Welcome!

Hello. My name is Nathan, and this is my second consecutive year with the National Civilian Community Corps. Both years I've worked out of the Central Region, based in Denver; as a Corps Member, I was in Sun Unit but as a Team Leader I'm of the Earth Unit.

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle anything worth chronicling having to do with AmeriCorps*NCCC -- post stories, squash rumors, tell people what's going on, and generally have a good time.

To start, I'll post a brief and incomplete account of where I've been over the last year.

The history of my time in the Corps has actually developed as a sort of good/bad schtick, an extremely abbreviated version of which follows:

Good: I'm inducted into the Corps. . .
Bad: . . .but my TL is incompetent.
Good: My team gets a local education project when most everyone else is being deployed to the Gulf Coast with minimal prep. . .
Bad: . . . but some people get in trouble on another team so I end up getting put on their team, which is going to gut houses in the Gulf.
Good: It's a great team, and we soon find out that our next project will be trailbuilding in Milwaukee. . .
Bad: . . .but the people who got in trouble are getting put back on their team, and I'm getting put back on mine -- which is coming down to gut houses in the Gulf.
Good: Third round I get placed on the Pike's Peak project in CO. . .
Bad: . . .but I allow my Unit Leader to talk me into taking my second choice, in the Gulf.
Good: I'm given a choice. . .
Bad: . . .do I want to be on a different team each round and get out of the Gulf once, or do I want to spent my entire year in the Gulf and spend two rounds on my "permanent" team?
Good: I graduate, get to come back as a TL. . .
Bad: . . .and manage to get dead last pick on first round project lottery.
Good: Another TL offers to switch with me and I get a great project. . .
Bad: . . .and then draw dead last again on my second round project lottery.

And that's about where we are now. Don't get me wrong. I love it down here. I've now been working in Louisiana and Mississippi for over a year and I don't regret that at all. But I did join the *NCCC with some expectation of getting to see the country a bit, and I've been within a 100-mile radius this whole time, which has occasionally been frustrating. Further, given that this is a team-based program, it's been strange not having a permanent team my first year, and now, in my second year, I've gotten two consecutive projects that don't allow for my team to work together as a team.

So what teams have I been on? I spent less than a week on Sun 3, then a day on Sun 7, then six weeks on Sun 5, then nine weeks on Sun 3, then six weeks on Sun 4, then finished out my first year on Sun 3 again. One week with Habitat for Humanity in Santa Fe, NM; more'n a month in Camp Premier (now closed) in Saint Bernard Parish, LA; a couple months with CORE in Ocean Springs, MS; a couple months with The Green Project in NOLA; a couple months with Operation Blessing out of Slidell, LA. This year I've been TL Earth 1, spending six weeks with Hands On New Orleans and about to spend two months doing needs assessment for the American Red Cross.

Stories and pictures to follow!