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)