Hello Again!

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Hello again from Mississippi! I can't believe that my first round project is already nearing the end. It has been rough at times but all and all has definately been worth it. Our housing did improve when they built an addition to our bunk house which let us have a kitchen area and a screened in porch with our nasty couch on it. The food still a lot of the time is rice and gumbo but at times it is really good, I don't know quite know if it has actually gotten better or if my standards have dropped lol.
I don't really have any new pictures, partially because the fact that due to the nature of our job my appearnace standards for myself have dropped a lot. I know hard to believe that high matience Victoria showers maybe 3 times a week (last week it was twice). It's starting to get warm and humid and as soon as you walk out of the shower again you feel about as gross as you did walking in it makes you waan shower less. That and during the week were are pretty secluded from everything besides our team. Although that is changing soon because there is a team that is based out of sacramento that will be staying with us starting tomorrow. They will be hear for 8 weeks but we leave in two.
In two weeks though we start our transition into our next project. Our transition will be in Jackson MS. We will spend a week there doing formal debriefs and briefings for our next project! So you may be wondering where I am off to next? NEW ORLEANS, LA!!! nola! I am very excited to really be able to see the city. I went over easter for a few nights and loved it and I am really excited to see more of it. We are working with a non profit called Hope Has a Face. While I am not too excited about having another construction project again it is what really needs to be done hear and hey apparently I am just living 4 miles from the city center! So if anyone wants to come visit please feel free!
Working with Habitat has been good. The amount of volunteers has been low but I guess this next week we will have over 100 volunteers plus there will now be like 24 AmeriCorps NCCC'ers sine the new team will get here. Right now we are doing a lot of prep work for the 10 houses they will build in mid May all in one week for the Jimmy and Evelynn Carter blitz build. It has been nice using our hammers again to nail together studs since before we were just doing lot's of finishing work like caulking and painting!
My team is doing well. When we got the addition our team leader ended up getting sorta a loft which is nice for him because now he can have some space from us. It is though tiring at some times being secluded with the same 11 people sharing one van. Offten times it's hard to decide who get's to take the van and when and also sometimes you just get plain sick of each other. It really hasn't been too bad. We have yet to have any big blow ups or screaming matches which is great considering we have spent 5 weeks together just about 24/7.
New Orleans will be a nice break for us since we will be around a ton of other teams. Apparently there is a team who is doing the same project we are about to do and for the last two weeks of it they are moving to New Orleans to build our housing (The project sponsor are moving from Pascagula to New Orleans). If there not done by the start of the project we will be most likely living in Camp Hope which is like biggest volunteer housing in the south (it can old i think aound 800 people) Here there are always a lot of NCCC teams. There is also though another team from my campus who has the same exact project as me. So we will be working right with them. I know a few people on the team so I am very excited for that.
Although work is long and tiring I have been able to do some really cool things since I have been here. I don't know if you know who the Burning Man people are but we hung out with them when they came 2 weeks ago to show a movie and have a community bar b que. I have been able to go to New Orleans and experience the world famous Bourbon Street. Yesterday me and my team volunteered at a crawfish cook off and I got to try crawfish for the first time. There has been many more things and I am really loving this experience. I am so happy I decided to do this program and although it has been really tough at times I feel truly lucky to have had this opportunity!
Oh and thank you so much Nana and Mom and Dale for the packages! I love them and getting packages are like the best thing ever! Thank you soooooo much I love them! So if anyone else wants to send one it is still the same address at least for the next few weeks the PO Box in perry point is still the same for flat mail and will be for the whole year!
Thanks for reading!
Love
Victoria!

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Comments

[Nana]

Proud of you
I just love getting the updates on your life. It sounds really exciting. I can't believe that many people living together 24/7 and not having major blow outs. I'm so proud of you for all the hard work you are doing and I love you for it. You are so special. Keep up the good work. Nana