Tales of Courage (and the release of my first spike location!)

       Hello hello from Iowa! The weather today is a beautiful, sunny 40 degrees and after a few weeks of foggy, haze I am soaking up every ray. One would never think this Florida girl would be walking around in short sleeves in weather below 50 thanking God for the warm weather! Ha! From my previous blogs, you may have noted how crammed with training the past three weeks were. There are underground tunnels that connect every building on campus for comfortable facilitation in the Winter. But last week I found myself saying, "Holy cow, I have not seen the light of day in four days!!" So the past four days have been much needed for the lack of vitamin D and hard labor! Here is what I have been up to:

    
      I have just come back from my first spike. What is a spike you may ask? No, I am not being trained in the art of vampire slaying, rather this is the term NCCC uses for our team trips. It comes from the idea of pitching a tent. Carrying everything you need for a project on the strength of your shoulders and pitching a tent; driving the spike into the ground and claiming the land! That is what we do in NCCC. Go in with minimal supplies (in girl standards) and maximal skill and enthusiasm.

      So for my training spike we were sent to Camp Courageous, a camp for individuals with disabilities of all ages in Monticello, IA. It was awesome. We were not promised much time with the campers because we were going to be focused on infrastructure improvement. The camp had recently come into 30 additional acres to expand upon and a chunk of my team was given the job of taking down the fence that surrounded the previous acres so the expansion could be made. Our supervisor called this the "farm boy" job. I don't know if raising goats and chickens would count for that category but I volunteered. I found out two things: 1. I am an expert wire wrangler (better even then the North Carolina cowboy on my team) 2. Clay stains clothes something fierce (especially pristine AmeriCorps NCCC uniforms). The Iowan snow has turned into Iowan mud mush. I have become quite fond of my steel-toed boots. In fact us Corps members have a fun game we like to play. We put on our boots, find the largest person we can, and have them stomp in the toes of our boots. The result is a excited yell, "I did not feel a thing!". It's pretty fun, and a way to stay entertained in Iowa.
      Back to camp stories... We did a few other jobs too during out three days there. Painted the interior of three dorm buildings and ten bathrooms. Sanitized the dorms for the most medically challenged campers (think hospital sanitation). But by far my most favorite was the Mardi Gras dance the camp held. Camp Courageous is entirely run on donations which is a miraculous feat because everything about this camp is top notch. They even have a climbing wall in the pool! The dance was one of the many fundraising opportunities the camp has to invite the community to invest in the camp and campers.

      So you guys know me and my amazing dancing skills (example to the left, I'm in the blue pants with my booty shakin!), cough cough. Well, the campers of Camp Courageous were the best dance partners I have ever had. One of my favorites was a man named Stephen with down syndrome who showed up in a greaser jacket with a fine tooth comb in hand. Even with all the Danny Zuko coolness running through him, he could not fight the urge to get crazy with some Baha Men, "Who Let the Dogs Out?!". He got down on all fours with a few other campers and began imitating a dog. Before the song was over I had been bitten once, nuzzled on, barked at, and even imaginary peed on. Needless to say, that broke any ice of appearance and embarrassment that us Corps members may have had and we went all in! Those kids could dance. I threw my best moves at them and still did not win the dance contest! Haha.
         My three days at Camp Courageous taught me a lot, but one word fittingly comes to mind; courage. I saw in these campers total boldness of character. They loved who they were and didn't care what others thought. That takes courage.
      In closing, this is the verse that God used in my life this week: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility value others above yourselves." Phil. 2:3. I don't know about you, but sometimes I think that I am waaaaay more important than other people. Crazy right? I am sure that I am the only one out there that does that too. But Jesus was a pretty humble guy. And he said and showed the example of valuing others over myself. I'm gonna keep chewing on that one for now :)

And here is the big news!!! I got the location for my first real spike. It is a split round which means two locations in six weeks. The first I am heading to Jackson County IOWA! Haha, working with the Environmental Conservation Board (clearing trails, teaching environmental education and working on the siding of the cabins and whatever else they give us). I am excited about getting to get out in nature and using my muscles, not to mention a machete. Muahaha. The second three weeks we will moving to Waterloo IOWA to work with Habitat for Humanity! So likely building houses, yaya! I wanna get ripped! Ha. Love you all and I will talk at you soon! Pray for windy weather :) XOX