camp hope

You know, one things I know for sure about AmeriCorps is that you can’t know anything for sure in AmeriCorps.

Currently, I’m sitting on the top bunk of a bed, just like I woulda been a few days…the only thing that changed in my location. I’m at Camp Hope in New Orleans with the rest of my team and also every other AmeriCorps NCCC team stationed in New Orleans.
We were informed last night that we would all be moving to Camp Hope the next day and to pack and clean the house.

The reason- I’m going to try to explain this the best I can in the most fair way possible. The violence/murder rate in New Orleans is getting significantly higher lately. There have been a few cases of AmeriCorps teams very near these scenes. Actually, there was a shooting right outside of the house I used to live in which was home to another team this round. One bullet actually made it to the fence.
Now, I really don’t know much but I do know that headquarters decided that there were parts of New Orleans that we’re safe to live & work in for us anymore. They moved us from where we lived and we aren’t able to work at our sites anymore.

Not being able to finish our project is probably the most upsetting thing about this situation for all of us. We were all very happy with the work we got to do every day. We aren’t sure yet if they will keep us here in New Orleans and find work for us to do here or send the teams back to their campuses. I should know soon what the story is.

The team is doing ok. Some people are pretty close to not being ok… I mean, we have had such a crazy year already. Packing up everything into bags seemed almost second nature to us. It was weird to leave our home because we were all very comfortable and happy with it. This camp is really pretty nice. There is a big room where all of the girls sleep and across the hall is where the guys are. The area around here is fairly safe from what they said, so it’s nice to be able to be outside at night again. Tonight they had a campfire going, so we sat around, played some music and chatted. Life’s gonna be ok.

Bring it on.

Abigail who is reminded every day she is always in process.