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Published: August 17th 2008
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An unbelieveable amount of things have happened in the two weeks since I left Maryland, so much that it’s hard to believe it has only been two weeks. After arriving in Alamosa and getting settled at what will be my new home, all of the volunteers spent the first week doing orientation at all of our service sites. To brief you a little, Alamosa is located in the San Luis Valley (which is roughly the size of Connecticut). Alamosa and its surrounding counties rank as some of the most impoverished in the nation. La Puente Home, Inc. is the organization with which I will be working for the next year. Due to the lack of social services in the Valley, La Puente has services that cover a lot of areas and encompass large amounts of Valley residents.
After some orientation, we also took a day trip to the nearby Sand Dunes National Park and the Stations of the Cross. Both were absolutely beautiful sites to start off our stay in Alamosa. The Sand Dunes just appear out of nowhere at the base of the nearby mountains and are the BIGGEST dunes in North America! The Stations of the Cross were
located on a hill leading up to a little chapel in the town of San Luis. The bronze statues very vividly depicted the way of the cross, and from the top of the hill, you could see the great valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. While the walk was pretty amazing, we also were made aware of just how much the altitude was affecting our ability to breathe.
Then we spent the weekend on a retreat in the nearby San Juan Mountains. We stayed in cabins at a beautiful ranch that was owned by my new friend Butch. While the 3 days we were there ended up being pretty rainy (and very buggy), we still got the chance to do some hiking along the river, do a low ropes challenge course, and just relax. I also got to shoot a gun for the first time!! Check out the picture of my target below. Butch had a camp going on that weekend for children of migrant farmers and that day he was teaching them about gun safety. He invited some of the La Puente volunteers to go with him to try to shoot a 22 (which means nothing to
me but it was pretty small). So, we got to learn the safe way to handle a rifle, how to load it, and the proper shooting position. I got almost all of the 5 bullets in my first round in the bulls-eye area. Butch was so proud! I may have found my new hobby for while I’m in Colorado…
Upon returning home, I was exciting to be living with three awesome girls, Nicole, Heidi, and Brit (although Brit was only staying one more week :-( ). Nicole and I are crazy cleaners, so we got to work right away fixing up the house and making it feel more like home. The pictures below are post-cleaning spree. We found some fun and/or random things in our searches of the house, including two pretty sweet tents that we will hopefully be using soon to go camping.
Finally, Monday arrived and it was off to start my new job working in the Alamosa food bank and community gardens. While I may be biased, my boss Muck is quite awesome, and I really think I got the best work site. I get to spend the mornings working with Melissa in the two
Some new friends
Mark, Brandy, and Gayla local organic gardens we maintain (which also means I get to take home lots of healthy veggies)! Then, I spend the afternoons with Muck, Ben, and sometimes Paul stocking the food bank, helping to distribute food, and learning about the people we serve. Things can get pretty crazy when we have lots of customers and even more so when they don’t speak English. So far, I think the language barrier has been the most frustrating part of the job. While I have taken Spanish in the past, I am still not as fluent as I would like to be. The customers are usually very patient, but I keep getting frustrated with myself for not knowing how to say certain things. It’s going to be very interesting experiencing first-hand how language can act as a barrier to clear communication.
Other random notes from my first week:
1) We bike pretty much everywhere, which I LOVE, especially since the weather continues to be beautiful (and not humid) pretty much every day. Although, it has rained more since we have been here than it usually does in the whole year. We’re all hoping that that pattern changes soon.
2) I had a
More new friends
Paul, Nicole, and Sarah enjoying the river brief run-in with the police… My new volunteer friends and I were laying out in the local park the other night trying to catch a glimpse of the meteor shower, and the cops pulled up in their car behind us, headlights glaring. Apparently, the park closes at 10, but they let us stay because we think they could tell we were clueless new volunteers…
3) Speaking of stars, you can see all of them here! It’s just one more amazingly beautiful part of living in a valley surrounded by mountains. Oh, and did I mention that the Rio Grande runs a few blocks from my house…
4) And finally, the altitude here is about 7,500 feet. This is not something I was anticipating before I arrived, and it has been kicking my butt. You would think your body would adapt a lot faster, but it is taking longer than I thought. Things like walking/biking and talking at the same time make you more winded than usual. And you're body also feels a lot more tired. All of the new volunteers were pretty exhausted by the end of the first week of work, but I've been told that it should get
BOSCO!
Nicole was in love with Butch's dog Bosco better after the third week...
Needless to say, it’s been a great first two weeks! I really enjoy all of the other volunteers who are sharing this year at La Puente with me. I can’t wait to see how things progress, and I’m looking forward to having more time to explore the valley!
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Christine French
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Go Megan!
I am so excited to hear about all the stuff that you are doing. Good luck with everything!