new address...

hey everyone...i dont really feel like posting at the moment but i just wanted to give you all my new address that i ll be staying at until june 20th...so if you need to mail me something, send it here...mark it like this

David Lee (Fire 3)
Americorps *NCCC
W. Smith Elementary School
6701 E. St. Bernard Highway
Violet, LA 70092

sorry i dont feel like blogging now but the internet sucks here and i m just not in the mood...but yeah...we re working with habitat for humanity now building houses in musicians village in the lower ninth ward of new orleans...its been pretty fun and tiring doing construction...so far i ve done a lot of random things like cutting out toe boards, painting, putting soffit up on roofs, caulking, cleaning, framing houses, sawing, moving appliances,...we ll get a lot more experience later on many other things...maybe i ll write more later tonite...and i gotta try to get some pictures up...miss you all

summer camp...

so i m no longer in pascagoula, mississippi anymore...now i m in trinity, texas for a transition week before i head over to new orleans...we are staying at this YMCA camp here called Camp Cullen...it is a camp straight out of the movies...there s a lake, ropes courses, horseback riding, climbing walls, archery ranges, etc...its pretty cool...

for some reason i ve been feeling a bit anti-social...i havent done any of the activities up above and i dont really plan on doing any of them...i dont know...i honestly just wanna get this over with and go on to my next project...i ve been thinking about how everything is going and i guess i m just tryin to refocus on why i came here in the first place and for some reason i ve been looking up a lot on the peacecorps...its easy to get caught up in the world here we call ameri-life...i ve just been relaxing here being a lazy bum...laying in the grass and listening to my ipod and what not...i m still trying to find that something that i know is out there for me...i think i m starting to feel a little old here...i feel like i m one of the more responsible ones here and i guess that automatically makes me feel a bit older...

my team leader selected me and one of my other teammates, shira, to be ATLs or assistant team leaders...i m glad...i m not gonna like brag or anything but it was really the only logical choice...i think our age just makes us a little more mature...so with this comes a little more responisibilty and now an official title.

there will be certain things i ll miss about pascagoula and other things i wont...overall it was a great experience to learn a lot but i m definitely ready to go work with habitat and get my hands dirty...

so i figured out a big mystery that i was wondering about earlier...i solved the reason why i had such tremendous amounts of gas back in denver...apparently it is a common practice in dormitory cafeterias to add laxatives to the food...LAXATIVES...i asked my friend why and apparently its healthier for you...they want you to have a regular cycle so you get less sick etc, etc...i just thought that was so wierd and if that is true, it makes so much sense.

ok...i m really tired...i m seriously like always the last person up...2-3 hours of sleep a night is not that hard to pull off but sometimes you feel it like i m feeling it now...good thing i dont have to wake up early...another update comin soon...take care

finally...an update

well well well...i guess its time...time for another mandatory post...lets see...i ll try to keep this brief and easy to read by chopping up paragraphs...

a lot has happened since the last post...our time here in Pascagoula is almost up and what a ride its been...volunteer coordinating has its pros and cons...the pros being interacting with all the different volunteers that have come through that I ve had the pleasure of coordinating and getting to know due to my position...i can now proudly say that if i need a place to stay in Illinois, Missouri, or Ohio i have some awesome people i can call up and crash with...the cons being basically everything else...hahha...but overall...a very rewarding experience...

so on April 14th we ll be leaving pascagoula to head over to houston, texas for a week of debriefing and reflection and just plain old reunions with all the other teams from our campus...and after that week...we ll be heading over to our next project in NEW ORLEANS...

"nawlins" as its called down here in the south is the next destination...my team is really happy because we got our first choice of projects for this round...we ll be staying at Camp Hope and working with the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity...my team and i are really excited to drop the admin work and just get to focus on building for a good 6-8 weeks...we want to get all the building skills down so that when we go to our next projects we ll actually know what we re doin instead of just BSing.

