Off to work we go

Day number two of our SPIKE at the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services and I have to say, I love working for this organization. It might be due in part to the cinnamon rolls and other goodies that they feed us in the morning, but there are other good reasons, too. The variety of work that we have to do is fantastic. There are so many projects going on that it's probably impossible to do the same thing twice. Today, for example, I started out by working in the Women's Wisdom program. A bunch of ladies get together on weekday mornings to support each other in working through tough times in their lives through art and craft. Some of the ladies have been victims of domestic violence, some have had strokes, some have chronic health issues, some have disabilities. Everyone comes together to express themselves and enrich their lives (and sometimes their pockets... they have many pieces for sale) through art. They learn different techniques, Tuesdays being watercolor days, and have a fantastic studio to work in.
I didn't get to jump right into the fun stuff, though. First, I cleaned a bathroom, scrubbing drips of crusty paint off of most visible surfaces, and then sorted through big boxes of fabric. I helped one of the other volunteers fetch a snack from the warehouse and then started chatting with a lady named Veronica. Veronica is a sculptor and she makes some beautiful things out of clay. I told her that I have a serious love for building things with clay and she and I proceeded to collaborate on her bust of the Food Bank's president. It seems like she might be working her way through the staff and volunteers, making these great caricatures in clay of these folks. I got to do some pretty substantial nose work and getting my hands dirty. Talking and working with Veronica really made my day.
We're still in the middle of learning our way around the Food Bank and trying out the roles in all the different programs. We haven't been there but two days, but we're already quite popular. Volunteers are the engine that keeps the Food Bank running, so that automatically gives us an in, but we are also part of an Americorps legacy at the Food Bank. Maybe even a dynasty, if you will. Year after year, there have been kids in the fashionable grey tee shirts working hard and we're excited to be a part of that group.

The END is near! And I'm thankful for that.

Well, it was all building up to this. We sat through numerous training, we ran many miles, we learned all the acronyms that our little brains could handle... knowing that at the end of CTI (Corps Member Training Institute), we would begin our projects! We made it. Class 14 of Americorps NCCC officially completed training on Wednesday. We took our baseline physical fitness test that morning, a mile and a half run and the greatest number of push ups and sit ups we could do in 2 minutes, and saw our own improvements. We put on our Amerituxes (our dress uniforms!) and headed over for the induction ceremonies. We yelled our cheers said our pledges, listened to a very talented speaker who lives, sleeps, and breathes Americorps, and officially became members of Class 14! Or Class XIV, for all the purists out there.

And we graduated just in time, too. Thanksgiving was right around the corner, and after a long (much appreciated and anticipated) weekend of eating, being with friends and family, and relaxing, Monday brings with it the start of our first SPIKE. Other teams have to look forward to the beginning of a 5 day long drive to the Gulf Coast on Monday, but lucky Silver 6 is staying local. We're going to stay at picturesque McClellan Base for another 2 months while we work at Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services. The Food Bank is an amazing organization that does so much to meet community needs in the area. I'm thrilled to be working for an organization that does so much good on such a small budget. Our project has a fantastic amount of variety built into it... we're going to be working in a number of different areas, including programs which teach English, computer literacy, and parenting skills, along with stocking the Bank's food lockers and clothing closet.

There's alot to be thankful for this year... wonderful, supportive friends and family, a wealth of new experiences, a unique chance to work for others, a great opportunity to travel and serve and learn... for all these things, and bunches more, I'm going to take a moment to reflect and be grateful as I dig into my pumpkin-tofu pie.


Yes, that's right, pumpkin-tofu pie. I made it myself (twice actually... I left the first one in the fridge!) Embrace the soy bean and give it a try....

Tofu Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
1 can (16 ounces) pureed pumpkin
3/4 cup maple syrup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice, optional
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, optional
2-3 tablespoons cornstarch to firm up the pie filling
1 package (10-12 ounces) silken/soft tofu
1 9-in unbaked vegan pie shell

Directions:Preheat oven to 425 F. Blend the pumpkin and sugar. Add salt, spices, cornstarch, and tofu, mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into pie shell and bake for 15 minutes. Lower heat to 350 F and bake for another 60 minutes. Chill and serve. Top with non dairy topping and it will fool any pumpkin pie lover.
Serves: 8 Preparation time: about 1 hour + chilling time

Belated Halloween pictures

While shopping at the wonderful Deseret Industries, the local LDS-owned thrift store of fantastic proportions, I found an outfit that begged me to turn it into a Halloween costume.
I'm not sure that this picture really gives the matching jacket and culottes ensemble justice, so let me describe... the wonderful squiggles and blocks of color that you see are really scenes of ladies golfing in spectacularly colors settings and outfits. When I first laid eyes on the fabric, I thought it was Ronald MacDonald playing the fine sport, but really, it's a lady with vividly colored hair. How fantastic! My friend Mariel found the shoulder-padded cheerleading sweater and skirt during the same wonderful trip.

