Joplin

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

All through my CTI (CorpsMember Training Institute) in Denver, CO I heard about how disaster relief is a major part of what AmeriCorps in general does. All those meetings made me excited to serve people in general and I especially hoped to be able to serve on such a large scale, but didn't actually expect the opportunity to arise.

So when my team was called from our project to head towards St. Louis I was excited to help. Literally while we were heading that way, an EF5 tornado blazed through Joplin and we were diverted. That night, looking at the destruction on the television and hearing about the missing persons my excitement about serving became tempered with fear. Would I be able to handle this kind of situation?

Nothing could have prepared me for the scale of the operations here in Joplin. When people think "Disaster Relief" the immediate image is search and rescue, and secondarily debris removal. There is so much more. Thousands of volunteers arrived within a day or two of the event, and had to be fed, housed, directed to specific work sites, and taken care of medically on the few occasions when they hurt themselves. SOMEONE had to plan on, and then arrange for all those amenities.

I didn't fully understand the role of AmeriCorps truly until arriving. AmeriCorps St. Louis, along with many many other programs from all four corners of the country were literally running the show. I was snagged within the first couple of days of arriving to run the volunteer intake database, trying to deal not only with the volume of volunteers coming in, but be create some way of using the information and skills they represented.

I learned things about leadership and myself I never even considered important. To say it was the hardest thing I have ever done seems like an understatement. No meeting or training could have prepared me for the fifteen hour days- day after day, how just being able to change into a clean shirt would become a big deal, sleeping in a weight room would become luxurious, or how my whole mood could suddenly become dependant upon my supply of paperclips.

I also had the great joy of learning about the other programs in which people serve AmeriCorps. I met amazing people, also commited to service, both in AmeriCorps and out of it. One group in particular sticks out in my mind. They were a church youth choir, who were not allowed to go out in the field because of their age, but were still very interested in helping. They did their work admirably, and when they noticed I was so tired they pooled their money and after leaving my office went and bought me an air mattress. When they presented it to me I cried, I was so touched. Another volunteer went out and bought me lunch every day she was working with me. Its things like that that allowed me to keep going through the grueling hours and hard conditions.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Once I can get some distance from this experience I am sure I will be able to appreciate the scale of what I have learned and how it has changed me for the better.