growing up without seasons on the west coast, it's nice to have a change of pace and live somewhere (temporarily of course, let's not forget "FEMA flexible") that shows the city leaving winter and entering into spring.
since we've spoken last, I've been able to join my FEMA corps members in a little meeting/conversation with richard serino (the deputy administrator of FEMA and the man who came up with and presented the idea of FEMA corps to washington dc), helped a FEMA employee with his marriage proposal via performing a flash mob for his fiancé in downtown manhattan, and successfully drove a minivan through brooklyn and queens. all equally impressive, yes?
work-wise, we have moved from breezy point on to staten island gathering data for properties that have been flooded (either from sandy or from something else...example would be poor drainage system, etc.) we've also switched to four-day work weeks (10 hour days mon-thurs) which has allowed me to have the luxury of having today, friday, off to hop on a bus to boston to visit my sister one last time before heading back to the west coast. having fridays available have also allowed us to have more time to work on our americorps nccc positions (for instance, I will be planning service learning trips for our team and looking at places to present at to hopefully encourage others to apply for FEMA corps). in two weeks I will be utilizing my free friday to make a FEMA corps presentation at an at-risk youth center in queens, ny, with a few other corps members. that same friday, I'm also hoping my team and I will have the opportunity to go to some of the homes that were devastated by sandy and do some mucking and gutting (aka taking out the rotten and moldy insides of homes so that they can start to be rebuilt).
also! (late and delayed...apologies...) but my team and I helped with a park cleanup two weekends ago, which was a wonderful experience. the community was extremely welcoming and grateful for our help. and because that park cleanup was an annual event the community put on every year, some members of their local government, including representatives, were in attendance and one was so kind as to personally thank us and encourage us to email her should we need letters of recommendation for school, jobs, etc post-FEMA corps. there was also local media coverage at the park cleanup and my teammate and I were asked a few questions and included in their video. if you'd like to see yours truly actively helping out communities in long island, please feel free to watch this little vid (I start talking around 48 seconds I think?) http://vimeo.com/m/65046482
speculation about where we will be deployed to next seem to tend toward the midwest due to flooding that has occurred in several states, but really, we probably won't know the whereabouts until the day before we're deployed (sorry moms and pops!) in the meantime, we're all taking in as much of new york city as we can, whether it be out in the field gathering data, driving our van around long island to various service opportunities, or spending weekends doing flash mobs in manhattan (a normal pastime, right?)
speculation about where we will be deployed to next seem to tend toward the midwest due to flooding that has occurred in several states, but really, we probably won't know the whereabouts until the day before we're deployed (sorry moms and pops!) in the meantime, we're all taking in as much of new york city as we can, whether it be out in the field gathering data, driving our van around long island to various service opportunities, or spending weekends doing flash mobs in manhattan (a normal pastime, right?)
(link to our flash mob video posted below)
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