...and remember kids. only you can start forest fires!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

We found out what our next project is going to be today. Blue 6 is going to be travelling down the Georgia to hook with the Devil and set some ol' fashion fires. Fire=Fun. They call them prescribed burns (control burn is a misnomer can nobody really controls fire) and they help to eliminate less fire resistant plants, allowing for exotic species that depend on the fires to eliminate competition. We will be burning and assisting with the burn of over 1500 acres of land, in, around, and near the Okefenokee Swamp and possibly in some places in Alabama. I am super stoked and could not be more overjoyed by this new development.

My friend Dustin is of course going to be spending the next two months building houses in the Virgin Islands...which sounds nice and tropical, but I would still rather go to GA and burn some woods. Maybe I'll even splurge and buy my own driptorch, or make my own. Isnt it every kids dream to burn stuff and somehow be appreciated or even paid to do so? (well, I am recieving some money, but I wouldnt really call it pay)

Anyway, have a happy new year, and look for me on the news.

be great
--DAlen

Its unfortunate that the people who have understood how to change the world, the people who really understand "being the change you want to see," are too busy behind their hammers and trowels, stoves and pots. For making the world a better place isnt about sitting around a board table discussing solutions for our modern issues. The solution is in building a better future one home at a time...or cooking to feed our people in need, metaphorically and literally. The only way to of course lead by example or service is to work hard, and often in the process sweat as a result. When was the last time you were sweating in your business suit? I sweat in mine everyday (and it comingles with the paint, sawdust, concrete sand, and often blood to make quite a nice set of stains).

Be Great

Time flies when youre building houses...

So, tommorrow is the last day of our Spike. We have finished 2 houses so far, and hopefully will finish the third tommorrow. If all goes well, the 4th house will still be finished enough for the normal guys to do their thing. This means 4 families will get to move into new houses for Christmas. What a great way to celebrate the season right?

Back to SC on Friday...then its a weekend of rest. Looking forward to that. We have a few days of work and debrief/ brief, then its back to Charlotte for...well, more volunteer work. Maybe i'll do some valet as well, or stagehand work on the side. Either way, the weather is getting colder and holiday music is playing everyway I turn.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Anybody got any cool plans for New Years Eve? I'm looking for a party to hit...

be great

Want to workout like DAlen?

Be like DAlen in AmeriCorps...

These I call DAlen Circuits. Do 2.

40 pushups (3 sets of 13, differnt elevations of feet)
100 crunches
100 Squats (2 sets of 50)
Planks 1 min front, rest :15, 1 min each side, :15 rest
40 elbow to opposite knee crunches, each side
60 side leg raises, each side (10 lower, 10 upper, 10 full range, twice)

HAve fun! work hard.

--DAlen

KY is COLD!!!

Last week we were working outside...and it started to snow! Yeah, so its cold here, but work is going well. We moved some paint one day to an indoor location to prevent it from freezing, so that was kind of funny to me. It looks like this week, we will be spending a lot more time painting and finishing up these houses.

I just got back from a wonderfull wedding in Asheville. It felt like home there. I crashed at my old camp for one night, and saw Amber from college. I hadnt seen her in forever, so that was real fun to catch up. Also, got to see Rene (she was getting married) and Ashley (the groom). It brought back all the wonderfull memories of college. Much thanks to everyone who welcomed me into the Fielder-Leake Family. I really felt like I belonged at the wedding, as family. Thanks goes out to Jamie and Shannon for letting me crash on their floor, and also thanks to Rene's Aunt from New York, who loves AmeriCorps members and showed much appreciation with her unceasing compliments and the Rum and Coke.

I just got done eating a steak, and now I am going to bed. Off to work again tommorrow. Two more weeks before I get back to the SC, back to the beach, and back to eating in the galley. Its almost Christmas time folks!!!!

--DAlen be great

Spike 2 is about to begin

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

By the time you read this, I will most likely be sitting in a van on my way to Lexington, KY. Once there, we will be working with Habitat for Humanity, trying to finish 5 houses by Christmas so that their owners can have a merrier time. Habitat is one of the charities I really like the most, mainly because it is not a give away to somebody who wants, but rather it is an assisted giveaway to someone who is willing to help themselves to make their life better through hard work.

Its possible that I wont have the ability to use computers much, so my weblog may not be updated in a while. See you in a few weeks.

--DAlen
be great

Good News and Bad News

My snapfish account now has pictures on it.

