random wireless internet rocks!
"I don't care what the video says, SOLV is really about yummies." Steve (our sponsor)
so hopefully i wont have to bombard you all with a huge update at the end...or at least that update won't have this chunk in it:
we left Sacramento at about 6 am on thursday and got to our camp around 5:30ish that night. we are staying in the lodge at camp angelos. the camp is located at the end of this scary road past a big house with barbed wire around it, with a whole bunch of boats, cars, and rusty stuff in the yard. and i've never seen a light on inside. so the lodge is awesome: big fireplace, TV/DVD/VCR, stereo system with speakers throughout, industrial kitchen, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. we met greg who is in charge here and then steve, our sponsor, stopped by to let us know about friday. then we went to red robin for dinner. then some of us watched nothing but trouble.
on friday we left the camp at 8:30am to get to the SOLV office by 10 (we had to go to the other side of portland). we had an orientation, met some staff members, and then were videotaped for a documentary on non-profits. then we went and picked up tools, went to pizza hut for lunch, and then looked at two work sites.
they have ROUS's (Rodents of Unusual Size per The Princess Bride) here...they are called nutriea and they look like otters or something but they are really rats.
so the SOLV organization is really cool...they are all about involving community members and helping other organizations out. and the guy made a point of saying how the whole country is divided and whatnot and that there are red states and blue states. and that there are red people and blue people but that it doesnt matter and they are just trying to get everyone to work together.
this past weekend we were stuck in our housing because there was freezing rain. a few of us went up the winding road and slid down on trash bags. and i knocked antaeus over and he ended up on top of steve.
for MLK day we went to the Ronald McDonald house in East Portland. americorps considers this "a day on, not a day off" so we had off from our original project so we went to the house. we worked there all day cleaning and organizing things and putting together paperwork. the house was gorgeous, all the rooms were decorated by sponsors and they were awesome. they had an "oregon room" that was decorated like a log cabin. then we went out for chinese food for tzippi's birthday. i actually enjoyed my moo-goo-gai-pan.
so today we had a little service learning this morning near the river bank about the Sandy River and about salmon. then they showed us the bank that we were going to be working on which was at about a 80 degree angle. and the water was crazy high at the bottom...so they were going to tie us all together or something but they decided that was too dangerous. so we went and collected willow trees and cut them into different size sticks that we are going to put in the bank so they will grow and the roots will help control erosion at a later date.
first from the other night...bob or bill or someone called and left me a message about tim and said he could tell me what was going on with him. then tim was in my dream and he was running from the cops and i was helping him hide.
then last night i was going through a day and at the end i was saying it was a good day because of two things. i only remember the second thing and that was that jon pickering's mom called me and asked me to donate money to her tsunami relief fund. i went on a tirade about how i had a falling out with her son and if i wanted to donate money i would do so in a way that didnt involve him. then i was back in college for one more year (though it felt more like my high school).
the end...for now...cept that tzippi is amazing.
so hopefully i wont have to bombard you all with a huge update at the end...or at least that update won't have this chunk in it:
we left Sacramento at about 6 am on thursday and got to our camp around 5:30ish that night. we are staying in the lodge at camp angelos. the camp is located at the end of this scary road past a big house with barbed wire around it, with a whole bunch of boats, cars, and rusty stuff in the yard. and i've never seen a light on inside. so the lodge is awesome: big fireplace, TV/DVD/VCR, stereo system with speakers throughout, industrial kitchen, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. we met greg who is in charge here and then steve, our sponsor, stopped by to let us know about friday. then we went to red robin for dinner. then some of us watched nothing but trouble.
on friday we left the camp at 8:30am to get to the SOLV office by 10 (we had to go to the other side of portland). we had an orientation, met some staff members, and then were videotaped for a documentary on non-profits. then we went and picked up tools, went to pizza hut for lunch, and then looked at two work sites.
they have ROUS's (Rodents of Unusual Size per The Princess Bride) here...they are called nutriea and they look like otters or something but they are really rats.
so the SOLV organization is really cool...they are all about involving community members and helping other organizations out. and the guy made a point of saying how the whole country is divided and whatnot and that there are red states and blue states. and that there are red people and blue people but that it doesnt matter and they are just trying to get everyone to work together.
this past weekend we were stuck in our housing because there was freezing rain. a few of us went up the winding road and slid down on trash bags. and i knocked antaeus over and he ended up on top of steve.
for MLK day we went to the Ronald McDonald house in East Portland. americorps considers this "a day on, not a day off" so we had off from our original project so we went to the house. we worked there all day cleaning and organizing things and putting together paperwork. the house was gorgeous, all the rooms were decorated by sponsors and they were awesome. they had an "oregon room" that was decorated like a log cabin. then we went out for chinese food for tzippi's birthday. i actually enjoyed my moo-goo-gai-pan.
so today we had a little service learning this morning near the river bank about the Sandy River and about salmon. then they showed us the bank that we were going to be working on which was at about a 80 degree angle. and the water was crazy high at the bottom...so they were going to tie us all together or something but they decided that was too dangerous. so we went and collected willow trees and cut them into different size sticks that we are going to put in the bank so they will grow and the roots will help control erosion at a later date.
first from the other night...bob or bill or someone called and left me a message about tim and said he could tell me what was going on with him. then tim was in my dream and he was running from the cops and i was helping him hide.
then last night i was going through a day and at the end i was saying it was a good day because of two things. i only remember the second thing and that was that jon pickering's mom called me and asked me to donate money to her tsunami relief fund. i went on a tirade about how i had a falling out with her son and if i wanted to donate money i would do so in a way that didnt involve him. then i was back in college for one more year (though it felt more like my high school).
the end...for now...cept that tzippi is amazing.