Round One

Today's the first day since we've gotten to Los Angeles that I've had a few hours to myself, so I decided to walk to the local library and sit with my laptop so I could write, check my email, and try to acquire the newest episodes of Dexter. Living and working here has been a major lifestyle shift for me, but for the most part I've been able to adapt and am enjoying this new world I find myself in.

Our housing situation is about the exact opposite of what I'd become accustomed to my last year at RIT. We're staying in a small house attached to a church that consists of a living room, kitchen, three bedrooms, and a single bathroom. I'm sharing a room with the other three guys on the team which we've dubbed "the man cave". Each of us has a standard issue cot and a sleeping bag (well, except Mike, who somehow lost his when we did laundry last week). We put together shelving by stacking folding tables in one corner of the room. I have the space under my cot, half a table, and a drawer in the bathroom to store my stuff in. For the first few days we didn't have a stove, but our sponsor managed to find us one. We're pretty sure it leaks, so when we aren't cooking we turn the gas off and have to manually light it every time we use it. We've also got a microwave and a fridge, both of work well. Our bathroom is decent, although the toilet leaks large quantities of water every time we flush. Also, since we only have a single bathroom we pretty much don't have any personal space anymore. Showers are timed on work days, five minute max, and while showering someone else is usually in the bathroom using the toilet or the sink. The second day we were here Scott found a secondhand shop where the owner agreed to find a couch for us. It seemed a bit sketchy, but the guy really came through for us and got a nice black leather couch for only $80 (we gave him $100 to thank him). That, with another folding table on top of two storage crates for a coffee table, make up our living room. It's large enough for all ten of us to be in there at once, and we usually have about four people on the couch at any given time. For privacy we have a back stoop that's surrounded by maybe 100 square feet of grass that makes up our yard, most people sit out there while on the phone. We have no TV or internet, but I find that I don't miss it all that much, so long as I can occasionally come here to check my email.

The team is still doing well together, although our housing situation has led to a few tensions. A few of us have been sick this week, myself included, the worst of which was Fayanna vomiting all night on Tuesday. She's home with her family in San Diego this weekend though, and hopefully she'll return healthy. Megan is also visiting her family around here this weekend, who were kind enough to invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner. They provided us with an awesome meal and were really nice to talk to. Her mom bought us a few bags of cleaning supplies and I ended up talking with her dad for quite a while while they prepared dinner. I was really sad that this was my first Thanksgiving away from my family, but being with my team and her family was still a good time. Since we have a long weekend all of us have been splitting into smaller groups and checking out various things around town (last night we drove to see the Hollywood sign up close), which has been great for morale. It's usually hard for all ten of us to make a decision quickly, but if we break into smaller groups it's much more relaxed.

And while it's been nice exploring the area and seeing what L.A. has to offer, our real objective here is to work with the CYFC program at two schools. Our team was broken into two groups, with Scott, Cassie, Megan, Mike, and myself working at Dorsey High and Melissa, Steve, Emily, Aine, and Fayanna working at 61st Elementary. Us working at the high school have been assigned to provide tutoring support in Algebra, Geometry, and CAHSEE (California state exams) math review courses during the day and providing homework assistance and playing games with kids after school. We're on block scheduling, so we have a total of eight classes, four each day. The teacher I'm working with the most, Mrs. Gay, is fantastic with her students and commands enough respect to convince them to learn the material. The student population is 50% Black and 50% Latino. There's a girl in one of my classes that I think might be white, but I'm not sure. The teachers are a little more diverse, I work with a few Asian teachers and two have strong African accents. The kids occasionally make jokes about our presence (the first day one kid shouted that he was going to give his "white milk to the white kids", and on Wednesday one kid shouted "white power!" at me), but they're good natured about it and I haven't seen any hostility from any of them. They're also pretty smart, and almost always pick up on how to do the work after a few examples. I think one of the largest parts of my job is just walking up to kids and pointedly asking, "are you planning on doing any work today?" The typical response to which is usually a sheepish grin and an admission that they just don't get it. However, there's almost always an "oh yeah, I remember this, this is easy!" moment after I get them about halfway through a problem. After school we usually just end up chatting over games. They're all just normal kids, although some of them have gone through things I can't really imagine going through. I'm starting to pick out a few that I really like and get along well with, I hope I'm making a positive impact on their lives.