Go to www.snapfish.com and when it aks for an email and password use:
wdrice@uncc.edu and blue6yay

Please do no mess with my setting or try and and order pics. If you want to do that, you will need to setup your own account. Thanks.




On a sadder note, one of the team leaders working on a project down in the gulf coast became sick and passed away two nights ago. It has hurt a lot of people around here, especially since it was so sudden and she was using her life to help others, and died because of it. Please pray, meditate, or just generally reflect and allow this to have an impact on you and your life. Life is not guaranteed, even on a day to day basis.


be great

--DAlen

Spike 1 OVER!!!!

Spike 1 Reflection

Location: Ferncliff Presbyterian Retreat Center
Project Duties:
Disaster Relief Kits
General Outdoor Maintenance of Facility
Laying Carpet indoor over concrete slab floor
Burning Stuff

Well, we finally had our first Spike. Looking back on it, I would say it was a Spike most memorable by the smells involved. During the first night, the propane heater was exhausting into our room. We couldn’t smell the carbon monoxide, but the detector could. Ryan of course cant smell at all, something that I failed to remember throughtout the Spike.

The most prominent smell was soap, as all the kits we assembled to be sent to disaster areas included lots of soap, in different forms. Soap and cardboard were the combined scents in the storage areas where the boxes are held until they are sent out.

The other smells that stick in my brain are the general smell of work mixed with woods. It’s the smell of oil and wood chips, or dirt and engines running. Chainsaw and wood dust, pine, or oak. We did get a chance to finally do some chainsawing, which made me happy and proud to work. Sawdust and chain oil makes for black boogers.

Indoors, we laid a lot of carpet. Glue and carpet smell actually is quite pleasant. It reminded me of the earlier grades when glue was a staple for activity.

The final day, we burned a pile of brush. Burning brings back the memories. The smell of charcoal that permeates your clothes. Smells like old cowboy, or farmer, or cook. Smells like wildfire or prescribed burn. Smells like (or rather tastes like, as Ralph would put it) burning.
This is supposed to be a reflection, but I feel too forced. My real story will be much longer and written over the next week, maybe published in a book someday. Not a whole lot of deeper meaning for me in this Spike project. Just being a Grunt like I wanted.

Be great
Dalen "Will"

Less than a week to go

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMIE!!!!

We leave beautifull Arkansas Friday morning. Just got back today from working at a place called Heiffer International. They breed and produce various different animals and send them to impoverished countries in order to allow the people to create food for themselves as well as to use the animals for farming, etc. Its a very intersting idea and it works off the whole "give a man, teach a man, fish" idea. It seems like a place i might go volunteer and work once AmeriCorps will no longer take me. Working in the farm setting reminded me of all the time I spent in Kentucky when i was young. I kind of miss it now to. Somehow amongst all the hard labor and dreaded work I had to do I gained a subconscious appreciation for it and now I feel like I could do it on a volunteer basis for a long time. I mean heck, really Americorps is possibly nothing more that manual labor for a good cause for 10 months. I guess working a lot as a kid maybe isnt such a bad thing. Thanks mom and dad.

I hurt my ankle a few days ago moving boxes. According to my estimates, we assembled possibly 40,000 disaster relief kits to be given out to victims. Thats a lot of boxes checked, packed, and moved. The ankle hurts though, so I will probably spend my Saturday night on the couch with some ice and Kerouac (unless I walk to the grocery for ice cream and bottled Coke).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMIE!!! Happy Birthday Rene!?? HAPPY WEDDING DAY RENE!!!

be great
--DAlen

PS I will most likely be back in Charlotte for Thanksgiving. Anyone know of anyplaces looking for volunteers to help feed people?

One week down...

We finished our first week of real Spike Project work. It wasnt as intense as disaster releif was purported to be, but I feel like i did something that people in need will benefit from.

We are located here in Little Rock at a place called Ferncliff Presbyterian Retreat Center. There is probably a website to look up, as it is a rather large operation. They run a lot of camps for kids with special needs, whether it be social, mental, or physical recovery being a primary focus. This place is somewhere that kids who may not have the opportunity otherwise can come and be a kid at camp, which i know to be quite an amazing thing. I especially feel that I would not be the person I am today if it werent for camp.

