(wrote this post on Saturday 6/11 day before posted)
Holy Moly. It’s been an interesting week! We left last Wednesday from Houston to come to Big Bend National park. It was a long ride (2 days) but it was nice to sleep in a real bed for once! And the nice thing about traveling is we get enough money to go out to eat for dinner the nights we get wherever we’re going. So we ate at Chili’s in Del Rio, TX on Wednesday night. We arrived in Big Bend late afternoon, we had to stop in Alpine, TX which is 2 hours away from Big Bend because that’s where we have to do all our grocery shopping, which would occur every 2 weeks, so we got a whole lot of food!!!!
It is absolutely GORGEOUS here! Where we staked our tents is in the Chisos Mountain Basin. The view is absolutely breath taking! I made a video of a tour of where we live, it won't load on here but send me an email if you want me to send it to you (dont know if it would work then either) ACav_614@yahoo.com
So I set my tent up so in the morning when I open my tent the view is indescribable. I feel so relieved and stress free when I’m here, I get to sit in a hammock and listen to the birds singing as the wind blows me back and forth….love it.
So, I am living an exciting, crazy life right now and I love it. This is exactly why I came into AmeriCorps to get over my fear of change (definitely conquered that) and to make a difference in the world. Love it. Love you guys. Couldn’t do this without your support!!!!!
Holy Moly. It’s been an interesting week! We left last Wednesday from Houston to come to Big Bend National park. It was a long ride (2 days) but it was nice to sleep in a real bed for once! And the nice thing about traveling is we get enough money to go out to eat for dinner the nights we get wherever we’re going. So we ate at Chili’s in Del Rio, TX on Wednesday night. We arrived in Big Bend late afternoon, we had to stop in Alpine, TX which is 2 hours away from Big Bend because that’s where we have to do all our grocery shopping, which would occur every 2 weeks, so we got a whole lot of food!!!!
It is absolutely GORGEOUS here! Where we staked our tents is in the Chisos Mountain Basin. The view is absolutely breath taking! I made a video of a tour of where we live, it won't load on here but send me an email if you want me to send it to you (dont know if it would work then either) ACav_614@yahoo.com
So I set my tent up so in the morning when I open my tent the view is indescribable. I feel so relieved and stress free when I’m here, I get to sit in a hammock and listen to the birds singing as the wind blows me back and forth….love it.
So, I am living an exciting, crazy life right now and I love it. This is exactly why I came into AmeriCorps to get over my fear of change (definitely conquered that) and to make a difference in the world. Love it. Love you guys. Couldn’t do this without your support!!!!!
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| My Tent |
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| Hammock I got to lay in! |
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| My view from my tent! |
On Friday we had the day off but our sponsor wanted us to go explore and see other parts of the park that we may be working on. We went on an early morning hike on the Lost Mine trail which was a 2.5 mile hike up to the top of a part of the mountain. I have another video if you want that one too!
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| Me on our hike |
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| The team on our hike |
I am very proud of myself and my newly gained hiking abilities. In the beginning of AmeriCorps it took me foooorever to get through a hike, now (still with a fair amount of struggling) I am able to keep up with everyone just making sure I take enough breaks and drinking enough water. This hike was perfect because the sun was rising on the other side of the mountain so we didn’t have to worry about sunlight until we hit the top! I’m extremely excited to be able to come back to Maine and discover parts of it I’ve never seen before by going on hikes! I want to buy myself some nice LL Bean hiking shoes, and a hydration pack and be on my way!
We were also able on Saturday to go to Hot Springs in Big Bend National Park which runs into the Rio Grande and we were able to go swimming in it! It was amazing, I loved to sit in the middle of the river and have the running water hit me, it took a lot to stay still but was so relaxing! Pretty cool to be able to say that I went swimming in the Rio Grande though!
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| The team in the Hot Spring |
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| Oh, you know, just hangin out in the Rio grande, NBD |
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| The team hanging out in the river! |
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| Jumping into the river!! note: in the background=Mexico! |
So Friday night was the most interesting moment here. We have no service internet or phone where our tents are, but through the park there are spots that you can get some service. So our team leader Kiera went to go call to check in with Denver. We got a notice that we may be going on disaster relief. The deal with disaster relief is you can be sent at ANY time and have to be prepared to pack everything up and leave the next morning if they need you to. We knew we weren’t going to be sent while we were In Houston because technically, we were already doing disaster relief work. So once we left Houston our ranking on the disaster list went way up. So we finally on Friday night got confirmation that on Sunday the 12th we would be departing Big Bend to head to Tuscaloosa, Alabama where they were devastated with a tornado a couple months ago. Currently there are two teams in my Fire unit that are there and have been helping by working in distribution places handing out essential needs to people, cleaning up debris, placing tarps on roofs, etc. We will be working with an organization that is not FEMA or Red Cross but a Baptist church group. We will be helping in distribution centers, possibly more tarping, but also I’m really hoping to help out with a volunteer coordinating project they are getting started. They want to start up a case work project that will be long lasting so they need to start early to keep it going. I am so excited to be able to help out with something like this. These people lost everything and just a small gesture is going to help them tremendously in the long run. It will be amazing to be able to say I was a part in the initial stages of recovery. It will take a long time to fully recover, but my small part will pay off in the long run.
So, 4 days ago we were in Houston. Then we traveled about 600 miles west across Texas to get to Big Bend. Here we are 4 days later heading right back where we came from to go past it. Kind of a pain in the butt, but here in AmeriCorps you are to expect the unexpected!! The way I see it, I get to sleep in a bed for 2 nights in a hotel, eat food from a restaurant, and will have not worked for 6 days….sounds good to me! I am sad to be leaving Big Bend, but as of right now this project is only for 2 weeks, then we will assess the project and see if we need to stay longer. If we are done in 2 weeks I’m hoping we’re able to come back to Big Bend and actually do some work for them!! In Tuscaloosa we will be living in a church and then moved to an elementary school I guess, so I only had to sleep in a tent for 3 days for now, which I actually haven’t minded and am beginning to actually enjoy!!
Cool thing about this whole travel deal, we leave Sunday to go to Stephenville (?), TX then on Monday travel to Jackson, Mississippi, and then Tuesday only have a 4 hour drive to get to Tuscaloosa, which so happens to be my birthday!!!!!! Pretty cool to be spending my birthday in Alabama! Although when we get there I guess we’re having our orientation right away so we can start right up on work on Thursday! But it’s ok, the other 2 teams will still be there until Thursday, and 3 girls from my shuffle round team in Arizona are on those teams so I’m excited to hopefully be able to see them when we get there and hope they can help me celebrate my birthday!! This will definitely be a birthday I won’t forget!!
I am currently writing this from this lovely view of a hammock so that in the hotel tomorrow night in Stephensville, TX I can just copy and paste it for you lovely people to read!! And….it just started raining which I guess it hasn’t done for 10 months!!! But I’m under a tree and am pretty well protected for the moment. It smells so friggen good…the rain that is…
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