Despite the fact that our house is located close to Inglewood and is in a pretty rough area it isn't nearly as terrifying as media stereotypes make it out to be. Our neighborhood is a pretty quiet suburb, where most of the folk seem to just be working to get by. According to some of the kids at Dorsey we're located in Blood territory, specifically the Rolling 60s gang, but I have yet to see any gangbangers anywhere or anything else to make me feel unsafe (Dorsey itself is right in the middle of the dividing line between Blood and Crip territory). We're smart about it and usually travel in groups, but we can walk to the library (about 10 blocks from our house) in small groups at night or alone during the day without feeling scared. Also, according to the kids a lot of the gang warzone image portrayed in most media is a relic of the 80s. Granted, the gangs are still dangerous, but a lot of the old hostilities have died down somewhat. Case in point, one of the girls we work with had a Blood father and Crip mother. She doesn't have the nicest life, her mom is dead and her dad can't support her so she's in a group home, but has ambitions and is smart enough to go places. Also, one of the kids told us that some of the rival gangs around here regularly play football against one another. It seems to me that the gangs tend to be more fraternal in nature, so I think if these kids can find another group to identify with they won't fall into that lifestyle. I really hope that our influence on the kids we're working with will help them go farther in life and that we can actively demonstrate that there are alternatives to ignorance and just doing whatever is needed to get by.

End of training

I, Adam Bosen, do solemnly pledge that as a member of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, I will serve as a leader and active citizen of my community and my country and will accept equally the opportunities and responsibilities of citizenship.
I will support and uphold the mission of AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps to strengthen communities and develop leaders through team-based national and community service and commit to my role as a full participant of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. Sacramento Campus. agreeing to abide by the guidelines established to ensure a healthy and productive community experience for all Corps Members.
I will participate as a self-governing member of our nation. I will inform myself about the problems of my community and my country, and I will work with other citizens to solve these problems.
Further, I agree to continue to serve my country as a leader and citizen, not only through my involvement in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, but throughout my life. I make this pledge freely and without promise of personal gain.

So, training is over and we're getting ready to ship out on Monday. Yesterday our team gave our first official briefing to our unit leader and the pacific region director, which went off without a hitch. I think the briefing was the first time we've completed a stressful task as a group. I was a little nervous about us at first, but after seeing how well it went yesterday I think we're going to do well together.
This is a picture that was taken of our group together at Camp Mendocino. From left to right: Steve, Aine, Emily, Scott, Megan, Mike, Me, Melissa, Cassie, and Fayanna

Yesterday morning we had our second PT baseline. I managed 49 pushups, 69 situps, a 1.5 mile time of 10:57, and 13.5" on the sit and reach test. I'm really happy about my running speed, although I think that can mostly be attributed to starting at the front of the group this time.

Team Formation

I feel like I'm finally starting to get a good handle on what the people on my team are like, so I wanted to give a brief introduction to the nine people I'm going to be spending the significant majority of my time with for the next year. I'm going to try to get photos/video up soon so everyone can attach faces to names. The ten of us that make up Blue 3 (or Blü3, as I've taken to writing it) are:

Melissa is our fearless team leader, also known as 'mom' or 'boss'. Melissa has her masters degree in social work and hails from New Jersey. She's pretty low key but still has the energy to lead our team, and definitely has the New England sarcastic sense of humor. She's a bit older than the rest of us, but can still operate on our level.

Aine (pronounced Anya) is also from New York, although just north of the city (Westchester is definitely not upstate, despite everyone's opinion otherwise). She's funny and laid back. Her degree is in architecture, although she's not sure she wants to do that kind of work. Aine's role on our team is service learning initiator.

Emily is one of our two youngins, straight out of high school, but fits well with the older members of our team. She's quick witted and has a funny, sarcastic sense of humor, which is boosted by her somewhat monotone way of speaking (which she occasionally gets jokingly teased about). She's trying to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life while in Americorps, which is no small undertaking. She's our physical training coordinator.

Scott is really chill and relaxed, the kind of guy you can easily sit down and watch football with. He has a degree in communications and wants to work as a sports writer. I'm sharing a room with him and a guy from another team for the rest of the year. Scott is our project outreach liason.

Fayanna is pretty intense about being here. She's already been trying to schedule several independent service projects and seems to feel like she needs to prove her worth here. Still, she's generally pretty friendly and has a really diverse taste in music (I've never met anyone my generation that claimed the 40s as their favorite musical decade before). She was home schooled all through high school, and I think she's had to do a lot of adjusting since she got here. Fayanna has half of the roles of corps representative and photojournalist.