One of my teammates broke his arm this weekend mountain biking. Myself, one of the girl on our team, and him were riding on some pretty steep trails. He was riding beyond his ability level, he hit a rut, locked his front brake, and endo-ed (biker slang for end over-ing, as in rear end moving over the front end dispensing you over the handle bars onto the ground). Got to use some of my first aid training. He will have surgery wednesday, and hopefully he has learned to slow down a little, as he is a little reckless (crazy teenagers!).

The more i think about it, the more i want to learn ju-jitsu, practice more muay thai, and compete in mixed martial arts competition.

My hair is growing out, so the mohawk is hiding a little bit. Also, its no-shave-november, an AmeriCorps tradition, so my face has gotten quite furry. Also, it seems to display many colors, like the changing leaves of autumn.

leave comments as i love to hear people are reading, otherwise i may write about you.

be great

--Dalen

AmeriCorps wants you!

I keep having dreams about people I know and how I try to convince them to join AmeriCorps. I am thinking about being a team leader (TL) next year, which would end up making my service time basically 2 years instead of 1. The thing is though, I do miss my friends. At the same time I do feel myself being changed by the power of service. The sermon last sunday at church was also another one that seemed directed at me. "You cant be great unless you serve." Being great also seems less and less like a goal so much as it is a journey, someplace that I would always be moving towards but no final destination. But seriously, y'all should join AmeriCorps. NCCC is the specific program that I am in, so search the internet to find out more info about and go ahead and fill out an application. You arent allowed to be on my team, but I am sure there is someway that I could coerce or convince someone to happen to slip your paper in my pile, so that maybe i could be your TL.

Rene is getting married! I got my invite today, and am super happy for her. It looks like I will be in Lexington, KY (dont i have family there?) during the wedding, so i have to figure out a way to get there. (Rene, I'll RSVP soon!)

Today we worked on more relief kits for effected people. It does to feel good to see all the aid that is being funneled and sent to where its needed. Tommorrow, we will probably work outside some more. Saturday, it looks like myself and a few others will be doing an individual service project (ISP) at the local childrens hospital.

Emery was playing in concert with He is Legend tonight, here in LR. It was going to be an amazing christian hardcore concert, but alas it sold out and i was going to buy a ticket at the door. Oh well, next week we will be seing Against Me! and we are going to buy tix in advance.

Goodnight for now,

--DAlen

Arkansas beautifull Arkansas

Life is good here. We arrived last week, been here a few days. Work is pretty relaxed so far. It seems that we get more done than they expect, so much so that we run out of supplies. We are working on disaster releif packages that will be given to victims, most here in the states i think but some internationally as well. The location here is going to serve as the central shipping/recieving location for all presbyterian releif packages sent out.

Also I have been doing a lot of activity...working out with some circuits i created, mountain biking, shadow boxing and teaching my teammates how to spar...all kinds of stuff.

My real big joy is that i have offerd up my copy of "what should I do with my life" and some of my teammates are going to read it!

thats all for now...teammate waiting to use the computer.

be great
Dalen (i also have started going by WiLL)

Leaving tommorrow...

Tommorrow we leave for Arkansas for about a month. Have a happy thanksgiving to everyone.

My Myspace account has changed places to http://www.myspace.com/dalen17

I started a snapfish account for sharing pictures, but havent really posted them yet. if you want to be able to see them, let me know and I will add you to the shared list.

be great...

--DAlen

Back in SC

This is kind of a long one...

Finally made it back to Charleston, SC. I have been in Baxley, GA for the past week learning about wildfires and prescription forest burns. Prescribed burning is when a certain forest is set on fire in order to help maintain it the way it was originally intended. Forest fire is a natural thing and many forests depend on it in order to thrive in the way they always have before Smokey came and told us to keep forests from burning. Anyway, besides learning how to set these fires, we also learned how to control them to a certain degree and what to do with them when they were done burning (they call it mop-up). We got free camelbacks from one of the parks people as well (thanks Shan)! Now, I am a 2nd level wildfire fighter, which is the lowest level, but still means that I might be able to get a position on a crew out west should the desire strike me (it definitely is an exciting and lucrative new option).

Besides the many hours spent in a classroom, we also got to do a burn of about an acre of land. We learned how to lay hose from a small fire engine unit, how to dig trench to contain the fire, and where to carry your drip can (gasoline-diesel mixture) in order for stuff to burn. A physical fitness test was required to, where we carried 45 lb vests 3 miles in less than 45 minutes without running.

