Da mihi basilia mille: Chickens, mansions and kids!

Well, here we are, beginning the last week of garden chicken extravaganza. Frustrations have been high which consequently have led to the neglecting of the blog. Shocker! haha, however Sophie has been doing a fabulous job at the Children's Program Blog so I cannot feel too shabby. The first week of the program was a madhouse. No kids signed up really so Lisa, one of the interns recreuited a local preschool to bring 18 3 year olds. CRAZY! the second and third week were much calmer since only the kids from a neighboring apartment building attended. Leaving us with about 10 kids. JFB, Sara and I took the lead while the rest of the team built or began building the chicken run (please see digression on chicken run). I've gotten close to some of the kids. Meihua (may-wha), Jacky (abvove with the red stripes) and Minna. For four hours everyday we traipse about the garden finding worms, slugs to feed the chicken (a favorite!), watering, making crafts and playing. Originally 4 interns were supposed to write the curriculum and then we were just supposed to implement it alongside the intern who wrote that weeks curriculum. I've met 2/4 interns and begun re-writing the curriculum. There was way too much free time happening or impossible amounts of talking for kids under the age of 8 (as all of ours are.) On week four however another school has been recruited to attend and we have 15-20 children. Stephen, Yasha and Denise have stepped in to join the program. While I'm LOVING writing curriculum and even making copies of things, I realize everyday just how write my decision to teach high school. I swear if i have to explain sharing one more time..... :)

Chicken Run Digression - the chicken run has been some what of a sore subject for much of the team. It has frustrated us for several reason. One- we came to build a functioning and sustainable childrens program and a safe garden but instead are spending 6 hours or more a day working on a chicken run. Two - the chicken run supplies alone have cost over $3000. Americorps was designed to help communities in a need, what sort of non-profit can justify spending three grand on a chicken run! Three - most of us think of chicken coops as a couple of stakes and some chicken wire. This sucker is made from fresh cut cedar, chicken 'hardware," it has been designed by an architect, needs a custom build door, and requires the collaboration of 2 architects and enginner and about 7 misc non-builders to even tell us where to put one board. We've begun calling it the chicken mansion, the chicken taj mahal...etc. Home of 16 of the most spoiled rotten chickens to have cross the face of seattle....and the Earth.

(2009-2010) <--- americorps life bahaha
Week 3 also brought about another good bye. Iman left us to return to Chicago, via California in order to get a head start on her Life After Americorps. Med school starts very early in August and obviously the future Dr. Al-Saden needed a break before diving into her studies. As one of the most dynamic characters on our team her absence is already extremely present however, its interesting to note how Americorps has desensitized me to good-byes, farewells and "see you nevaaaa."

There has also been some fun Seattle things to do. For instance Gold 1 attended the Seattle Pride festivities including one giant dance/fountain party. As per normal with these sort of events I was not wearing enough make-up and definitely was wearing too much fabric. We also have explored the capitol hill district, fremont and the U district quite a bit. Our sponsor jonathon and his girlfriend (whom i adore) luciana, are avid swing dancers and they invited us out to a bar called the New Orleans to watch them dance. The bar itself was obviously modeled after a city we spent much of our year in. It was good to be surrounded by jazz and at least faux-new orleans spirit. However Jonathons moves were awesome and he really tried to get us onto the floor. Denise of course was a natural. That girl has more rhythm than anyone I've ever met...I on the hand clearly was just stumbling around. haha.

Once of my dad's closest friends is actually from Seattle so I took the girls over to his house on Friday for dinner. we were treated to a extremely awesome bbq featuring steaks that were the size of my head! Thank goodness for people not on the Americorps budget and lifestyle! Stan is staying at his friends "crib" (trust me it felt like we were ont he TV show as he showed us around) and we were about to grill out and eat until none of us could move. He also drove us out to Kirkland to show us the city and tell us how much it has changed since he has lived there. I really have grown to love seattle despite my frustrations with my job. However with only free weeknights left my time is running short and I have so much left to see. I haven't been to the EMP or gotten my picture taken with the troll. Part of this has been the fact that we live in BUrien and another part has been that I'm too big of a baby to just hop onto a bus and go...like JFB. She has so much gumption. Hopefully I'll get that some day.