And now to explain the outfit... during our morning runs for PT, we often sing dumb songs. One is a call and repeat and it goes like this: When my grandma was ninety-one, she did PT just for fun. When my grandma was ninety-two, she did PT better than you. When my grandma was ninety-three, she did PT better than me.... etc, etc. So, I decided that I could be the Grandma PT for Halloween and use my fantastic outfit. I caked my hair in a mixture of gel and baby powder, pinched people's cheeks, and showed them pictures of my grandkids. The best part was going to the bar that evening... and still getting carded.

Did you know?

In order to mark their territory, spider monkeys pee on their hands and then stick their little stinky handprints everywhere to tell other spider monkeys where their turf is.

I can share this little interesting factoid with you because yesterday's comminuty service project took me and my team to the Folsom Zoo and Sanctuary where we spent the day helping out the staff with building shelters, moving big rocks, making perches, wiping up pee, picking up mountain lion poo while the poo-maker hung out in his cage (!), and monkey-proofing a new habitat. We really lucked out with this service project... we had a great time while helping out a fantastic organization. Our help was really appreciated because some construction projects had been pushed forward by about a month. Instead of having a nice leisurely stretch of time to relocate the monkeys and macaws and other folks, the staff was scrambling to get temporary shelters together for their animals. Apparently, the prison crew who had come in a few days before was not nearly as helpful as we were. We were quite proud to hear this compliament.

The Folsom Zoo is different than most other zoos that I'm familar with. Instead of taking care of endangered or rare animals or having the goal of breeding in captivity, the Folsom Zoo acts like a rescue organization. They take in animals that have been injured or abused and nurse these animals backto health. Most of the time, the animals will spend the rest of their lives at the zoo; they don't have the necessary skills to survive in the wild. Some of the animals are a little mundane (squirrels?) but the zoo also takes care of bigger animals like two tigers named Missy and Pouncer, brown bears, a bald eagle, and some assorted farm animals.

True Life: I'm in Americorps

To disabuse you of the notion that we only go on scavenger hunts here at NCCC, this blog entry is dedicated to the other stuff that we corps members do. (I realized that I've really only reported back on the fun stuff so far.) We wake up early in the mornings for PT (physical training, which I constantly want to call FT), have numerous trainings on topics from CPR and first aid to community relations and conflict resolution, and have short service projects that teach us how to work together as a Siamese dozen and help out the community at the same time.
PT is the first thing that comes to mind because it's the way we start out every day. It's cold and dark at 5:30 in the morning, but regardless, we're all gathered up on Holmes Field to do calisthenics, running, stretching, and the occasional singing of silly songs. Myself, I like the running part best, but my knees are not appreciative of the courses that are laid out on roads and other concrete surfaces. I'm not sure how anyone could miss a herd of us running down the street, but just in case 75 sleepy kids are hard to spot, we all wear reflective orange vests for safety (and embarassment). After PT, there's a mad rush towards the kitchens and the showers. Things get a bit hectic and crowded in the kitchens... there's about 60 hungry and/or stinky corpsmembers trying to get some breakfast in a skinny little kitchen space. On a day like today, when our leaders have stocked up our kitchen over the weekend, there's food like kiwis and pineapple to go with the cereal and milk, but towards the end of the week, there's only Lucky Charms and Coco Puffs left on the shelf. You'd be suprised how many kids shape up their breakfast habits after a former Navy Seal (that's Willie, our PT coordinator) leads your morning run.
Our trainings take up the biggest portion of our time here. Our leaders try to make the trainings valuable and mostly interesting, but some topics are plain boring... for instance, the rules and regulations training. All I really need to know about life, I learned in this training... no kittens, no waterbeds, no porn in Americorps. On the other hand, some of the trainings have been really valuable. We had a good training called Hands of Peace, which teaches conflict resolution skills. When 12 people are pretty much attached at the hip for the next 10 months, there's bound to be conflict. We talked about ways to resolve some of these issues and set up team charters which list rules and qualities that are important to us as a group. I thought that some of the fun activities that we did were almost as important as the "serious" stuff, though. When you get people laughing and being silly during a game like 'Psychiatrist', you get to know your team and become more cohesive. So this Psychiatrist game...here's how it works. Everyone forms a big circle and one person is chosen to be the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist leaves the room and while they are gone, everyone else decides what sort of issue the group collectively has. For example, when my teammate Kara was the psychiatrist, we decided that the group was going to be her overbearing parents. So when psychiatrist Kara gets back in the room, she starts asking us questions. They could be as simple 'How was your dinner last night?' or 'Did you have a good weekend?' But here's the important part. We have the answer the psychiatrist's questions that somehow give hints as to who we are (her cranky parents.) So if the psychiatrist says, 'How was your weekend?', we'd say things like, 'Well if you weren't making me stay up all night worrying where you were, it could have been fine!' It's fun... I recommend it for your next party.
More about our community service projects next time....

Silver 6 maintains a professional attitude at all times.

Lookin' classy, Silver 6! We're in the midst of our downtown Sacramento scavenger hunt, hanging out on the steps of the Crocker Art Museum all properly uniformed so passersby can ask us if we're in the Boy Scouts.