Funny story involving my pack test. My shoulders were getting tired from where the vest rested, so I decided to put my arms over my head. Then I noticed my shadow from the night lights. Whenever I flexed my biceps, the shadow got noticeably larger to, so that kept me entertained for a while. Then, one of the instructors jogged up behind me and complimented me on my biceps as well. Yeah, so I walked for about another mile with a huge grin on my face.
Also, while we were down there we found out what our Disaster Relief (DR) project would be. We will be sent to Little Rock, AR, where we will stage and assembling packages for people to assist them in restarting their lives. It won’t be as emotionally draining as going to the center of the disaster, but the days should still be long and we will still be making a difference. Apparently, everything in the hit areas is very jumbled and they have more volunteer support than they can handle. Of course, with all DR assignments, things could change between now and Thursday, especially with Wilma about to destroy things.

I got a bunch of pictures. I am not sure if they will be posted here, or at myspace. check http://www.myspace.com/12313535 if u cant find them here.

That’s pretty much it for now. Mom, thanks for the gift. Jamie and Amberle, thanks for the picture, you’re now sleeping at my bedside. Much love to everyone,
--DAlen

Tommorrow starts the fire training

Tommorrow morning at 10:00 am we will get into a van and drive 6 hours to Georgia, to a small town called Baxley. There, we will learn about how to start fires in the woods and how to dig and cut and kill everything surrounding them so that they dont spread beyond where we want them to be. If California keeps burning we might get sent there to help with their flaming problems. Otherwise, we will be done on Friday and we will return to Charleston...

Once we get back, we will most likely have a few days off before we get on a plane headed south, somewhere between Mississippi and New Orleans. We will work 21 days straight, sometimes for 14 hour days. I anticipate by the 8th day I will have completely lost my mind, probably finding it again around the 14th day before losing it again on the 18th. I dont think I will die and have any permanent damage, but I will definately be a changed man when i return. My muscles will work constantly to support some of the burden caused by the disasters and if I get put behind a desk doing case work I will probably lose it emotionally at least once a day. Disasters look bad on TV, but they are much worse in perso, and we are diving in head first to a pool that aint deep enough. I anticipate 2 of my team members will quit, but I pray that we all make it through. much love to everyone out there supporting me. put me in your prayers.

--DAlen

Finally we got our assigment....

Well, after a small scavenger hunt and much anticipation...we found out that we dont know yet where we are going. What we do know is that we will be doing DR (Disaster Relief) either in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or Jackson, MS. We just finished our DR training, so that is good and I am excited. Its going to be a changing experience, extremely mentally and physically draining. We will only be doing that for a month, because that is the max allowable time the Red Cross will let people work. Apparently, after a month people start to lose it and no longer can perform their functions in assisting disaster victims. We get sent out in a couple weeks. First we go to Georgia for firefighting training. Superstoked about that too...

Well, the ropes course got cancelled, so we will be doing some indoor stuff in the morning, but otherwise tommorrow should be a relaxed day. Going to rest and relax.

Tommorrow morning is going to be a dry run of our pack test for firefighting. 45 minutes to hike 3 miles with 45 lbs. Of course it will be a very wet, dry run if it keeps raining like it has been. Think I will be able to do it though. I am getting in real good shape.

I have met the girl of my dreams...the problem is that my dreams keep changing, and some nights i have more than one dream. I have superdeep spiritual conversations with one girl, secretly lust after another, and have been trying to go out with another who is wanting to hang out but because of random problems our engagment always falls through. And then there are the great girls on my team that I will be spending 9 months with, who i will no doubt become very close to.

I got some guy friends to...and we may be crouching altogether in the end trying to preserve our masculinity in this sea of women.

Please leave comments so i know people are reading this. leave questions to. seriosuly, ask me anything!

Induction Day

At 2:30 it becomes official...

I will get things done for America,
To make our people safer, smarter, and healthier.
I will bring people together to strenghthen our communities.

Faced with Apathy, I will take action.
Faced with Conflict, I will seek common ground.
Faced with Adversity, I will persevere.

I will carry this committement with me this year and beyond.
I am an AmeriCorps member and I will get things done.

Been a while...still training

Well, its been a while since I posted here. not too much has changed. we are still in the process of training. maybe i am missing something, but it seems some of our training is repetitive. today we heard our second 1 hour talk about our health insurance. it doesnt cover prexisting conditions, and if we do go to a doctor we need to bring our 5 dollar co pay and our insurance card...which has a tendancy to rub off in high rubbage wallets but a new one can be gotten from the insurance company...which doesnt cover preexisting emergencies, but requires a 5 dollar co pay and insurance card in case your face rubs off...or something like that.