i m especially excited to be going just because i ve heard so much about camp hope from friends and my family who stayed there for a week volunteering in the exact same spot that i ll be doing rebuilding...who knows...maybe i ll be building houses on sites that they helped gut or clear out...that would be pretty cool...my family drew pictures of themselves on some walls in camp hope so one of the first things i ll be doing is going to find those walls and take a picture next to it...for those that dont know...camp hope is a huge volunteer center in new orleans that houses close to 800 volunteers if i m not mistaken...some people say the rooms look like army barracks which are basically rooms that have been divided by one sheet of drywall with 15-20 mattresses piled in a room...some people are skeptical...but i m totally excited

i ve been loving the feeling about not having to worry about what i m gonna eat or where i m gonna sleep...americorps nccc is an awesome program that i think all of you should definitely do...i keep finding out that there are a lot of middle school and high school students down here helping out because service hours is a requirement for their graduation...thats so cool...when i heard that i totally thought that that is what it should have been like for me...instilling a sense of service at a young age would totally make our culture a little less self centered in my opinion

so the big project at our center started last monday...100 homes in a 100 days...a lot of media hoopla on monday where most of my team actually got on the front page of the newspaper for the area...pretty cool i guess...wish this project luck...getting 100 families into their homes will be such a great accomplishment for this community...

i went to new orleans for st patricks day which was pretty fun...bourbon street is definitely a place that is booming with culture and nightlife...definitely something you dont see everyday...i can honestly say that i m sick of seeing those plastic beads everywhere...i dont understand the obsession with them...i refuse to wear any...

we had a new team join us about 2 weeks ago who are helping us run the place now and i really am glad that they re here...it helped mix things up and added a breath of fresh air into the atmosphere around here...i like them a lot and its already sad to think that we wont be together for the rest of the projects...but yeah...we re having fun down here

other things of interest might include the BAR ASSAULT that we were unfortunately involved in...basically we were all hanging out at the local bar which is like 4 blocks away from our center...this is a small bar that we ve been to a few times before where we have always met great people...the night we went was a more crowded night and lets just say...not many minorities...in fact, i along with my teammate who is african american were the only minorities in the bar...there were a couple of us playing shuffleboard...which by the way is such an awesome game...basically some drunk young football-lookingish guy who was playing pool all of a sudden starts pointing his pool stick at my friends and saying "you got a problem? you got a problem?"...both of them (who werent even facing him at all!!!) both said calmly "no, no problem" and go back to playing our game...after one of my teammate leaves to answer a phone call...my other teammate...the african american one...gets assaulted...all of a sudden i see the guy charge my friend and basically sucker punch my friend and runs him into the wall...he then proceeds to throw him against the other wall across the room...at this time... i m a little in shock but rush over there where at this point, tables have been knocked down and they are now wrestling on the floor...(note that my friend is not fighting or throwing punches at all....he has his hands up the whole time)...so when i get over there to try to break it up...i get picked up from behind and SLAMMED to the floor...by a big huge football looking guy with this pastel blueish polo shirt with his collar popped...after i got off the floor, some old man runs up to me and asks if i m ok...i just go back and try to break up the chokehold the guy has on my friend (and at this point all my other teammates are screaming at the guy to stop)...after a couple more seconds my friend gets out of the guys hands and i walk with him immediately to the front and tell my friends we re leaving...one of the regulars walks up to us outside the bar and asks us what happened and i begin to explain that we re volunteers in the area and that we re not here to cause any trouble and he immediately tells us that he knows who we are because we had come in the other night and he asks if we re ok...i immediately think that my friend and i have to get out of the area so we walk back to the center...the whole walk back all i could think of in my mind was guys coming in pick ups to jump us again...but we make it back ok...as soon as i get him inside i head back over to the bar because all our other friends are there (a significant amount of which are girls) so i wanted to make sure that everything was ok...i catch up to them halfway to the bar and they told me what happend after we left...they told me that all the locals in the bar came up to us and started defending at us yelling at the guys who started all the trouble...they said that they all came out saying "i m sooo sorry...please dont let this be a representation of mississippi for you...these are just young redneck kids who havent learned the way yet"...funny hearing them say rednecks...they wanted to drive the rest of my team home just to make sure we got back safely...they were all so nice...one of the bartenders actually yelled at the guys saying "those are my friends, get out of here"...they all told my teammates how thankful they are that we are here and how sorry they were...it was really a nice thing on their part and really helped save our thoughts on mississippi...it was just so random and bad because if you knew my teammate who got attacked he is the quietest person ever who hardly speaks to US so its impossible that he would have said anything to strangers...hhaha...who knows if it was racially motivated or not but its just ironic that the only 2 minorities in the bar got attacked...he was fine...he didnt have a scratch on him and i just had a bruised elbow for a day or two...and now it just makes a cool story...to have actually been in a bar fight with tables falling...we went back to the bar just recently and we found out that those guys are banned from the bar forever...and the people still love us there...so there...little details are left out because i could go on forever but that s the gist of it...bar fight in mississippi...hahha

now on a lighter note...the weather is warming up here and its getting a little humid...oh man...i dont know how i m gonna survive actually doing manual labor in this weather...a lot of deodorant and cologne will have to suffice...

