My Year of Service - #2

My first week with AmeriCorps was awesome!

The first day, I met the other 17 members at the Notre Dame Mission Volunteers-AmeriCorps (NDMVA) office and we got an overview of the week and the year. We then went to Mt. Notre Dame (a community of Notre Dame Sisters) and learned about the history of AmeriCorps and Notre Dame. You have probably heard about Sister Dorothy that was murdered in Brazil a few years ago. She was a Notre Dame Sister from Ohio and they have a whole room dedicated to her and artifacts from her life and death.
We also spent some time filling out paperwork, but one of the neatest things was that we got to meet a Sister and talk to her about her experiences living a life of service. I was paired up with Becky and Sister Betty Anne; boy was she spunky!

The second day, all of the members were to meet at a service site in a neighborhood that we have never seen. We met at a newly constructed house in Lockland that was built by Cincinnati Housing Partners for a low-income family. We did some major yard work, pulled weeks, cut down small trees, planted grass, painted the deck, etc. Some of us even got to use some major equipment! Amanda and Connie learned to use a chainsaw and Sarah, Katie and I learned to drive a Bobcat loader! We even took loades of dirt down the street to another lot where a house is being built.

The third day, we met back at the NDMVA office and learned a little more about each other. Then, at lunch time, we had lunch with some of the people with whom we will be working at our service sites. After lunch, we went to our service sites to learn a little more about our duties, etc. I went to my elementary school and got to meet my kindergarten and first grade teachers. Sister Marie took me and Stacey around to introduce us to the kids and I couldn't help but smile when the kids said in unison, "Good afternoon, Miss Pickens!"

The fourth and last day, we met at another location where we had an all-day team-building workshop. The man who worked with us is also a police officer in one of the worse areas of Cincinnati. We did several activities that got us to think and work together as a team. My favorite was called the "Power Walk" because I had never learned so much about my peers without speaking a word like that before. There was a line down the middle of the room. One side of the room stood for "agree" and the other "disagree". The farther away from the middle of the room that you stood meant the more you agree or disagree. We were asked questions like "Do you know where you are going?", "Do you practice religion?", "Are you afraid of death?", "Have you ever been in love?", "Do you have or want kids?", "Are you politically active?", along with some other loaded questions. At the end of each question we were reminded to look around the room to see how our peers answered the questions. I must say, it was a very powerful activity.

I'm really excited about the group of people I'll be working with through NDMVA. They seem like great people and I think we can learn a lot from each other. I can see some great friendships growing this year.

Now it's the weekend and I feel like I am more at home since I have groceries and a clean area to cook on. My first day working at the school is Tuesday because of the holiday weekend. I'm a little nervous, but excited too!