Los Angeles!

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After a few days of preparation in Sacramento the 11 members of my team piled into our van with all our many back packs, bags, sleeping bags, and musical instruments for the 7 hour drive to Los Angeles! As soon as we pulled in I decided that I will probably never leave southern Cali 😊 the area is really stunning, it feels much more "Californian" than Sacramento or snowy Oakhurst ever did! We are surrounded by palms trees and rolling green hills and all the houses are Spanish style with cement like wRalls and round tiles. I"ve always thought that if you live in a house like that with a palm tree out front there's not too much more you could want from life.

Some people told us that our neighborhood might not be that safe, but that really isn't the case. We are living in a what used to be the parish of a Methodist church. Our area is a residential area with beautiful little houses and so far it's been pretty quiet. Add to that a view of the Hollywood sign in the distance and Id say we got pretty lucky!

Our sponsors seem great! The organization is called Children, Youth and Family Collaborative and the branch we're working with focuses on foster and at risk youth in the inner-city city schools. We'll be working in the schools during the day and tutoring and providing homework help after school. They've hosted many NCCC teams in the past so they really understand how we work and what we'll need which I think will make this whole process much easier! They've asked us to create a CYFC newsletter, and I think our team will have a lot of fun with that!

LAUSD was on winter break still last week so our first day of actual work will be Monday. We still don't know who will be in which school yet... I'm assuming our sponsor will email our team leader today, but after 3 months of AmeriCorps we're all pretty used to last minute things! With understaffed non-profits flexibility is the name of the game!

So even though I don't know where Ill be yetI am definitely excited for this project!! Education was my area in college and specifically working in high needs areas is something Im very passionate about. Not everyone on my team has this experience and some are pretty nervous about working with kids and tutoring, so it will be great to see how everyone grows from this. If I could tear out a dead tree and rewire a light socket then they'll all be able to do this!!

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Comments

[Skypaday]

So you really lucked out with the whole LA thing. The area sounds amazing! I hope your first day is going well.