Last weekend I went to Savannah for an individual service project. We worked at a place called Oatland Island Education Center. http://www.oatlandisland.org/ We mainly just did trail maintenance, but we also got to pet some wolves that had been hand raised. It was also neat to see the house cats hunting and eating the massive cockroahces that they have here. They call them palmetto bugs to make sound more favorably...but really they are just HUGE cockroaches. Talking people size here...and they always use the kitchen without washing their dishes. its like having extra roomates. got a chance to go to the beach in GA as well, where the waves were big as a result of a storm. apparently they were even bigger here in SC.

Today we have unit day, where all the blue teams will get together and compete in some manner. I know we are going to the beach in the afternoon, so thats good. This is all after we get our team pictures taken.

Last night I watched 3 hours of Ultimate Fighting Championship on TV. I really think that I would be okay sitting in a cubicle doing engineering as long as at night I was able to do something like that, or train for it at least. Wont have to make that decision for 9 months though.

We dont know where our first project is going to be yet. All my teammates are mad that our leader wont tell us. I dont think it makes much difference so it doesnt bother me, and I have kind of joined in with him and I tell them that I know where we are going.

Somehow I got sick over the weekend, but i got it pretty well dialed in and should be back to fully operational by tonight. I am able to get sick and better now in 24-48 hours.

Merry Super Advance Christmas, --DAlen

Its FRIDAY!!!!

YAY!!! This is the first full weekend we will have off since we started. It seems like its been so long, but really its only been 10 days. Good news...I am going to be one of 3 people on my team to do chainsaw work. Next week I will receive a 2 day training all about chainsaws. I think this also means that next time most of you see me my shoulders will be huge! Today we had our first official debrief with the director and other higher ups about our 3-day project we just finished. We worked at a horse farm doing trail work to clear the way for trail riders. It reminded me of my childhood...all the fun times and all the really hard labor days.

Tonight I will most likely end up at the beach. I don't really want to spend any money seeing as I am not making much, so the beach is probably the best option. I keep making the joke that I am making 13 dollars and hour, and the only reason I joined AmeriCorps was for the money. That's funny because really I only make 12.97 PER DAY! oh, but I do get to eat as much food as I want at every meal and live in a free dorm and go to the beach whenever I can convince people that its the coolest place to be. Going to play some frisbee golf tomorrow morning to.

I hope everyone out there in the real world is doing well. Love you, --DAlen (be great)

Tommorrow could be rough

Tommorrow's Schedule

5:15 wakeup and eat a little food...probably pecans and beef jerky, perfect meal for...
5:30 PT (long cardio)- run for 40 minutes
6:30 Breakfast
7:30 Go to work- our current project is helping out with a local park here in charleston, SC. we are clearing trails for horse back riders, 20 miles of trail are available to be done, we are completing what we can in 3 days.
12:30 Lunch of some sort, cant remember what i picked, i hope its good
4:00 Pack up after debrief and head back to the navy base
5:00 Dinner. Food here is good, there is just too much time between meals...luckily there is always pecans and beef jerky.
6:00 Nap....maybe go to charleston afterwards...otherwise chasing women through the hallways of my dorm...which isnt hard because they are everywhere...unfortunately they are all attractive, selflessly serving America, and rarely wear makeup. It makes it hard to concentrate. Maybe i'll just read a book and leave my door open to see who comes by.
9:00 Bedtime...unless I end up going out to downtown...Purple Tree Lounge is hosting a DJ contest, which means probably live DJs spinning records...but my legs will most likely not work...so sleep.
11:00 Maybe if I concentrate i can dream about Jamie and Amberle....and Chris, Jerrod, and Bryan

Its the weekend!

