Leaks, Missing Electricians, & Locks

The day began at 1:00 AM. The storm was loud. There was almost continuous lightening (which didn't wake me up, but did keep me up). The thunder was so loud it shook the trailer. The wind was trying to send me to the next county. And I think it hailed some too. In addition to all that, the weather alert radio was going off about every 20 min. It had three messages; Storm Alert: storms with heavy rain, high wind speeds, and possible hail (DUH! I'm in the middle of it, I don't need an alert!), Flood Warning: possible flooding along the coast from Pascagoula to the Louisiana coast (I don't remember which city it was), and lastly Tornado Warning: possibility of tornadoes in the area. I had the radio on in case a tornado actually touched (which apparently some did, but not near us.) I finally fell [lightly] asleep around 4:30. I got up to help the breakfast crew at 6. They were doing fine on their own so I showered. Jen and I went into the office to discover...a leak...directly over the computer. So we spent a while mopping up the floor and spreading out all the paperwork so it could dry out. The computer we mailed overnight to Louisville. Meanwhile they are mailing a "loaner" to us which should arrive tomorrow morning. Luckly a couple staff from Project Homecoming came and fixed the roof.

Then we were informed of a blown fuse in one of the dorm rooms. It requires the attention of an electrician. Leslie called to tell us one would be arriving around lunch time. We called him at 2:40, but he didn't answer, so we waited a little longer and at 3:20 we left for the house dedication.

The dedication was very nice. There were a lot of volunteers that came. The homeowners made food for everyone. Jen and I left a little early so we'd be back to help the dinner crew if they needed it. By the time dinner was ready, only one group (the one cooking) was left. Everyone else had gone out...but only one group had told us they were planning to. So we cooked for 45, but only had 15 (counting me and Jen). So that was a little bit of a bummer, but we figure that will be Sunday dinner (since we have to cook that night), so not a total loss.

The last mishap of the day was a locked door. The pantry door got closed and it locked itself. So we spent a while trying to pick the lock then gave up on diplomacy and ripped the durn thing off. Jen went at it with a screwdriver and managed to pry the cover plate off. A volunteer somehow opened the door and then we removed the lock completely. (There are pictures on Jen's camara which I will be stealing at some point, so you can look forward to that.)

It's supposed to storm again tonight, but hopefully I'll be so tired I'll sleep soundly. Also, Jen and I are staying up until 11 to see off the Seattle girls. Currently we are laughing at the Village Manager manual and policies on evacuation. Many things are mis-spelled and most of it is just ridiculous. So we've had a lot of good laughs today. Now Jen is telling me to hurry up so we can play Nertz, so I'm going to go and pray for a better day tomorrow!

Locked In or Jump Fence?

Saturday night Jen and I stayed up until midnight waiting for a group to get in. We watched Twilight then played cards. We were both exhausted and so were giggling a lot. It was pretty fun.

We got some new volunteers in that are a little...I guess they're spacy. We tell the volunteers that if they're the last one's out to lock the main gate. This group has tried locking Jen and I in three times. The second time they asked us "Do we lock you in or will you jump the fence?" Jen and I just looked at each other with that "did we honestly just get asked that?" sort of look. The sad thing is, this group isn't smarter than the combination lock. They haven't been able to lock it yet, so they close the gate (but not the main gate, they close the little one between the parking lot and the buildings) and loop the chain through it and hang the lock on it. The first time the lock was still sideways, so it was clear it wasn't locked. We've laughed pretty hard about it.

So beside some small quirks (and what groups won't have them?) we've got some more great volunteers. Suprisingly, we're still getting a lot of college aged folks. We've got two groups from Seattle this week and we have another one or two groups next week.

Now I'm just waiting for the confirmation email telling me the Sam's order is ready to pick up. Then Jen and I will go do that. We're hoping to have a little time this afternoon to stop by a worksite, but yesterday we were hoping for a little time to have a nap and that didn't happen. (We were looking for a FedEx because someone left a blackberry and said they'd pay for it to be shipped overnight. Well turns out the nearest FedEx is in the Marriot Hotel. Very confusing.) So we'll see how today goes.

