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Last week we eased into our project with chainsaw training and honeysuckle removal.Our sponsor fed us lunch a couple days and we had a chance to get to know some of the site supervisors at the various parks we'll be working at.Everyone is very laid back and yet totally attentive to our needs and wants.One of them even donated a DVD player so we could entertain ourselves in the evening.This has resulted in a steady stream of movies being played, at least one a day, sometimes with people coming in and out during the middle or just catching the end.I haven't watched so many consecutive films in my life; you would think we were training to be on the Academy Awards review panel.
It's really just because we don't have energy for much else at the end of the work day.This week our muscles discovered that the work itself can be strenuous but I think it's the hiking we do to get to worksites plus the fresh air that make us twice as tired and twice as hungry.We actually ran out of food this week because people immediately come in for a snack…11 people snacking makes a big dent in the pantry.
I've kept notes on our activities the past couple of days just to give you a glimpse of how different and fun our sponsors make the work:
3.23.2011
We started with a sculpture tour of Laumeier Park, a space dedicated to open play spaces and walking paths connecting over seventy works ranging from figural and abstract sculpture to enormous outdoor art and site-specific installations.They also have an indoor gallery that was featured on PBS not long ago.It's one of only two accredited outdoor art museums in the country, the other being in New York.After the docent explained the significance of some of their most famous pieces, we got to actually move a sculpture that was in need of maintenance.We moved 45 wooden boxes made of solid 2x4s that were gauged out at the top to resemble coffins…They were designed by an artist who had grown up in a detention camp in WWII and so the boxes invoked morbid feelings of death and the rigidity of the housing structures for the oppressed.
3.24.2011
Despite the sleet, we cut down honeysuckle all day along a path in the back of Laumeier.Compared to the vine version we're familiar with in Maryland, this variety of honeysuckle is an invasive oriental shrub that left untamed, will quickly take over any area of land and grow to heights of over fifteen feet.The park originally introduced it to the area because it provided a quick-growing, thick green hedge with white spring flowers and red autumn berries. They now regret this course of action and have ordered its death.It chokes out all other living things on the understory of the forest and sometimes even dares to attack established trees. Equipped with loppers, handsaws and industrial strength herbicide, we cut through the madness by breaking up into teams and working in toward each other.Our team leader, Noel, kept us amused by asking us questions about what we planned to do after AmeriCorps and what we would choose to eat if we could only have one food for the rest of our lives.
3.25.2011
Sleet turned to snow and we were forced inside to reorganize a 1860s barn in Faust Park.It housed a horse drawn hearse, assorted lumber and some unpainted carousel horses.The barn itself was built in a beautiful arching style that needs no center scaffolding and would be the perfect place for weddings if not for the barn swallows residing in the rafters.Many hands make light work and we were done with the barn at lunch.In the afternoon the curator of the park gave us a tour of the oldest standing Governor's mansion in Missouri.He regaled us with stories of how Governor Bates was sent by Jefferson to take charge of managing land disputes in the new West while Meriwether Lewis was away with Clark and Sacagawea investigating the potential for the Louisiana Purchase.Interestingly, the property then passed to Leicester Busch Faust, the grandson of Adolphus Busch who was famous for starting the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association.After the history lesson, we got to visit the butterfly house and the park's indoor carousel, originally handcrafted by German immigrants working for the Gustav Dentzel Company of Philadelphia in 1920.
3.26.2011
More snow.The trash clean up we were supposed to attend was canceled so instead, we numbered 20,000 plastic Easter eggs for the County Parks Nighttime Egg Hunt that we'll be working at next weekend.It doesn't get much better than making preparations to see a bunch of old people groping around in the darkness looking for pastel eggs, hoping to win, what I can only assume to be, fabulous prizes.
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Our weekends have been fun-filled as well starting with last week's team building challenge course.Led by a park volunteer, the course consisted of a series of balance, trust and logic puzzles that we had to maneuver our way through making sure to involve everyone equally.For example, we had to lead each other through the woods blindfolded, arrange ourselves in order of descending birthdays without talking while balancing on 2x4s and hoist each other over a 12ft wall without any ladders or ropes.I think it was definitely the turning point in our team's dynamics.If you couldn't tell from the last entry, I had been feeling pretty emotional about leaving my old team and having to deal once again with my love/hate relationship with change.Even Michael, a friend I made during training and who is now thankfully on my new team, noticed that I had temporarily "lost my sparkle."
But it's hard to stay glum though when you have all of St. Louis' charms at your disposal.That same weekend, we also went to the City Museum, a space consisting largely of repurposed architectural and industrial objects, housed in the former International Shoe building.It features a 7 story slide that you access via a network of underground caves, a youth circus, a shoelace factory, the world's largest pencil, a huge outdoor ball pit and a 4 story climbing apparatus made out of a tree house, a plane and a fire truck.You can stand on, climb on and touch anything and everything!!Never again will I say to myself, "No I can't fit through there," "No that's too steep to climb," or "No I don't know where that goes so I won't try it."There's a sign at the front entrance that explicitly says, "Be Daring!" and so that's what we did, reminding ourselves in the process not to push little kids out of the way in our excitement.
This weekend we visited the Anheuser-Busch Factory and had dinner at Blueberry Hill, a burger joint popular in the ultra-hip university Loop district.Next weekend we're planning on either the zoo or live music at a local vineyard!This team is up for anything and I'm loving it.
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