The Start of Week Three

So it's Tuesday and I am back at work. This week is a little different because I am working from 1pm to 8pm Monday through Thursday. Friday I work normal hours from 9 am to 3pm. Working until 8 is different because it means that we have team lunches instead of team dinners. Not having to be at work until 1pm also throws of the day and makes it feel much longer. We were told that they needed more tax prepares to help deal with the night time rush but I am not so sure because I am writing my blog because there is no one else here to do a return for. Doing taxes really isn't as bad as I thought they would be. I only had to ask a couple of questions today instead of two or three for each return. I could also answer more of the clients questions with out asking the sight supervisor. Hopefully they will continue to get better.

Yesterday morning I went on my "team date" with Amanda. We hitched a ride with Pat and Kristy to Oxley Nature Preserve which is about 5 miles from were we are living. The preserve is located next to the Tulsa Zoo and a nice park with a disk golf course. Amanda and I walked on several different trails for about an hour. Because we were on our team dates Amanda and I walked in a different direction than Pat and Kristy. They found the lake that is on the property while Amanda and I walked through the woods and found a small marsh. The weather was beautiful 50 degrees and sunny. It was great being outside and hiking after being inside all week sitting at a computer.

Last Friday we worked until about 3pm but only did tax returns until noon. We delivered more supplies to other tax sites for the afternoon. When we got back to the center Ellen and I went out and played on the playground. We made each other dizzy on the tire swing and hung upside down on the monkey bars. Mel came out a little later to take photos. Pat and Amanda decided to climb a tree while Drew and Daniel shot baskets. Pat got all the way to the top of a really tall one. Friday night we all went out to eat at a really good Mexican restaurant. Ellen and I were on our team date so we sat at a table by ourselves which was fun. After that Daniel, Pat, Amanda, Alex and I went to a coffee shop to get the Internet. Saturday Pat, Alex, and I did ISP with Rebuilding Together Tulsa. We put in new floor supports in a bedroom. The water from the back yard was draining under the house and had been for years. Because the crawl space vents had been closed up there was no place for the water to drain out so it just filled up the space under the floor. The water caused the wood to rot and the floor to sink in. I was able to use a nail gun, circular saw, and drill. I was surprised how much I remembered from working in New Orleans. After doing ISP I went to a coffee shop to get Internet. Saturday night Daniel, Mel, and Drew went to a movie while the rest of us stayed at the center. I work on a puzzle with Pat and Amanda. I then watched two episodes of True Blood with Shannon, Alex, Kristy, and Amanda.

Sunday morning I slept in and then went to a coffee shop with Daniel, Pat, Alex, Ellen, and Mel. My wireless adapter decided to pop out on me and would not work so I had to use someone elses computer. After the cafe we went to one of several malls here in Tulsa. It is much larger mall than White Oaks which was nice. I didn't find anything but Mel and Daniel bought some new clothes. When we got back from the mall all 6 of us went and did laundry. After dinner Pat, Amanda, Ellen and I went shopping for food for the week. It took us 45 min to get to the Wal-mart Neighborhood Market because we got really lost and ended up at the AK River. So my Sunday was backed full and then I stayed up late to watch 27 Dresses. I hope all is well with everyone reading this!

First Day of Taxes

I am at work right now but their are no new clients so I thought I would write about how the first day is going. Doing taxes aren't as bad as I thought they would be. The scariest thing is knowing that if you mess up you could be cheating someone out of a refund. You are "playing" with people's money. The tax program we are using is not hard to use you just have to remember what forms to use when they don't pop up on their own. Today so far I have worked with eight clients but have only filled 4 returns because all the other clients have forgotten certain forms that are import for filling the returns. The most that one of my clients has gotten on their refund is about $8,800 give or take. The sad part is that one couple did have to pay about 64 dollars in state taxes because they didn't have enough money taken out during the year. Another month to go!

For those of you who are wondering the address where I can get packeges here in Tulsa is:

AmeriCorps NCCC
4606 South Garnett, Suite 100
Tulsa, OK 74136

Don't send anything after the 22 of Febuary because we leave OK on March 4th

Taxes in Tulsa

I have arrived in Tulsa, OK and have been here a week and three days. We left Denver not this Saturday but the Saturday before that. We drove through KS which is just as boring as driving through Illinois. We stayed in a hotel for a night and got to Tulsa about lunch time on Sunday. The drive wasn't as bad as driving to NOLA. It wasn't as long only about 10 hours.