Busy Week!

I have been incredibly busy this week and therefore neglected the blog. I will try to catch up now. I went to Sam's on Monday but there were issues again, so I had to leave all the groceries there and pick up the things we needed for dinner that night at Winn Dixie. The Sam's stuff is supposed to be sorted out by this Monday, but for this past week I've gone to Winn Dixie every day. (The plus to this is that Winn Dixie is about 2 min. from the village whereas Sam's is about 30.) I caught up on most of the paperwork. I did have to email some of last week's volunteers to see if some of it stowed away in their luggage. I'm still hearing back from them, so that should be taken care of soon.

Tuesday was a bad day because Louisville called me and (without any leadup or context) told me I was authorized to use my credit card (which, incidentally, I don't have yet) to buy groceries at Wal-Mart and Winn Dixie, that I was to make sure the volunteers got enough food and they shouldn't go hungry, and that I was not to discuss PDA policies/problems with volunteers. That was the entire conversation. I hung up very confused. A little while later Leslie called and we got everything sorted out. Apparently, what happened was one volunteer called the main Louisville office and said something about not having enough food and another volunteer was trying to raise money to buy food. This was the first I'd heard of any of it. And it was ridiculous because there was plenty of food, no one was being shorted in any way. Anyway, we got it all straightened out, but it took an entire day.

Thursday Jen got in. She is the new Olive Tree manager. So I'll be here for two more weeks to show her the ropes. She seems super nice and I think she'll be a great fit here. Thursday was also Neighbor Night which is when we invite the homeowners over to Olive Tree for dinner. We had a fair turnout for that which was nice.

Today began at 4:30. There were a couple volunteers leaving, so I got up to make sure they could open the gate (sometimes the lock sticks) and see them off. I tried to go back to sleep for an hour, but didn't fall back asleep, so then I got up to see the Clemson group off at 6. I stayed up to help set up breakfast and lunch stuff. After the volunteers left for the worksites, I hopped in the shower, then ran over (not literally ran - I drove my truck...I know you were thinking it dad!) to the optometrist place to pick up my new glasses. So I now have reading glasses. The frames are red. I'll post a picture once I have a good one, but I left my camara in TN so you'll have to wait two more weeks. Christi and Mary came by the village to show Jen how to do the DRD and finance stuff. Jen and I had lunch and then I retired to the trailer for a nap. I slept for about an hour and a half, but I could have slept much longer. The MI group mowed the grass for us which is great because it desperately needed cut. They were actually excited about mowing the grass. They've been talking about it all week and couldn't wait to have grounds duty. I was excited that they were excited! : ) Everyone went out for dinner tonight and one of the groups invited me to go with them. (They invited Jen also, but she opted to stay here and settle in.) So we went to dinner in the French Quarter and then wandered around a little. Now I'm stalling a little before locking the gate because I don't think everyone's back yet. But it's not a big deal if they get locked out because they all know the combination so they can let themselves in. So I'm going to go shut the gate and then go to bed. Hopefully there won't be bikers racing up and down the main road all night tonight.

Busy & Tired, but Good

i got a lot more of the paperwork done (but there is still several hours worth i haven't gotten to). the rest of this weeks volunteers came in starting at 6 AM until 7 or 8 PM. so in between doing everything else i had to do, i would have to run out and greet them and show them where the rooms were - all that fun stuff. i had to warm up dinner for about half of them (40 people). i just did leftovers because i was too lazy to cook something, so we had leftover jumbalaya, spaghetti, and lasagna with carrot, apple, and orange slices as the health food. so i got rid of a lot of leftovers which was good. i'll have to get up really early again tomorrow to make sure the breakfast crew knows what it's doing. which i will most likely be doing every morning for the next couple weeks. i get to go to sam's again tomorrow (oh joy!) all the groups seem really cool, so i think it will be a good week. leslie did come by this evening for orientation and she's staying the night. we're going to try and take the recycle tomorrow. the recycle here is crazy; they have a three hour window, one day a month for the entire city! so leslie thinks tomorrow is the day, but we need to look it up. i think that's all i know. i'm pretty tired (and i have to get up early - ewwww) so i'm going to go to bed now.

