AmeriTraining

I started working! Sort of.

I spent this past week at my first AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project (WSP) training. On Sunday I drove up to Fortuna, CA. The highway winds through redwoods, some bigger than the ones I saw the first day I was here, and it's absolutely gorgegous.

A very long drive - around 5 hours

They put those of us coming from long distances up for the night in a Best Western, since we weren't actually starting until Monday morning. So I met a few fellow AmeriCorps*USA FreedomCorps members (Bush's retitling of Clinton's invention...) before work actually began.

Monday morning began and all 27 of us got to meet - I finally met my field partner, Heidi! A few people have returned for a second year of service, including Heidi, though this is her first time at SPAWN (it's an entirely new site, they've never had AmeriCorps members before). There are a number of different sites and members are placed from as far south as San Francisco to as far north as the Oregon border. Most members are placed nearer Fortuna and that northern region, as that is where most sites are. The organizations that take AmeriCorps members range from non-profits to state government (CA Dept of Fish and Game) to federal government (Forest Service).

In the afternoon we drove to Mendocino Woodlands, a State Park another 4 hours south of Fortuna and in redwoods.

Right in the middle

The place was absolutely gorgeous. I basically forgot about my camera but did remember to take a few pictures on the drive out. But the camera's still in my car so they'll get posted later. Our cabins were equipped with cots and even a little porch, though no electricity and the space for screens was small so it was dark most of the time. But the bathrooms had running water so it was sweet. It was pretty chilly but we kept the fire in the lodge going. A second year member joined us and cooked absolutely delicious food all week, probably as good as I will be eating for the next 11 months.

Tuesday. The day for CPR and Wilderness Safety Training Certifications. The whole day was committed to this and it was intense. We learned the basic CPR stuff but still took the time to go through and practice it. The Wilderness Safety was interesting - what to check for and what to do in case of an injury in the backcountry, more than 1 hour away from rescue (could be as much as a couple days depending on the injury).

We practiced these techniques too. We got in groups of three, designating one person as "victim". The first bunch of victims all went to the trainer, got an injury, then went into the woods. The rest of the groups (primary and secondary rescuers) were told some of what happened - at least what they saw. For example, the first victim's story was that all three of us were working in the field but were lost hiking back. The victim climbed up a tree to see if they could find the trail and then took a 40 foot fall. As rescuers, we had to check all major arteries for bleeding and then bandage any up while keeping their spine straight.

At night we did it again, basically, but this time we had to also find shelter, make a fire (except not because of the fire danger this time of year), and hunker down as if we were spending the night. It was definitely more difficult with just a couple flashlights. We splinted our "tripped" pal's leg, moved her to a shelter, covered ourselves with duff (the plant debris on the ground - keeps in heat), and fed her only to discover she had a food allergy. At this point we took out our pretend benadryl or epinephrine pen or real zyrtec/other anti-histamine. If we didn't get the anti-histamine out, our pal would "die".

Wednesday was a new day of crazy stuff. Swiftwater training. We learned knots and how to make a harness and and how to get ourselves or another person up or down a steep area. Then we learned what to do if our field partner or ourself got caught up in a river's current, our foot stuck and face down in the water, if one of us was found the other unconcious in the water, or what to do even if we were caught in the current and had an obstacle ahead of us. We practiced these in the freezing river in our waders. For 4 hours. It was very, very cold.

I took a warm shower that evening. My only one of the week.

Thursday was all about the program, paperwork, and salmon. An indoor day where I learned that I qualify for food stamps and public housing. They also advised us on what to do if we encounter a field of marijuana. Friday was a little more program info and then back to Forest Knolls.

Sunday starts my first day at SPAWN working at a booth they have at an event.

And I promise, real pictures and less text coming soon. Food stamps too.