(side note: I apologize to those grammar friendly blog readers out there, aka my majored-in-english sister, for my excessive and probably inappropriate use of parentheses throughout this blog....please just disregard and realize I've been living out of a duffel for the past six weeks which somehow is definitely directly related to my grammatical blogging errors).
before we begin work on tuesday, I've been using my free time to 1. walk as much as possible because sitting in a van for four and a half straight days has a tendency to make my body forget how to move to any position other than sitting straight up and down, 2. explore the lovely city that is new york in an outfit that does not consist of khaki pants or steel-toed boots, and 3. sleeping and lounging as much as possible. time well spent? definitely.
today while sharing brunch with a wonderful friend from grade school, I had my first encounter talking with someone (outside of FEMA corps) who was directly affected by superstorm sandy. the owner of the cafe we were at was talking about his experience before/during/after the storm and how he was appreciative of all that FEMA did post-sandy. it was the moment that I feel I've been training for since day one. as a part of the community relations position, we've been trained to talk with disaster survivors and how to best assist them in the recovery process. talking with a survivor today, despite how brief the conversation, served as a reminder to why I am here. I applied for AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA because I wanted to spend a year of my life doing something useful and hoping to better society somehow (as opposed to sitting in my room at home looking at Pinterest and making lists of DIY projects I would probably never actually get around to doing). talking with a survivor made all of our trainings finally seem real. FEMA training prepared me to work in disaster settings and with all of that preparation and newly acquired knowledge, I feel equipped and ready to get to work.
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