My team and I are living in a community center that is right behind the Police Station. The center is not in operation anymore which is great for us. The center is really big with its own gym (full size basketball court), large kitchen, and separate locker rooms for guys and gals. We all sleep in a big open common area on cots with the exception of Drew and Kristy who decided to get fancy and bought air mattresses. The cot isn't as bad as I thought it would be to sleep on but I think it helps that I have a pad to go on top of it. As I said the kitchen is really large with ten times the amount of counter space as the house in NOLA. There are even enough selves for each of us to have one. The only down side is that when we first arrived we had no fridge for the first two days and when we got them they were dorm size fridges. I will say though that you can fit more into one than I thought. The other major problem we had when we first arrived was the lack of hot water. Since I have been here I have taken two of the coldest showers of my life. The first day I just washed my hair in water that I heated up on the stove. Then the water got "fixed" but only a couple of people were able to take warm showers before it went cold again. So last Monday I took the coldest shower that I hope will be my last. Imagine taking a shower with water that on the verge of freezing. I couldn't stay in the water for very long because it was making my head throb. The hot water has now been fixed along with the heater and we can take warm showers and turn up the heat from 59 to 70 if we feel like it.

Our sponsors have been really great about fixing our problems and then getting us additional items like a TV and a box so we now get a few channels (FOX, CW, CBS). They have also gotten us tickets to see the weekend home games for the Tulsa 66's (basketball team) and to the aquarium. I really like them and from that aspect I think this project will be good.

Tax prep isn't as bad a I thought it would be. I'm not sure that I will like being inside all day so I am hoping that we will be able to spend sometime outside in the nice weather. Last week we did a little training but mostly we did office work that consisted of emptying folders and putting labels on folders. We also sorted and delivered 40,000 fliers to the Tulsa public schools about the free tax program. This week we started our IRS tax preparer certification. We had to do six different tax returns one of witch took me about an hour and half to finish. I hope I don't have to do one of these for real. We start working with clients tomorrow.

This past weekend we got out and explored Tulsa a little. Friday night the team split up and went to two different restaurants. I went to The Sushi Train and tried sushi for the first time. It was pretty good. We then went to a move at the dollar theater. I saw "Law Abiding Citizen" an intense movie but good. Saturday I went with a couple of people to Borders in order to get the Internet since we don't get it at the community center. We spent most of the afternoon there. That night some of the team went out while the rest of us stayed home and watched a movie. Sunday was laundry and food shopping day. Most of the team did laundry in the morning but it took almost 2 hours because there were so many people there. I spent the rest of the day back at the community center. I went for a run, read, and learned how to make a "granny square"! After dinner Pat, Amanda, and I went to Wal-mart to do our food shopping for the week. We spent $300 which was under budget by about $15. Next time I am able to get wireless I will post some photos of Tulsa and the community center. Hope all is well!!!!

Leaving for Tulsa, OK

So today ended our transition week between spikes. My team and I leave at 8 am for Tulsa, OK. It will take about 10 hours to drive there. We are staying in KS tomorrow night and will get to Tulsa mid morning on Sunday. My team is staying in a community center that has a big kitchen, a gym, separate bathrooms for guys and girls. We will be doing taxes for low income families. We will spend the first week on the project doing training. One good thing that will come out of this project is that I will know how to do taxes! One down side is that as far as we know there is no Internet where we are living. This means I won't be able to get on as much as I would like. I am off now to finish getting ready to leave and then head to bed because we have to be ready to go at 7:30 am.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I am writing this from my kitchen in Rochester, IL. That's right I have been home for the last week and don't fly back to Denver until Saturday the 2nd. I am enjoying being home and seeing family and friends. I spent Christmas at my grandparent's with my dad's side of the family. My favorite part of the dinner were the dumplings because I missed having them at Thanksgiving. Not only did I get several movies to take with my to Tulsa I also got a camera to replace the one that broke on the way back from New Orleans making "Santa" the top of my list of favorite people. The lens on my old one stopped focusing which also happened to two other people on my team.