its only been about 2 months since i ve left but it feels like forever...i feel like i ve known my team all my life...i guess thats what eating, sleeping, working, and basically doing everything else with your teammates will do to a person...but its awesome...we have a good team that works well together...

after talking with my old roommate, i ve come to the conclusion that i really miss these certain types of noodles...so if anyone has nothing to do and wants to send me something random...get me some MI GORENG noodles from your local Ranch 99...they look like ramen packets...but they re like a dry noodle that doesnt have any broth...if you send me a bunch i will love you forever..i m trying to think of other things that i ve been missing or want....hmmmm

i cant really think of anything else of significant importance that has happened since the last post...i really want to post pics that i ve been taking or that my friends have been taking since i totally dont take as many pictures as i should...but its just so much more difficult...so i ll post a link to one of my picture sites and you can look for yourself what i have up there and maybe later i ll post some actually on this site...here it is

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v55/dulldavid/denver/

a couple points of info for everyone...when i call people and ask people why they dont call ME...i always tend to get the same lame excuse...and yes its understandable but still lame...i always get the excuse that everyone thinks i am busy and they dont want to bother me...i understand that but seriously...i would much rather get missed calls from people then not get anything at all...here are some things so you dont have any excuses...currently i am 2 hours ahead of pacific standard time...i wake up at 7 AM here and get done with work around 5 PM...so basically anytime after that i am free...i stay up to about 3 AM everynite so thats still 1 AM for all you at home which i m sure is still later than a lot of you...so dont be afraid to call...i know i should be calling too but if you feel like calling...just call...10 minutes, an hour or a minute...i dont care...and i ll try to call more too...

one more point of info is that if you re gonna send me a package, please let me know...i know this might be lame but if you send me a package to denver at this moment...i wont be getting it for a couple of months because they dont forward packages from denver to wherever my project is if it is too big...so sometimes it might be easier to ship it out directly to where my project is but you have to ASK me first. I dont want to get back to denver to open a package only to find that whatever was sent is eaten by mold.

well the last thing i m gonna post is actually a video of my teammate from when we were back in denver...he s a great musician and this is when he played 2 songs that he wrote at our talent show...seriously...he s really really good...we make him play these songs all the time...the quality of the video isnt great but the audio is good so just listen...he definitely has potential to make it...so listen and enjoy...i really didnt like the first song that much when i first heard it but i absolutely love it now...its called ariella...and the second is called mother mary and its also awesome...



and i dont know if you read this but if you do...happy birthday wootie...

take care you all...miss you guys...keep me in your thoughts and prayers

quite possibly the hardest i ve ever worked...

well...this is one of those posts that i ve deemed necessary just for the sake of keeping this blog alive...because if i dont post and let things pile up i m just not gonna wanna post later because i have so much i need to write about...haha...yeah...i hope that makes sense...this afternoon is one of those rare occasions where i actually have free time so i m here at a coffee shop called "dough joes"...which to my delight is surprisingly nice...its got that "little house on the prairie" feel to it...not something i d expect to find in pascagoula...it really makes me feel like i m home...let s see...let me try to think about what you all are wondering right now....

our job here at Operation TLC is that we basically staff the whole volunteer center...like literally...we ARE the only staff at the center with the exception of our site supervisor...it has been absolutely crazy...it is basically like a 24 hr a day job...and if you ve never lived at the same place where you work...then...well...DONT...hahah...its hard to get away from the job when you are here...its very hard not to think about work when you walk by the office everytime you goto the kitchen...and in our case...the kitchen serves as part of the office...

my specific position is that i am the volunteer coordinator of Operation TLC, which means that I am in charge of calling and confirming with incoming volunteers and also recruiting new ones...now at first this may sound like an easy job but organizing and just obtaining the info is quite difficult...after a lot of phone and email tag...even when you get a hold of a group...the numbers are never definite...i find myself on the phone or computer quite often or just waiting for people to get back to me...i dunno...it s pretty cool because i was given a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) phone and laptop to use as part of my job...but they recently took the phone back because FEMA is dumb....i guess this job is a little hard for me because i feel like i quit Macys to get out of the office and here i am...in an office all day pretty much...it ll get better once i get stuff down because i ll get to lead the volunteers to a site and work with them...the cool thing about this position is that i am basically the point of contact for the volunteers...so when they get to the center i m the one who greets them and shows them around and stuff...we havent had too many yet but in the next week we ll have almost 100 volunteers at the center so i dont know how crazy that is gonna get...its hard because most of the volunteers arrive on the weekends...and thats what makes it hard to get some free time...it makes going out on weekend nights hard as well...but i think this will be a really rewarding SPIKE(which means our round of deployment) because its definitely pushing all of us...while most if not all teams are out there doing more manual labor type SPIKEs here is our team...RUNNING a volunteer center...this operation is so awesome...its probably the hardest i ve worked or at least the job where i had the most responsibility and other people relying on me and that is something i m gonna have to get used to... the 2 ladies who started it are quite amazing...if you wanna read about the operation goto www.operationtlc.org ...they can use any help they get down here...so if you have some free time/money/furniture/whatever...help out...all of us have so much...we owe it to give back...in whatever way we can...

