Dawn's Blog

 Today was a pretty cool day at Youth Villages - Inner Harbour Campus. This morning we had the end of our tutor training, where we learned about how to manage young people's behavior in the classroom.  I thought that our speaker had a lot of good things to say and she was very knowledgeable, but she might have wanted to add one more thing to her list of classroom management techniques. As she demonstrated her positive reinforcement methods to us as if we were a classroom of kids (giving us candy when we were paying attention, praising those who asked her questoins), our behavior basically turned into that of junior high kids. Several of us started doodling, some people were making comments to each other from across the room, and we had a really hard time organizing ourselves into two groups.

So what did I really learn today? Well, first of all, that if I write my name on my paper like I'm told, I will get a KitKat. But more importantly, I learned that people often behave in accordance with how you treat them and expect them to behave. And that's something worth knowing.

As many of you know, I spent this weekend making a drum. A djembe, to be exact. I have yet to name her, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Anyway, here's a quick summary of the drum-making process:

1. Obtain a hand-carved drum shell (the wood part) and a goat skin from Africa.
2. Give the shell a couple layers of wood stain.
3. Cover the three metal rings (two for the top and one for the bottom) with colorful fabric strips.
4. Tie loops of rope around one top and one bottom ring.
5. Put the wet goat skin on top of the drum between the top two rings.
6. Run rope back and forth between the loops on the top and bottom.
7. Using some clever lever action, pull this rope really tight so the skin has a lot of tension on it.
8. Cut off the excess goat skin and make the edge look pretty.
9. Repeat step 7 again the next day when the skin has dried.

The most challenging part for me was trying to pull the ropes to make the drum head tight. Apparently my entire body weight pushing down on the lever is not enough force to do it well, so I kept having to get help. And at one point the rope actually snapped and we had to tie it back together. But other than that I am very pleased with my drum and excited to use it. It was by far the best drum-making workshop I have ever been to.

"What is this thing called 'Americorps'?" you might ask. Well, let me tell you. It's all summed up by our motto, "We get things done." Pretty vague, I know.

To clarify things, I've come up with a new name that is a little more descriptive. I actually can't take credit for this new term, because it was actually introduced to me by the one and only Alayna Pietsch. And probably used by hundreds of people before that. If I were in charge, I would call it (drumrole please):
Ameri(hard)corps.

Why? you ask. We live in the woods. We hike to work. We gut houses. We scoop poop. We work with kids. We share a bathroom with 10 other people. We eat cafeteria food. Every day. We have a 12 inch TV screen. If that's not hard core, I don't know what is.

Now, if only I could start that Ameri(par)corps group.

Well, another rainy day in Douglasville. Surprise, surprise. Which means that instead of using our day off to go explore Atlanta, we are watching movies in the library. It also means that I have loads of time to express my random thoughts to the world via blog.

Today was one of those days that I look back on and ask, “Am I really getting paid for this?” Granted, we don’t get paid much, but I definitely would have done today for free. It basically went like this: play in the dirt and rain, lunch, play games, supper, play more games.

It was raining again this morning, as usual. However, since we are so Ameri(hard)corps, we were not deterred from our plans of cleaning out an old cabin in the woods and recreating the path to it. The cabin is going to be used by the recreation therapy interns for their cool Halloween shindig they are planning for the kids. Let’s just say that what we did definitely could have made it onto Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs.

The afternoon was spent playing several fun icebreaker games so that we will have lots of ideas of things to do with the kids when we have time to fill. Here’s some of the things we did: drew pictures on other people’s backs, played a game of Mafia, wrapped an entire roll of tape around us, and navigated an obstacle course as a “cell” (I had the role of protoplasm).

Also, I found out about a local running club that I am almost definitely going to get involved in. It seems like a really friendly group who like to run trails when possible. I've been doing a decent amount of running on my own and with a few of the other Corps members who like to work out, but it will be great to have some people to do long runs with and to be in the know about local races.

And to top of the day, we played two intense games of ultimate Frisbee. So all in all, a great day.

I know some of you are just dying to know what kinds of amazing things I did for my birthday, so I'll give you a summary.

We spent most of the day gutting a house that had been damaged by flooding. The house we went to had had water about 4 feet deep in it, judging by the water line. We had to wear face masks to prevent mold spores from infecting our lungs, although the amount of my exhaled carbon dioxide that I inhaled again might be just as bad.

The most awesome part of this was getting to meet and work alongside the family and the other volunteers that were there. The family was really nice, and the wife's sister and aunt had come down to help them clean up. We were also working alongside some Samaritan's Purse volunteers and it was cool to hear their stories about how they got involved here. One of the guys was a mailman from Florida who just felt that God had called him to come and help out, so he took a week off work and came.

In the evening, several of us went out for ice cream at Cold Stone (which, in my opinion, should be one of the seven wonders of the world). When I returned to camp, I found, to my surprise, a little surprise party for me. It was fantastic and I really appreciate all my new friends here. We ended the evening by playing Rock Band for several hours. Oh, and did I mention that my rooommate told me happy birthday at about 10 minute intervals throughout the entire day? So, all in all, a wonderful birthday.

Here's some highlights from this week:

• Had a physical, drug test, and "human performance evaluation" done.
• Went on a scavenger hunt around campus. My team won.
• Had drumming class.
  
• Went bowling.
• Wednesday we spent the day working for Trees Atlanta. We dug some holes for future tree plantings and helped clean up some stuff for the garage sale fundraiser they were having.
  
• Today (Thursday) we helped out the Red Cross with some flood relief stuff. My group went to a distribution center for flood victims and did lots of random jobs there. I also leaned some southern phrases from one of the other volunteers there, for example: "M R not hogs!" "O-S-A-R!" (read it out loud if you don't get it).