The last weekend in New Orleans was fun and wet very wet. On Saturday some of my team mates and I went to Magazine street to walk around. It had been raining off and on all morning but just a light shower but it rained progressively harder as the day went on. By the time we were ready to leave magazine street you couldn't tell the difference between the sidewalk and the road because of the amount of water in the street. We had to walk through water up to the middle of my calf in order to get back to the van! Not only were the streets starting to fill up with water but it was continuing to rain. The down poor was over as soon as it started with all the water draining out of the street. After the first shock of being soaked it was kind of fun, like jumping in one big mud puddle.

Monday I worked a half day and spent the rest of the day cleaning our house and packing. Cleaning wasn't too bad when you have 11 people working on it. I think we left the house cleaner than when we found it or at least I hope so. The main thing is that hopefully the plumbing problems will be fixed before the next team arrives. Packing was easier than I thought it would be. It seemed like I had less to pack even though I was bringing back gifts. I had more room coming home than I did going to New Orleans. Who knows maybe I am becoming a more effect packer. My team and I left New Orleans on Tuesday the 15th following the same way home. Again it took us three days to drive back to Denver because we can only drive 8 hrs a day. We arrived back on campus about 3:30 on the 17th. It was really nice to see friends on other teams and to be living somewhere that had more than one working toilet. Friday was spent returning tools, packing to come home for break, and attending a community meeting. I flew home on the 19th and lucked out because my plane had no delays.

After living with 1o other people in our house in New Orleans it has made me appreciate the little things in life such as a working toilet, multitudes of hot water, not having to wear shower shoes, a dish washer, the size of my bed room, watching movies on an actual tv, just to name a few.

Reflection on Disaster

Today was my last full day of work. Monday I will be working a half day with Nikki in the warehouse and then as a team we will be cleaning the house, and getting ready for the drive back to Denver. We will be leaving on Tuesday about 8 am. I have really enjoyed my time here in New Orleans and working for Rebuilding Together. I am sad to leave the area but am also glade to be going home for winter break. I am ready to see my friends and family.

This week my team and I watched Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke as part of our service learning. I recommend that if you haven’t watched it yet you should. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 4 years ago I watched footage on the news and read about what was going on in the newspaper but it was different watching it now. Before I watched the movie I felt I had a good understanding of the events surrounding the storm but I found out that I really didn’t know very much. Something that was strange watching the movie now that I have been here for a month is realizing that I have driven through and seen the places that are shown in the movie. I have driven over the overpasses that people were stranded on for days. I have driven by the superdome everyday on the way to work. One photo in the movie that stood out to me was a dead body floating close to the Circle Food Store. Not only was it sad to see that someone had died but we pass by the Circle Food Store when we get on the 10 west bound from our house. Looking at that photo and others it has given me a new perspective because I know what the area looks like now with no water. It is weird to think that when the water was at its highest it reached the second story of some of the houses we have been working on. Seeing the damage after the storm on the news is one thing but seeing it with your own eyes is another.

It has been four years since the levees broke and I was expecting to see the city more rebuilt than it is. In the neighborhoods where we are working, many houses still sit in the same condition that the storm left them in. One common occurrence is when a fixed up house sits right next to a house that has not been touched and is falling apart. The street we live on is the same way. Right across the street from us is a house that nothing has been done to it and it still has the spray painted X on the front from when the house was searched. It makes one wonder why the houses haven’t been rebuilt. Did the homeowners not want to come back, did they not have the money, why?

Something else that I noticed right away are all the schools that sit empty. The school about 5 minutes from our house still has a sign for registration for 2005 on the side, making me think that they tried to reopen but not enough students came back to make it worth it. This is not the only closed school I have seen either. Just from driving around the city to get to work I have seen five closed schools. Last Saturday three people on my team including myself helped the Crocker Elementary school pack up the classrooms and move boxes because the building was condemned. The school found out on Thursday night that they had 48 hours to be out of the building. From talking to the teachers we were helping move it sounded like this wasn’t their first time moving in the middle of the school year to a building that wasn’t going to be permanent. The school was moving into another building until winter break and then they were moving into their permanent home for the next couple of years until their new school is done in 2011 or 2012. I am not sure why the building they were in was condemned or if the damage was related to Katrina. What I don’t understand is why it is taking so long for a new school to be built. Shouldn’t education be at the top of the city’s list for rebuilding? All I can say is that I have a deeper understanding of what Katrina did to the area and that the city has a long way to go before it can be considered recovered. I have added some photos of the school and of my team and I doing PT to the photo album so you all can take a look.

