Y'all come back now, ya hear?
Hey Y'all! I hope everyone is doing well and I hope that you ASB'ers who are participating in week four are having an absolute blast!
I'm officially suffering from ASB withdrawal and I literally just got back to school four days ago. I can't even begin to say how much I miss waking up to the sound of 18,000 different cell phone alarms going off and hearing random voices from across the room curse the alarms that won't stop ringing. Now I have to wake up earlier and to my own alarm on its own.
Anyway, I basically just wanted to highlight my favorite events of the week so those of you who participated in Week 3 can read this and say, 'Ah yes, that was a pretty sweet time.' I will just mention that this is my personal recap and some of you may have experienced different things.
So here we go:
I am a member of the Women's Crew team here at Ohio University and I traveled in my Crew apparel because my teammates were leaving for rowing camp at the same time I was leaving for ASB. I talked to them all day and wished I had made the decision to go to rowing camp instead of to SWLA. I was a late arrival on Saturday night because of plane issues and the like and I was definitely on the phone with Ashley about 15 times within a 9 hour time period. When I got to the airport, I was greeted by some enthusiastic, yet obviously tired-of-waiting-around-Houston Airport Team Leaders. I was the only one, besides Megan, who also resides in Ohio (O-H!...) to make the 3 hour trip to Lake Charles. When I got there, I met up with some more Ohioans (I-O!) , really started missing my teammates and then basically passed out.
The next day, we had our tours of Cameron Parish. I couldn't believe how awful it was (and still is) and I couldn't understand how people who had suffered through so much devastation could come back to that same place and rebuild homes, knowing that the same thing could happen this hurricane season. The thing I remember most was how quiet it was in our van as we drove through the parish. No one really knew what to say and we couldn't really make any jokes or do anything to break the ice in fear of the whole wrong place, wrong time thing.
After we returned to the volunteer center, we had dinner and met our teams for the week and found out a little bit about where we'd be working for the week. We came up with silly nicknames that somehow stuck, got spread around the camp, and used quite frequently throughout the week (I think more people knew me as B.E.T. - I like rap music and keeping it gangster - than they did as Kadi).
Then we began a game of kickball. Now let me tell you, us 3rd weekers don't play around with our kickball. It is a serious competition that continued all week. Although there were times when people got a little salty, the games were relatively harmless.
Monday morning was our first day on site. My group was one of the two to be stationed in Cameron Parish, which was a huge honor, let me tell you. On the first day, we got our assigned locations from Ms. Julie. I went to Ms. T Mae's house in Grand Chenier and did some painting inside her house. Ms. T Mae's house was built in the 1930's and had made it through both Hurricane Audrey and Rita. It moved back about 6 inches from its original place.This house, however, was not her original house. She actually rented it out to duck hunters. Her house was just to the left of this house, but was lost completely in the storm, along with her large grocery store.
She made us lunch and we were sure to get the two rooms she'd asked us to get done finished for the day. The house is absolutely beautiful and will be more so when everything is finished. I hope that whoever is working in Cameron this week gets the chance to go there.
Tuesday, I went out to Klondike to scrape and prime Ms. Eula's house. We got all of the scraping and most of the priming done. We ran into a pack of REALLY annoying dogs (there were 6 of them) and I saw quite possibly the biggest pile of cow poop ever. On the way home, we stopped at a little restaurant (Nott's Corner in Lake Arthur) and took a picture by a large crawfish statue. We bought brightly colored t-shirts with risque sayings on the backs and wore them to dinner that night. Everyone was jealous. The Americorp folks actually finished that house on Thursday and from my understanding, it looks really nice.
Wednesday, I went with a group to Ms. Becky's house and put the final coat of paint on her house. I got the chance to talk with her for a bit and she told me that she had lost the entire back of her house and her carport to a tornado within Hurricane Rita. She said the weather service stopped counting tornados in Rita after #200. Luckily, she didn't lose much in the way of possessions and her house looks really nice now, both inside and out. After we finished up with that, Ms. Julie came to pick us up and we went to work on some things at Head Start for the rest of the day. Once we finished everything there, we played some card games and hung out with the group who had been at Head Start all day. Ms. Julie even bought us ice cream. I had a Choco Taco and I KNOW you're jealous. That evening, we went to Holly Beach for dinner and some fun before heading back to the camp. Holly Beach was really eerie, but we made sure to make some fun out of the situation. It's wonderful to see that people are rebuilding their homes there because I'm sure it's a beautiful place to live.
Thursday I went to Ms. Layla's (spelling?) house and culked some boards that were coming loose from her house. We also spot primed the house so they could paint it the next day. We finished everything up and got to play with their little dog who was pretty much insane. Then, since the Cameron group was so far out, we drove into Lake Charles to meet the FedEx truck for pizza - oh, and some Starbucks.