Back at Olive Tree

No easing back into things here! I arrived late Wednesday, helped Megan with some stuff Thursday, and by Friday afternoon I was the only staff person here. The new person gets here on the 19th, so for a little while I get to run the show myself (which isn't nearly as fun as it sounds...) I am juggling two jobs: village manager and worksite manager. Luckly I don't have to much to do for worksite manager because in New Orleans PDA partners with Project Homecoming (PSL). PSL lines up the jobs and has construction people that oversee the volunteers. So I have some paperwork stuff to do but PSL does all the rest. I will be very glad to hand over a phone when the new person gets here. (I currently have 3 - mine, the village manger's, and the worksite manager's - and they like to all ring at the same time.) The second new person isn't going to get here until end of April/beginning of May, so my replacement will also get to play the multi phone game for a little while. Leslie is trying to get Megan (the one who left this morning) to come back for a couple weeks (when I leave until the second person comes) so the new person will not have to do everything.
There was a staff meeting on Thursday. We talked about the new phones (no more giant blackberrys!) and their deficiencies (apparently they like to hang up of their own volition). Then today I went grocery shopping and filled the entire bed of the truck with groceries. the sad thing is that it will only last a couple days - if I'm lucky. So I put all the groceries away, then I had to call the people coming in this weekend to get estimated times of arrival and who needs dinner on Sunday, and how many men/women are in the group so I could do room assignments. (Olive Tree doesn't have pods. It used to be a church, then it was a daycare or something like that, then PDA bought it. Anyway, there are 15 beds to a room - most of them are bunk beds.) So after I got a hold of everyone (which took a long time) I did room assignments and chore lists. Then I snatched a 20 min. nap before heading back to the office to work on DRD stuff. A couple of the volunteers came back (most of the groups went out tonight) and we ate ice cream and played two games of Clue. Three of them didn't know how to play and the one that did plays by different rules than our family does, so it was a little funny sometimes, but we had a good time. And I will probably go to bed soon since I'll be getting up at 6...again (*sad face*).

Parties, Museums, Concerts, & NO

Sorry I have been so lax with updates.

On Saturday we had Louie's birtday party (his birthday was Feb. 27th). It was a lot of fun. Some of his friends from school came over. They chased (and caught) ducks, fed treats to the horses, looked at the chickens, and tried the mentos in coke trick. Then the magician arrived. He was great with the kids. he really had them involved and they loved it. He didn't have that many tricks, but it was pretty good. What was really impressive about him was the balloons. He made some incredible things out of balloons. And he made something for each kid (which took a while). He did some really cool looking aliens, a beautiful heart with teddy bears on it, a soccer ball, a toilet crown (complete with flushing handle and plunger scepter), and a rain stick type thing (it had marbles/super balls in it!). It was fun to watch. After the magician left, the kids put on trash bags and had a whipped cream fight. Then their parents picked them up and we started cleaning up. Justin (working on some social worker degree - I think his masters) came over to observe Louie. It's one of the requirements of his class. He has to come see what life is like with Louie and he has to visit three times. This was his second visit. He got to watch Louie open presents. Louie and I also went with him to feed carrots to the horses. He started to feed the first carrot to Chance (the boy horse - whose full name is Chance of a Lifetime) but as soon as Chance reached for it, Justin pulled his hand back (I guess he was afraid of being bitten) so the carrot fell on the ground. I picked it up and fed it to Chance. Justin gave a carrot to Louie to feed the horse, but Louie was interested in eating it himself. Justin did feed Chance the last carrot, but he was still pretty nervous. He kept saying how big Chance was. Classy (the girl horse - she's a border) didn't get any carrots because she wouldn't come over to say hi. But that's usually how it is. Chance is the boss and he really likes treats, so he gets most of them.

