Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Round 2.

Hello all.  Ocean 7 is back in New York City! We are living in an extended stay hotel in Brooklyn and working in Queens (for the most part).  We finished training yesterday and got to go out into the field today. Where did we go? Back where we started on our very first day of Sandy deployment: Breezy Point.  Our team had the opportunity to test out a new FEMA program on the iPad.  The program is for Preliminary Damage Assessments, or PDA's, which are necessary to conduct in order for FEMA to declare the area a  disaster.  The information we collected from using the program was not actually used for this disaster, but rather they received our feedback on the iPad Application.  We debriefed our experience at the Joint Field Office with the peeps in charge.  Today was a great opportunity to re-visit the neighborhood that will forever be burned into our minds as our first steps on the ground of our first disaster.  We saw improvements: the ocean water was gone, the sand was not in the streets, and there was a checkpoint to get in to deter looting. We saw rebuilding.  We saw hope: In the neighborhood that was completely destroyed by the fires someone had posted a sign with a picture of a house that said "Coming Soon"

"Coming Soon"

Today was a great day to start off Round 2 in FEMA Corps.  I am looking forward to what comes tomorrow, though of course I have no idea where I'll be or what I'll be doing.


In other news, Ocean 7 loves our new teammate Zack!  We are glad you are here, Zack.  Also, in the area we are living there is a gym nearby, and almost all of us are thinking about joining, so more news about that on the next post.  I have also decided to challenge myself this round by limiting the amount of money I spend to $75 dollars.  This includes all expenses.  I am challenging myself to do this because almost everything of necessity is provided by FEMA Corps, and most of the things I buy are stupid anyway.  I also want to save up money to spend over the summer when I get back to California.  I have been researching what I'm going to do next year/Life After AmeriCorps, and it turns out I might do another year of AmeriCorps- but a different program.  I am really interested in Food Corps, however there are a very limited amount of members in Food Corps so it would be challenging to get in.  Food Corps is essentially the same program but it is not team-based (Not NCCC) and instead of them providing housing they give more money for your living stipend.  I would serve at Elementary Schools, teaching kids about vegetables and real food, and helping them build their own gardens! I don't have a strong desire to go back to college/DVC, especially since I am getting old and these programs have age limits!
That's all for now folks, thanks for listening and checkin up on me :)


Breezy Point

 The whole Corps!


1 comment:

  1. Hello, I really enjoy reading your blog. I read your blog because I've been assigned to Femacorps southwest campus for winter 2013. You're blog has helped me get an idea of how I will be living my life for the next ten months. Thank you for sharing your experience while in the corps. Hope to read more.

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