Friday was the last day of work and let me say, it was pretty much the most amazing day ever. I went back to Ms. T Mae's house to do some more painting, but this time, with 3 of the girls from my group and another girl that goes to my college (Alex, Amy, Nicole, Marty - I love you!!!). We got the two rooms Ms. T Mae asked us to do finished and then she made us lunch again - probably the best crawfish etuffle' EVER. She invited us all back in the summer after her house (and hopefully her store) were finished to stay for a few days. I'm pretty sure we might take her up on that.
Working in Cameron Parish taught me a lot. At the beginning of the week, I couldn't understand why these people would come back, fight for thousands of dollars from insurance companies that will likely never come and attempt to rebuild in a place where their lives could be washed away again this hurricane season. But then it hit me - this is one of the best places in America. Not only do you have the scent of saltwater in the air, but you have a large farm down the road. You know the names of your neighbor's neighbor's neighbor's neighbor's etc. and the names of their parents and cousins. You have quait little shops at your beck and call and if you're feeling daring, you can even go to the marshes and wrestle an alligator. In all honesty, SWLA is amazing. The people are so amazing and so surprisingly hopeful and compassionate. It kind of grows on you just from being there. I am sold.
Aside from the amazing opportunity to do work and meet the residents in Cameron Parish, I found most of my memories coming from the time I spent with my team and all of the people who flocked around our team (who knew they could group so many amazing people together in one group?). However, what I liked most about the whole thing was that everyone seemed to be friends...long time friends. Once Tuesday hit, we were all being the cynical, dry-humored, swearing college students we all are and it was amazing.
I just want to post a few of the inside jokes that took place throughout the week...for those of you involved, please take the time to laugh...because it's okay to laugh: T-squared, the party van, CHIGGERS, Seeeeeeeeee yuuuuuuuuh, Numa Numa Yay, BS!, "Get in the van.", I'll meet you on the trampoline, shut the .... up!, "Just making sure you're awake." And I also want to quickly shout out to all of my wonderful teammates (Alex, Nicole, Josh, Tristan, Jenny, Sunshine, Holly Pocket, Beth, Marty, Jess, Jenny and Heather). One hour van rides would never have been the same without you.
So thanks for an awesome week, ASB! I wouldn't have had it any other way!
I'm officially suffering from ASB withdrawal and I literally just got back to school four days ago. I can't even begin to say how much I miss waking up to the sound of 18,000 different cell phone alarms going off and hearing random voices from across the room curse the alarms that won't stop ringing. Now I have to wake up earlier and to my own alarm on its own.
Anyway, I basically just wanted to highlight my favorite events of the week so those of you who participated in Week 3 can read this and say, 'Ah yes, that was a pretty sweet time.' I will just mention that this is my personal recap and some of you may have experienced different things.
So here we go:
I am a member of the Women's Crew team here at Ohio University and I traveled in my Crew apparel because my teammates were leaving for rowing camp at the same time I was leaving for ASB. I talked to them all day and wished I had made the decision to go to rowing camp instead of to SWLA. I was a late arrival on Saturday night because of plane issues and the like and I was definitely on the phone with Ashley about 15 times within a 9 hour time period. When I got to the airport, I was greeted by some enthusiastic, yet obviously tired-of-waiting-around-Houston Airport Team Leaders. I was the only one, besides Megan, who also resides in Ohio (O-H!...) to make the 3 hour trip to Lake Charles. When I got there, I met up with some more Ohioans (I-O!) , really started missing my teammates and then basically passed out.
The next day, we had our tours of Cameron Parish. I couldn't believe how awful it was (and still is) and I couldn't understand how people who had suffered through so much devastation could come back to that same place and rebuild homes, knowing that the same thing could happen this hurricane season. The thing I remember most was how quiet it was in our van as we drove through the parish. No one really knew what to say and we couldn't really make any jokes or do anything to break the ice in fear of the whole wrong place, wrong time thing.
After we returned to the volunteer center, we had dinner and met our teams for the week and found out a little bit about where we'd be working for the week. We came up with silly nicknames that somehow stuck, got spread around the camp, and used quite frequently throughout the week (I think more people knew me as B.E.T. - I like rap music and keeping it gangster - than they did as Kadi).
Then we began a game of kickball. Now let me tell you, us 3rd weekers don't play around with our kickball. It is a serious competition that continued all week. Although there were times when people got a little salty, the games were relatively harmless.