Yesterday, TJ, Louie, Fran, and I went to the Cheekwood art gallery which is in an old house. They had faberge eggs, vases, pottery & china, silver, a few paintings. There was one floor they were in the process of changing out the exhibit, but there were still lots of cool things to see. There are also gardens (that I think have statues and such in them) but we didn't go look at those because 1.) Louie was insistant that he was tired of being there and 2.) nothing is in bloom yet (but it's getting close to spring!). After that we dropped Louie off at the house with Carmen and the rest of us went to Lena and Rosie's choir concert. The concert was of three schools and incorporated the orchestra and jazz band of the boy's school. The national/Nashville (I can't remember which) symphony also played with them. It was very good. They did a couple pieces from a mass, parts of Mozart's Seraglio, and a Motown medly, so there was a good mix of music.

Fran and I both fly out on the 11th. I will be going to New Orleans for 3 weeks. PDA asked me to come back down for a little while to help with the transitioning of people. They have some people leaving at the end of this week, but the new people won't get in for a couple weeks, so they need someone to keep the village running (since they will have volunteers) and then train the new people when they do get there. So I'll be doing the same stuff I was at Orange Grove, I'll just be at Olive Tree instead.

In my abscence, TJ is going to see if she can line up some volunteer stuff where I'd get to work more than 3 hours a week. (Who knew it could be so hard to volunteer?)

Burundi

Today I spent a few hours at a pre-school type program for Burundi immigrants. (It's not limited to Burundis but that is all they have now.) It's only a couple of hours and is intended mainly to expose the children to English. They also help the parents sign the kids up for kindergarten. When I first got there the kids were playing with playdo. One little boy had made a bracelet for each arm and was running around proudly showing them to each of the adults. I went in the playroom with the toy kitchen where a two year old (with a teddy bear tied to her back like a baby) attentively - almost absorbedly - brused my hair with a miniature pasta ladle. She experimented briefly with a plastic fork, but the ladle proved more effective (I'm guessing).
(this is a pasta ladle, in case you didn't know)
After playing for a little while, everyone cleaned up, washed their hands and sat down for snack. There were orange slices, apple slices, cereal, banana slices and carrots. Some of the kids liked one thing better than others, so some trading was done. The carrots seemed to be the one thing universally liked (which is funny because apparently the middle school aged children threw the carrots away before even trying them). Then everyone circled up and sang songs like ring around the rosie, the wheels on the bus, the hokey pokey. They loved it. The the slightly older kids (I'm guessing ages 3-5) went in one room to do some kind of lesson. (I think it was showing them pictures and/or objects, telling them the name of it and having them repeat it.) The youngest (ages 2 and under, though I think they were all 2) went to the playroom with the toy kitchen.

They also have a program after school to tutor middle schoolers. The kids are placed in grades by their age, not their ability. So some of the kids were in 1st grade at home, but are in 4th grade here. They are having to catch up on several years of learning while learning English. For most of them English is a fourth language. They know the tribal language, the "market" language, and French (because that's the language school is taught in). The guy who runs it said they mostly work on math because it's the least frustrating for them.

They also have a program one night a week to teach English to the mothers. (I guess most of the families don't have any sort of male figurehead).

I only went to the preschool today, but they all sound like really neat things. (And the preschoolers were so adorable!)

Snow!

I didn't see much of the workshop, but what I did see was very cool. The alphabet therapy takes two adults (at least when the kid is first learning); one to present the card choices and one to manage behavior. So the person with the cards will hold up two choices (for example a green card and a yellow card) and will say "Pick green." If the kid picks the right one, everyone claps and makes noises (because the kids really like that) and they put one penny in the container. If the kid picks the wrong one, the person holding the card says "That's yellow, pick green" until the kid picks the right one. Once the kid has 5 pennies in the container, they get to play with a favorite toy for a short time and they get a sticker. Once they get 5 stickers (or 10 or however many the goal was) then they are done with their session and they get to go play. So I got to watch a little of it, but most of the time I was either reading or playing with Louie.
While we were there it started snowing, but it wasn't sticking. By the time we were ready to drive home, it was sticking and was coming down fairly hard. We could still see the street lines (barely) but we couldn't see any of the road signs because the wind was blowing the snow against them and the snow was caking up. Luckily it lightened up after the first hour and turned into rain, so it was much easier to drive.