 miles away and live together for six weeks.

We came to this elderly woman’s house on September 10, 2011 in order to put positive energy into the world. We came to show that after ten years, we still remember a terrible tragedy that took place but we will rise above it. We came on this sunny summer day to, as HFH puts it, give a hand-up, not a hand-out. I did not come for myself, I came for someone else.

Drew and Gaby repairing siding for house.

The most rewarding part of the entire day? When Esther came outside, about an hour before we had finished, and commented on how lovely her house looked. She had been living there since 1974 and never once knew that something like this could happen.

~Phil

It's Fun to Stay at the YMCA

How would you like to have a slumber party with 5 to 9 of your classmates or co-workers?Your bed: a foot away from your supervisor's, who drools and rambles in her sleep? (that's me)Sharing 1 or 2 bathrooms and walking a mile to shower at the YMCA?Then spending the whole day at work and meals with those same people, who BTW, you just met 7months ago?Every night for 8 weeks?

Sounds like an NCCC rite of passage to me! During our first 2 rounds, Maple 4 had it pretty easyhousing-wise. It's true that in Cincinnati, people shared rooms with up to 3 other people, we had 1bathroom without a shower, and there were mice–mice with gall. But on the flip side, we lived in abeautiful 176-year-old farm house, and had roosters, cows, horses and other farm buddies to hang outwith. In Vinton, we slept on campus. And since our roommates were away on projects with their teams,each person had a bedroom and bathroom to his or herself. SPOILED! 'Tis not the case now, friends.

Currently our humble abode is one room in the YMCA-run Lake Superior Village Youth and FamilyCenter. We snooze on 1-inch thick floor mats with sleeping bags, which we have to move into aseparate room in the morning because our home is also one of our work sites. And all of the what-ifs listed above apply as well. But, you know, it's actually not that bad. In fact, I consider it a badgeof honor to have this type of AmeriPad. The lack of privacy can be frustrating at times, but it'sa character-building experience; and in the end we only have to live like this for a short time. Inexchange for the cramped quarters, we travel the country and get paid to help people, so it's a fair deal.

Here's a couple photos of our set-up. This one shows the mattress pads that Gaby, Hillary and I sleepon. Mine is the one next to the foosball table.

Sleeping mats on the floor!

This one shows where Drew and I store our our personal belongings in the community center'scomputer lab. His stuff is on the left under the desk. Mine is on the right. As you can see, I basicallylive out of the red AmeriCorps bag assigned to me at the beginning of the year. Above the desk areteam items such as a huge box of donated noodles and a bag filled with games like Banannagrams andJenga that we never play, except for one time when we didn't have power.

So much stuff and so little space.

~Darcy

Maple 4 Receives TV Coverage

Each member on our team carries a different role and one of the roles on our team is Media Representatives. Phil and I are in charge of contacting local newspapers, television and radio stations of the different places that we are sent to try to generate media attention. This is a good way for people to be able to hear more about AmeriCorps NCCC and for our team to get give our sponsors some good recognition of their organization as well. For the past few months, Phil and I have set a goal to try to get interviewed by a local TV station and get on TV! We finally obtained this goal during our time in Marquette. A few weeks back a reporter from ABC channel 10 of Marquette County came out to interview the both of us.

~Gaby