Steve is energetic and really funny (and was voted by our team to be most likely to wear nothing under his jumpsuit). He also likes comics, including Transmetropolitan and Watchmen (two of my favorites), and all kinds of beer. We've got plans to go brewery hopping in Sacramento next weekend before we leave for our first project. Steve is our media representative.

Cassie has her degree in psychology and is from Kentucky. She's really quiet and generally prefers to sit back and watch everyone, which makes the slight twang of her accent a little unexpected. She's pretty smart, and will happily talk with anyone that engages her directly. She's the first peer helper on our team.

Mike is from the glorious state of Texas, although you probably wouldn't be able to tell it from talking to him. He's into a lot of the more obscure things on the Internet (He quoted back random Homestarrunner lines when I once yelled "Hey, Steve!"). I think he's still figuring out how he really fits into our team, but I imagine he'll find his niche soon. He's our vehicle, safety, and tools coordinator.

Megan almost fits the Southern Cali girl stereotype at first glance, but is really friendly and enthusiastic about helping people. She's definitely one of the most outgoing people on our team, which is really cool. She's also straight out of high school and, like Emily, is working on figuring out exactly what she wants to do with herself after Americorps. Megan is our other corps ambassador/photojournalist

And I'm the last member of our team. I don't really know what I can say about myself, aside from the fact that I'm serving as our team's second peer helper. It'll be my job (along with Cassie) to keep the peace and make sure everyone's getting along well.

Our first project is going to be in Los Angeles, mentoring at risk high school kids. We're going to be living in South Central in a house attached to a Methodist church, so it'll definitely be a shift from my normal living arrangements. I'm excited for the opportunity to experience a new lifestyle, even if there's a bit of danger associated with being in that area. I've had some experience through FIRST robotics mentoring inner city kids before, but I think this program will require a whole new level of effort.

Last Friday we, along with three other teams from blue and gold unit, spent the day removing giant reeds from near a waterway in a suburb outside of Sacramento. All morning I got to work with loppers cutting down these reeds, which were like bamboo but a little smaller and not as tough. Some of them were easily 20 feet long, which was really fun when we were all cutting and they were falling around (and occasionally on) us. Once the reeds were cut the project sponsor came around with a herbicide that would hopefully be absorbed into the roots to ensure that they didn't grow back. It was good hard work, which felt really rewarding. We managed to get the whole project done and hour faster than the sponsor thought we would, which made me feel really good about our work together.

Mendocino

Yesterday afternoon I got back from Camp Mendocino, which was a lot of fun. Our four hour drive out there on Wednesday was uneventful aside from the last half hour, which was a narrow dirt road through the middle of the forest that left me rather nauseous and at a few points fearing for my life. The camp itself is very secluded in the middle of a redwood forest, and aside from train tracks and a helipad is pretty much isolated from the outside world. Absolutely beautiful, but rather cold. Being a New Yorker, I dealt with it just fine, but a few people were having trouble dealing with it. The worst was our first night there, when it got into the 40s, but the rest of the time wasn't that bad.

Wednesday night we spent playing the "newly team game", which involved trying to agree on which of our team members was most likely to do certain things. Our team bombed miserably, but we still had fun playing. Thursday we spent the morning in training and then went to a ropes course in the afternoon. The low elements they had were nothing new to me, but they had an awesome high ropes course with several things I'd never tried before, including a zipline that sent you flying over a river. They also had a nice rock wall, which about half of my team managed to complete. Friday we spent the first half of the day staining the awning of one of their buildings, which was fairly uneventful except for when Fayanna somehow managed to cover her face in stain. I had to lead her blind to the bathroom and help her wash up, good thing we had just done blindfolded trust activities the day before! She cleaned up and was fine, which I'm really grateful for. The rest of Friday was spent developing Individual Learning Plans and in one on one meetings with Melissa. That night there was a huge blue unit bonfire, including, skits, s'mores, dancing, and more of the Blue Unit Mythology, which is this kind of ridiculous, campy story the team leaders have been working on. Finally, yesterday morning we had the Amerilympics, a competition between all the teams in Blue Unit. Myself, Megan, and Emily won the four legged race (which was kinda tricky because I had to be facing the opposite direction as they were the whole time) for our team, but we didn't take any other event. However, no team ended up winning two events, so the winner was decided by a massive rock-paper-scissors game, which was rather anticlimactic. After the winning photos were taken all of us packed up and headed home, and I've been just relaxing since.