I'M IN THE NEWS

KX News


Minot Daily

Project Ubuntu

This week we've had a visitor, Daniel. He's been traveling around the country to every state plus D.C. doing a week of volunteer service in each community, his project is named "Project Ubuntu." He has a website with more information about his travels/mission www.projectubuntu.info
It's really inspiring to talk to someone like that who has decided to dedicate their life to service without any tangible reward. You could say I am doing the same thing now but it's just really nice to see someone else who isn't affiliated to any specific group just going out and trying to make the world a better place. One man at a time things will get better. He plans on writing a book at the end of his journey and I definitely plan on buying it. While he's out in different communities working though he's asking different questions to people about: what it takes to make America great as well as what a community is made of?  Another concept he talks about is the "us" v. "them" idea.
While I was working I was listening in on one of his interviews which was really interesting to listen to...so I just wanted to blog about some of my ideas to a few of his questions...

• What makes America great? Although I'm super patriotic and love my country I don't know if I can say America necessarily has anything that's really POWERFUL and far more advanced than other countries...I think his question about communities is a lot easier to talk about but also applies on the larger scale. A community according to the biological definition would be different species living in the same area. I can appreciate this definition but if you're thinking about the communities in America there is a definite us v. them concept amongst people. The question he asks is how can we transcend the barrier between the Us's and Them's.
• Us v. Them! Obviously people separate into groups but the idea that one is less than than the other is ridiculous. It's important to challenge the "us" group to help and work with the "them" group. His whole trip is about seeing how people across the country transcend that barrier as well as encouraging more and more people to work outside of their "group."  
• Mobilize kindness. Mibilizing kindness is one of Daniel's mantras - it's about getting people out and sharing their love with other people. Love can and will break down all barriers. 

I feel like this blog is a little distracted because a lot has been going on around me but I tried haha I highly recommend reading his site and keeping up with his travels it's so inspirational.

Okay but onto the note about the work I'm doing lately -
 We finished the house we were in for the past two weeks today, but only after leaving our new house early. We had to evacuate the house we were demo-ing because we found vermiculite! It was crazy, and scary. We were just taking down stuff in the porch and nobody had on a mask so it was a little concerning but I think it's okay...it was still solid and wasn't really in the air..unless you count us beating the hell out of some boards and possibly pulverizing it into a dust. I'm sure it'll be fine though, just it was our second moment of panic lately.

Sunday we were evacuated out of our housing to move to Hope Village. There was a leak in my room at the foot of my bed..which didn't get worse but also didn't improve any so the housing coordinator ordered us out. I woke up from a nap to be gone within a hour, my bags had to be packed and in the van within the hour basically...it was very hectic.  Our housing at Hope Village is pretty solid, although it did have a leak..it's been fixed (I think). We were gonna move here anyway in a couple weeks but it was just a little sooner than expected and we're living with the other team that's here - which is really nice...I love my team to death but it's nice to see other faces.

I still love the work here, although tedious at times it's still A+. I still like Minot, cute city with fantastic people. And I am especially thankful that Daniel showed up - he's boosting our team's moral a lot just with his stories about philosophy and his travels.

I am really appreciating this project, I hope it continues to go well!


PS thanks to everyone sending me mail and what not :) love you guys so much! feel free to e-mail me or anything whenever i don't always have wifi but I do pretty regularly..so yeah

Just an update

I got the question the other day about "do people in minot flood often? did they expect the flood?" or something to that extent and I honestly didn't know the answer - I assumed they didn't expect it just from the little knowledge I had of approx. 300 homes had flood insurance out of the 4000+ that got damaged. Today I got a chance to talk with a FEMA worker and another local volunteer both who have lived here for their whole lives and they both said it was a complete shock..it's what's known as a 100 year flood. They have flooded in the past but never to the devastating affect it had back in 2011. Also someone else asked if the work we're doing here was for the 2011 flood or for recent flooding, there has been no significant recent flooding all the work I'm doing is from 2011...it takes a long time to recover from a flood.

The work we're doing is challenging to say the least, there are good days and some questionable days but over all I'm really enjoying the work here...even if the work isn't necessarily pleasant we're still helping those who cannot help themselves and there's no question about that being the right thing to do. Today for example we had some rather dirty work that had to be done and I ended up coughing and sneezing all day and being physically miserable but what kept me going was how helpless some of these people are...they're perfectly fine people but just the circumstances keep piling up against them to the point where nobody could tackle it alone. The woman today had to be moved from one FEMA trailer to another - the deadline for her to get out was today at 5pm but she JUST got out of the hospital for having two knee surgeries...so obviously she needed assistance.
The deliveries are my favorite part of the work - the warehouse does deliveries to those who qualify for assistance and the gratitude you receieve while unloading their matierals is amazing. I understand why people pursue work in disaster relief, although stressful and unpredictable it's so fulfilling.

I'm getting use to the fact I don't have cell phone service, it's very annoying but it's okay. So far the internet is sufficing well enough. It's given me a lot of time to think about things and plan stuff - I'm WAY ahead of the ball on my portfolio..I'm almost done with it and I've gotten 41.5 hours of ISP hours out of the 100 I need. But just as far as my future goes here's a bulleted list (I make LOTS of lists...)

• return home in November
• Spring 2014 semester @ JTCC
• I have some classes picked out
• Summer 2014 semester
• also planned courses
• Fall 2014 semester
• you guessed it...more planning
• STL in Vinton, Iowa
• I am applying for this position in Vinton, USTL to be more specific. I'll basically be the assistant to the Unit leader.
• return home in November, return to school, transfer for VCU, major in BIO or ENV, find a career, travel the world.

That's the next two years planned out right there. When I come home this November I plan on also applying to state/national Americorps programs as well as traditional jobs back at home so I can work while giong to school...I couldn't imagine not working now..since I work basically 7 days in a row! haha 16 days without a break after next weekend :p

But during this summer break I also plan to go to Des Moine, IA...some of my teammates want to go up there for a little day trip so I've been looking up stuff about it :) maybe we'll find a train and go somewhere also..who knows.

I definitely apprecaite traveling more..I used to be scared to really go new places or try new things but I've discovered that the world (well America, but I'm going to assume the world also) is a beautiful place. It's absurd to tie yourself down to one place, if given the chance you should travel all over...take advantage of everything around you. I definitely plan to do more traveling in the future and try many new things. I hope I can encourage others to do the same, I was missing out on so much while I let my fears hold me back...I don't want others to feel that way too.


okay I guess that's enough you know everything that's been going on in my head now. E-mail me with any questions :)