We finished our first week in Mecca, Ca. I'm outside of the community center on my laptop. I'm lucky enough to be in walking distance of Internet, for that I am thankful. To my right I can see a mountain range, behind me is another and in front of me is a palm tree farm of sorts. I'm astounded by this place. California is so foreign to me still. I find it strange that palm trees are grown in view of mountains. Perhaps because I've always associated palm tress with tropic Florida it's confusing to me to find a palm tree farm in the desert. The days are warm but the mornings and evenings are temperate. This place is beautiful; I am trying to burn the scenic images into the deepest parts of my brain so I will be able to capture the essence of this place forever. I hope that years from now certain sounds and smells will push forth these images into my mind so that I will be able to return to this state of myself even if only for a brief moment.
I really enjoy the work I am doing; I climb up and down ladders with drills and paintbrushes all morning and I play with kids in the afternoon. I truly have the best of both worlds right now. I constantly find myself asking God, “why me?” in a way that I haven’t before asked him. “Why am I this lucky? What have I done to deserve the good that you’ve put in my life?” These questions are followed, quickly by “thank you” and “please don’t take this away from me. I love it”.
I want to break down the rest of this entry into 4 parts: Traveling, Orientation Day, First week of work, and Community mapping.
First: Traveling.
We left Sacramento early Monday morning, some how we managed to fit 20 pieces of luggage and 9 people into our 15 passenger van. It was a cramped drive but the view was gorgeous. California lucked out in the scenery department. It has everything from mountains to beaches, to farms, to valleys, to plains. It’s unfair really. As per NCCC regulations, we stopped every 2 hours to switch drivers and I took those moments to stretch, breath and capture the scenery on film. The drive itself was relatively uneventful, aside from finding a Louisiana Soul Food Kitchen and Chinese food shop attached to each other in Bakersfield, and arriving in our small 4-bedroom apartment in Mecca. Our rooms are divided 3-3-3-1. It’s frustrating to look at the person who has a bedroom to them self as I and another teammate sleep on cots. I’m more bitter than I should be considering I have a cot to myself to sleep on, and some of the kids down the street from me don’t even have that much. (Sometimes I wonder if I had less stuff, I’d have less to gripe about). Anyway, we went to dinner our first night here at this burger place that boasted it made the world’s best burgers. The burgers were good, but not world famous.
Part 2: Orientation day
We spent all day Tuesday with the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition learning about the organization that we are working with, we were able to meet John Mealey, the executive director of the CVHC. Then we were given a tour of the houses and apartments that were built by the CVHC. The complexes were really nice and I was very impressed. Wolff Waters, the last affordable housing complex they completed was probably my favorite. Of course this is the baby of the CVHC, it’s built in an upscale community so it had to fit in with the rest of the area. This is not to say that the other projects are not top notch, it’s jus that Wolff Waters was a 90 million dollar project and it looks like it was a 300 million dollar project. It’s that nice. I really enjoyed being able to tour the homes and facilities that the CVHC has provided for the Coachella Valley community. The other interesting thing about Wolff Waters is that the keys to the van were locked inside while the van was still running. We had to wait for AAA to come get us out of the jam, but not before we tried to unlock the door ourselves using a stick and lanyard technique. It may have been possible to achieve it if we had more time. I have captured parts of this fiasco on film. The person who locked the keys in the van uttered no apologies, but I’m sure they were embarrassed enough. I would have been, but I also probably would have laughed it off and told everyone about my silly antics. It was definitely an incident that won’t be forgotten on Blue 4, as now we are a lot more cautious to remember the van keys. The rest of orientation consisted of more of the same.
Part Tres: First Week of Work.
Our days are very similar but never the same. We get up every day and leave the house at 6:45; we arrive at the site a little before 7 and are assigned tasks. This week alone: I’ve helped remove a chain link fence, installed steel frames, and cut steel pieces to install, I’ve painted, I’ve moved sinks, I’ve installed closet doors, towel racks and toilet paper holders. By Siesta my Scapula is burning, well the muscles underneath my scapula. I’m tired sweaty and covered in dirt. It’s amazing. I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy working with my hands. I’ve built things before, and felt great satisfaction in my accomplishment but I feel fulfilled almost at the end of the day. In the afternoons, I play soccer and jump rope, and hang out with the kids at the community center, and the evenings I spend studying for the GRE. It’s so beneficial for me to not have a TV, but I am starting to feel claustrophobic in our 4-bedroom house. The room I share with three others is half the size of the room I have on base. It’s tiny, but I know that this is good for me. The best part is that whenever I start to feel claustrophobic all I have to do is walk outside and inhale the beauty that surrounds me.
Part Cuatro: Community Mapping
This weekend my team had the opportunity to explore more of our surrounding area. One group went on a mission to hike up a mountain while another group went to find materials to build a shelf. I stayed in and tried to download lost. I am ¼ of the way through my download that has been active for 4 hours or so. I’m hoping to have this download finished by the time the 5th episode airs. At least I will have transition to catch up on my show. I did go into town today to pick up the shelf builders, they were over by the main part of town and we were able to see the local market and the recycling center. We also drove by a different community center, which has a Rock Band game night February 18th. I’m excited to get to do some more exploring on my own two feet. The mountain climbing group made it half way up the mountain before turning back. I think that they’ll try again next weekend, perhaps on an already completed trail. I’m not sure though. I look forward to our adventures as they continue here in Mecca, Ca.
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