Only About a Week Left in the Big Easy

Where has the time gone? My team and I leave to drive back to Denver in a little over a week. It doesn't seem possible that we have been here for almost a month. It seems strange to think that I will be home in two weeks. I have been asked what I am looking forward to when I go home. Besides the obvious of seeing my lovely family and friends I can't wait to be in a bedroom with only one person and not having to worry about hitting my head on the ceiling in the morning when I sit up in bed. I look forward to sleeping in, taking hot showers when ever I want, having ample kitchen space, but most of all I dream of eating what ever I want when ever I want. You don't know what you will miss the most until you have to go with out it for a month.

I am enjoying our project immensely. Rebuilding Together is a amazing organization to work for. A lot of the people we are working with are fellow AmeriCorp members but are working under State and National. A couple of them were either TLs or CMs last year, so they understand more were we are coming from. They also have interesting stories about their experiences in the NCCC. The painting I was doing on the outside of a house on Hollygrove is finally done. This past week I moved onto another house and got the chance to work with some new RT people, Sarah (the House captain) and Joel. Both of whom are fun to work with. Instead of painting I was able to put my training of power tools to use even though I had to relearn how to use some of them like the chop saw. Wednesday was the first day I was at the new house and I measured and installed base board with Ellen using a finish nailer. I also learned how to install hard wood floor. I thoroughly enjoyed smashing the nailer so that the nail would penetrate the wood and floor. It is a great way to release your frustration. On Friday I was showed how to cut quarter round and base board using a chop saw. Because I was doing my own cutting I was now involved in the whole process of installing base board in the house. I measured, cut, installed, and then caulked the cracks between the wood and the wall. I have found that power tools can make you feel powerful and I want to learn how to use more of them. Who knows what I will be doing next week, but I know what I would like to do.

As far as enjoying myself outside of work, I really liked my Thanksgiving this year. Three teams, Earth 4, Water 4, and Water 1, got together to eat a fantastic feast on a tight budget. As the Food POCs for our team Pat and I decided to cook stuffing since we were also cooking a Turkey, make cranberry sauce from a can, and a sweet potato casserole. There were several logistical problems with this idea. First, the only person who had ever cooked a turkey went home for thanksgiving. Our second big problem was the lack of cooking space and oven capacity of our kitchen. Somehow Ellen and I were the ones who ended up cooking most of the food our team brought to the dinner. Amanda cooked the sweet potatoes but we cooked the turkey and made the stuffing. After having a slight problem defrosting the bird and reading up on the best ways to cook it we ended up producing a great tasting turkey. The rest of the food was really delicious and I was surprised by the amount of food we had. The spread at the table looked like a Thanksgiving meal you might have with your family. There was mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin and apple pie, roles, salad, stuffing, cranberries, sweet potatoes and maybe more that I can't think of, but it was all really good.

We had Friday off so a group of us went to the outdoor French Market in you guessed it the French Quarter. We spent the afternoon walking around looking at vendors and buying good food. That night I went with about five other people on my team and we saw the movie A Christmas Carol in 3D. The movie was good and the first movie I have seen in 3D but I think parts would be to dark and creepy for young kids even though it is PG. On Saturday I went to the "down town" part of the French Quarter with Ellen, who had not come with us the day before. We walked around in a historic district that had some beautiful homes along with walking through the french market. Last night a few people want to see the movie New Moon, but I didn't have any desire to see it so Pat and I went to see Brothers. It turned out to be a much better movie than I was expecting. It portrayed what I think is a realistic view of PTSD and the effects of war on a family. Tonight I am chilling at the house literly because we jsut got two space heaters about an hour ago. There are only three of use here which makes it very quite. I am taking sometime to myself which is greatly needed. Tomorrow I would like to do some more exploring around the city and laundry which is starting to pile up. As a side note I have added a lot of new photos to the Project One photo album and hope you enjoy!