First taste of Service

Hey all,

I got my first taste of service today, which was a welcomed change of pace from the drone of endless information sessions that I've gotten for the past week. My pod and one other worked with the Sacramento Tree Foundation going door-to-door looking for interest in a free tree-planting service that they offered. I didn't know until recently that Sacramento has the highest concentration of trees of any city in the world, and they're working to improve that number even more.

We were working in a nice old neighborhood filled with unique-looking ranch houses. Supposedly about 50 years ago the neighborhood popped up, and the community planners exclusively planted these big ash trees. Now many are dying of age or wind or disease, and the neighborhood is losing its green cover and thus much of its energy efficiency and erosion control. Our little project was to seek interest, especially among the older residents, for planting a variety of new species. A few of the pods that are due for service tomorrow are going to do the actual planting.

The time out there was pretty fun. The lady from the Tree Foundation was a hoot, and the day was clear, sunny, and cool from the wind. Like I said before, it feels like June out here-- which incidentally is my favorite month in Indiana. It was too bad that we didn't get to do any planting. It really is the brochure-picture form of service that everyone thinks of, but I think our part got to the heart of a lot of the work we're going to be doing and the nature of the service 'business.' We had to deal with the fact that a lot of people either didn't really want our help, others simply didn't need our help, and others weren't present or were ignoring us. I got the impression when one lady told us with perfect grammar, "Sorry, I don't speak English." It's a really hit-or-miss kind of job, but eventually you'll find someone that needs you and you do your best to accommodate them. My little group of 3 got 4 different houses to accept trees for tomorrow and a few more that might be interested later down the line.

One little side note is that I was amazed by how many people were moving/foreclosing their houses. I guess California and Nevada are number one and two on the amount of foreclosed houses. It made our lives a little harder since there were some houses that visibly could use our free service, but there was nobody to accept it.

Now that I think of it, I'm glad we didn't really have to get handy with the shovels today. My feet were killing me after last night's excursions. I was able to get to see more of Sacramento last night with a big group of Corps Members. Where we are is on a decommissioned Air Force base, and the area around us is a little depressed after the AF left in 2001. It was encouraging to see the nicer side of Sactown. We took the bus and the light rail into the area around Old Sacramento, the historic and restaurant district. The journey was pretty unimpressive-- we ended up wandering around for a long time and just getting malts at a Johnny Rockets in a mall down there. I scouted out a few nice ethnic restaurants and a microbrewery for future weekend trips; however, I was already exhausted from sitting through mind-rotting day-long meetings, so it wasn't in the mood to really live it up. We tried to get back to campus by 10:00, but our bus line stopped running in the direction we came from. As a result I had to walk the 2 miles back to campus in my loafers with everyone. Thus the foot pain that I'm nursing with a little post-service R&R. As Peyton says, I'll just, 'Rub a little dirt in it' and walk it off.

I hope everyone at home and away is safe and doing well. I miss seeing everyone, especially a certain someone in NYC. I wish you all could be here to see what I see. Much love to you.