Its the weekend, but of course i am still in training. PT yesterday morning has taken its toll. I have a little soreness in my legs from doing an excercise called Frankensteins. The set of activites as a whole was called Norwegans, because apparently thats how they train, doing these weird exercises. then we did abs as well. the girl leading abs why hardcore about and she has a midsection of steal.

yesterday we did "exploring the community," which was us wandering around Charleston. We got library cards and i got a aiki-jujitsu book and Frank Shamrocks story. He says he does a couple hundred crunches a day. his midsection is scary strong. hopefully mine will be soon.

then we went to the beach...again. it was windy, but worth it. love swimming in the ocean, whether there are good waves or not. i bodysurfed into shore and literally was draggin my body in the sand, so thats not so good.

last night we went out to a piano bar, which was pretty friggin cool. got back late though, so it was hard to get up this morning. I think i still had a little bit of vodka in me this morning as well, but i am all better now. nothing a hardy americorps breakfast couldnt fix. i have been eating a lot of food and gaining weight. soon i will be a ripped beast of a man ready to fight in the UFC. until though, i am working here to help people. later, --DAlen

posting again

well i just wrote something that was good...but thanks to pop-up blocker and spell check i lost it...i hate paranoid computers...

so, here is the abreviated version:
1. Pt this morning at 5:30...leaders were pansys....upper body workout had some pushups, dips, and a lot of crunch variations...which i am pretty sure should be done on abdominals day?
2. Yesterday was our first service project...we did tin roofing for a church building...mainly i hit my finger a lot until it blead and hurt too much to use...so i did other stuff after that.
3. wearing my boots, black BDUs, and white polo today...trimmed my mohawk last night...lookin' pretty sweet.

be great..... --DAlen

AmeriCorps good so far...

Hey mom, your last two emails got deleted (9/9, 9/11). can u resend them?

Well, I have only been here a few days and it seems like so long. I have been to the beach 3 days, including the day i got here and the last two. The waves were big from the hurricane and it provided for some really big surf. I need fins though to catch deeper waves. The next big piece of news is that there are women everywhere! I am on team Blue 6 with 11 people, one of those being our team leader Ryan. Other than Ryan, the only other guy is Tristan...meaning I will be spending a lot of time with 8 girls over the next 9 months. They are all super cool chicks too, who want to be involved with the firefighting crew...which is good because our team got selected! We had to wake up this morning for a 5:30 am hike, which we thought was going to be a prelim test to see which teams were good enough to be fireteams. turns out that all the team that were there had been selected, so I am super stoked about that. There are 4 units and about 7 teams in each unit. we are the only one from our unit to get this opportunity. We will be spending a week in GA next month training for that. As a prize we all got lighters and atomic fireballs. did I mention that the ratio in AmeriCorps is like 1:4 in favor of the guys!? Its exactly the opposite for the coast guard, who is also stationed on this base. Federal Law Enforment Training Centers runs the base, and they dont like me riding my bike around in certain places (they stopped me once already). Otherwise this is a mountain bike trials begginner paradise. I have been riding a few times already and there is another guy who rides with me. This has been my primary excitment as so far all we have gone over is procedural stuff and policies (we cant have alchohol, knives, or sex on property, but loud music is allowed). Meals have been really good and I am gaining weight...especially when weighed with our new boots that we got. We also got all our clothes and BDU's. Whenever I wear my boots with my black pants and white polo everyone tells me I look like someone who is in charge. The mohawk has also helped me to stand out and I have met many people who remember me, even if I cant remember the 50 or so people I have formally met. Havent played any ultimate yet as its been two windy...which is good because the mosquitoes here are like tigers and they acutally remove flesh when they bite. The fire ants get you to. Man I hate fire ants. Enough of my free flowing thought for now. No time to put this into actual order and make it good writing. hope you enjoyed the reading...send candy and cookies! missin' y'all, --DAlen

Well, i'm moving to Charleston.

As some of you may or may not know, I have dropped out of graduate school (always wanted to be a dropout), joined AmeriCorps (like the Peace Corps, but for the US), and now I am moving to Charleston, SC (Yay for the beach!). September 7th is my first day of training. I will be training for an entire month, and then we get sent out on our first project. I joined a division called the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). We will be sent away from SC for 6-8 weeks at a time to work on projects that could range from Education to Community Development to Disaster Relief. Also, if i pass my physical (3 mile hike in 45 minutes, with 45 lbs on my back), then i get to become a forest fire guy, and participate in controlled burning and possibly actual forest fire prevention/elimination. Then we will come back to Charleston for 3 days before being sent out on our next assigment.

Seing as I wont have a lot of time and possibly not have internet access, this will serve as my communication out to all of you whom i care about. If you enjoy the stories here, please feel free to tell all your friends as well, especially if they are single, attractive women who have infinite patience for guys with a simultaneously complex and infantile sense of humor (i.e. I am always laughing).

and remember kids...be great