let s see what else can i say...its pretty cool hearing the southern accent all the time...it really does feel like the "dirty" south...haha...i ve seen much of where the stereotypes come from...the main shop here in pascagoula is the super wal mart...everyone DOES drive pickups here...there ARE a lot of camoflauge shirts here...people DO have mullets...and there really IS southern hospitality...everyone is very courteous and everyone calls people "miss so and so"...like...miss elaine...miss ruth...etc...they say new orleans like "nawlins"...it is quite fascinating...amazing to think of how much culture there is within the US itself...so if you ever here someone say that they have to travel the world to get some culture...you smack them upside the head and remind them that there is culture right here in their very own country too...things that you wouldnt imagine...especially for those of use coming from big cities...

hmmm...well 2 days ago something unexpected came up and i drove 2 hrs each way to new orleans and didnt get back til 3AM in pascagoula...that something was EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY!!!!!!!!! oh my gosh...one of my absolute FAVORITE bands EVER...AJ called me on the 7th and asked me if i was going to the show...and i was like...what show...and then he proceeded to tell me that he thought explosions in the sky was playing in new orleans soon...so being that this was in the middle of the work day...i take time out to look it up and lo and behold...they WERE playing in new orleans....the NEXT day...so now i go into panic mode and try to figure out what i m gonna do...sidenote...i love this band and have never seen them play live because they dont tour that often and the one time i did purchase a ticket to see them in sf...it happened that i was gonna be in china...so yeah...i was seriously considering flying to go see them wherever they were when we had our break here but i guess they just added the new orleans show recently so i was totally totally trying to figure out a way...so i looked up rental cars and when i told my group that i was going...a lot of them wanted to jump on board...so it ended up being a really spontaneous thing where we left at 530 to go pick up people...we had so many stops along the way that i was totally stressing that we werent gonna make it in time to see them...there are so many streets that still dont have street signs...so as you can imagine that plays havoc when driving in a place you dont know at all...but after one last stop at Camp Hope to pick up Abby, we made it to the show and JUST IN TIME...they went up probably 10 minutes after we arrived and i have to say...ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS EVER...for those of you that dont know...explosions in the sky is an instrumental band most known in the mainstream for the fact that basically all the music in the movie "friday night lights" was done by them...but yes...it was such an amazing show...explosions is definitely a band that you FEEL more than you listen to...it was an experience that was just indescribable...i just wish sankyoung could have been there...they played a short set so that was the only thing i wished happened differently...but that made the show short but still...just great...definitely something i ll never forget

while i ve been here...there was actually a tornado warning...it was the same weather pattern as all those tornadoes that killed all those kids in alabama if you keep up to date with the news...we are actually right on the border of alabama...our team leader came up to us that day and said "if you here someone scream TORNADO go into this hallway" hahahha...priceless

i gotta goto waveland, mississippi right now...

pictures coming up soon...

my blog sucks...

so in the interest of time, i ll make this quick...basically i found out one of my team mates has a blog site as well...so i decided to read it and guess what...my blog sucks crazy balls compared to hers...lets just say she has a way with words...so basically, i m gonna be a total loser and put the link to her blog up on my blog in order to make my blog seem cooler...hahah...well...if you really want to know what i m up to down here then i HIGHLY suggest you head over to her page and read it...trust me...its both a very informative blog and an entertaining read...so please...read it...she is awesome...she helps keep me sane...oh yeah...and she s jewish haha

www.shirainamericorps.blogspot.com

a new post comin soon...

we are working basically 7 days right now and i am too tired to write anything of major importance...this place is crazy...more to come

pascagoula, mississippi

Fire 3 baby!!!!
me and scott at operation tlc in pascagoula, mississippi