First bits of community service stuff accomplished

Quick Acorps glossarying: Pod=the temporary teams that volunteers are put in while everyone is processed through the system (i.e. drug tested/generally tested). They are usually say 10-12 people.

So my Pod (a very cool bunch of people if I don't say so myself) had our first service project on friday. We went to an adult school--school for mentally handicapped adults--and worked in their nature area. The primary thing on the agenda was the "pruning" (read:culling) of their massively overgrown blackberry bushes. We spent a good three hours hacking down about 80 sq ft of wickedly thorny bushes, a process which claimed one pole saw, one rake, and a large amount of skin from our collective forearms. Later we worked around lugging cinderblocks to help build a raised garden and then we did some invasive species removal.

A very productive day overall, but it made me realize one of the main reasons I want to try for the firefighting team is that while tending gardens in adult schools is an excellent thing to do, it is not the difference I want to make in the world. Or at least not the difference I want to make during my time in Americorps. I would love to be on the front lines during natural disasters handing out care packages. But I can't ensure that a disaster will happen. So I would love to do firefighting since it almost guarantees that I will at least be camping somewhere, and possibly fighting GIANT FOREST-EATING FIRES.

In other news, today was the first day we cooked for ourselves. With the schedule, my partner and I will be cooking on friday (I think she wants to do pasta with Bolognaise sauce, which sounds good to me). Tonight our group leader cooked some delicious potatoes and a turkey soup that was kind of like turkey meatballs with herbs suspended in hot. Definitely filling and nutritious, but leaving something to be desired. But our budget for breakfast/lunch/dinner is $4.50 per person per day (yeah you read that right, everybody get to eat $4.50 worth of food each day), so I guess if shoestrings fill me up than that's where I'll go.

Tomorrow is free except for the firefighter (actually it's called the fuel reduction team, since we do brushhauling if there isn't any fire. P.C. and all that) 3-mile weighted pack test, which should be cool.

Short disclaimer: I just realized reading this that I have an inability to write without being kind of sarcastic/cynical. Rest assured it is all a sham. Americorps rocks. I mean, come on.

It's volunteer service you get paid for.