Monday morning was our first day on site. My group was one of the two to be stationed in Cameron Parish, which was a huge honor, let me tell you. On the first day, we got our assigned locations from Ms. Julie. I went to Ms. T Mae's house in Grand Chenier and did some painting inside her house. Ms. T Mae's house was built in the 1930's and had made it through both Hurricane Audrey and Rita. It moved back about 6 inches from its original place.This house, however, was not her original house. She actually rented it out to duck hunters. Her house was just to the left of this house, but was lost completely in the storm, along with her large grocery store.
She made us lunch and we were sure to get the two rooms she'd asked us to get done finished for the day. The house is absolutely beautiful and will be more so when everything is finished. I hope that whoever is working in Cameron this week gets the chance to go there.
Tuesday, I went out to Klondike to scrape and prime Ms. Eula's house. We got all of the scraping and most of the priming done. We ran into a pack of REALLY annoying dogs (there were 6 of them) and I saw quite possibly the biggest pile of cow poop ever. On the way home, we stopped at a little restaurant (Nott's Corner in Lake Arthur) and took a picture by a large crawfish statue. We bought brightly colored t-shirts with risque sayings on the backs and wore them to dinner that night. Everyone was jealous. The Americorp folks actually finished that house on Thursday and from my understanding, it looks really nice.
Wednesday, I went with a group to Ms. Becky's house and put the final coat of paint on her house. I got the chance to talk with her for a bit and she told me that she had lost the entire back of her house and her carport to a tornado within Hurricane Rita. She said the weather service stopped counting tornados in Rita after #200. Luckily, she didn't lose much in the way of possessions and her house looks really nice now, both inside and out. After we finished up with that, Ms. Julie came to pick us up and we went to work on some things at Head Start for the rest of the day. Once we finished everything there, we played some card games and hung out with the group who had been at Head Start all day. Ms. Julie even bought us ice cream. I had a Choco Taco and I KNOW you're jealous. That evening, we went to Holly Beach for dinner and some fun before heading back to the camp. Holly Beach was really eerie, but we made sure to make some fun out of the situation. It's wonderful to see that people are rebuilding their homes there because I'm sure it's a beautiful place to live.
Thursday I went to Ms. Layla's (spelling?) house and culked some boards that were coming loose from her house. We also spot primed the house so they could paint it the next day. We finished everything up and got to play with their little dog who was pretty much insane. Then, since the Cameron group was so far out, we drove into Lake Charles to meet the FedEx truck for pizza - oh, and some Starbucks.
Friday was the last day of work and let me say, it was pretty much the most amazing day ever. I went back to Ms. T Mae's house to do some more painting, but this time, with 3 of the girls from my group and another girl that goes to my college (Alex, Amy, Nicole, Marty - I love you!!!). We got the two rooms Ms. T Mae asked us to do finished and then she made us lunch again - probably the best crawfish etuffle' EVER. She invited us all back in the summer after her house (and hopefully her store) were finished to stay for a few days. I'm pretty sure we might take her up on that.
Working in Cameron Parish taught me a lot. At the beginning of the week, I couldn't understand why these people would come back, fight for thousands of dollars from insurance companies that will likely never come and attempt to rebuild in a place where their lives could be washed away again this hurricane season. But then it hit me - this is one of the best places in America. Not only do you have the scent of saltwater in the air, but you have a large farm down the road. You know the names of your neighbor's neighbor's neighbor's neighbor's etc. and the names of their parents and cousins. You have quait little shops at your beck and call and if you're feeling daring, you can even go to the marshes and wrestle an alligator. In all honesty, SWLA is amazing. The people are so amazing and so surprisingly hopeful and compassionate. It kind of grows on you just from being there. I am sold.
Aside from the amazing opportunity to do work and meet the residents in Cameron Parish, I found most of my memories coming from the time I spent with my team and all of the people who flocked around our team (who knew they could group so many amazing people together in one group?). However, what I liked most about the whole thing was that everyone seemed to be friends...long time friends. Once Tuesday hit, we were all being the cynical, dry-humored, swearing college students we all are and it was amazing.
I just want to post a few of the inside jokes that took place throughout the week...for those of you involved, please take the time to laugh...because it's okay to laugh: T-squared, the party van, CHIGGERS, Seeeeeeeeee yuuuuuuuuh, Numa Numa Yay, BS!, "Get in the van.", I'll meet you on the trampoline, shut the .... up!, "Just making sure you're awake." And I also want to quickly shout out to all of my wonderful teammates (Alex, Nicole, Josh, Tristan, Jenny, Sunshine, Holly Pocket, Beth, Marty, Jess, Jenny and Heather). One hour van rides would never have been the same without you.
So thanks for an awesome week, ASB! I wouldn't have had it any other way!
Labels: awesome, cameron parish, chiggers
