Hillcrest Children's Medical Center

Yesterday we went to the hospital to work with some special needs kids. We were there for about 2.5 hours and it was soo cool. There are 6 kids that live at the hospital all the time and some others that rotate in and out. Some of them have been abused and are in the foster care system. Most can't walk or talk, but we had a really good time playing with toys and singing to them on the mats. Hopefully I will be able to go there every weekend because they don't get a whole lot of recreation time since the hospital became "for profit" recently and had to let some people go. One of the little boys loved me and every time I came around the corner he went crazy - laughing and waving his arms. SO cute!

We start on a new schedule next week... We don't get to work until 1p and leave at 8p (mon-thurs). I am not as bothered by it as other people. I like sleeping in! Fridays we work 9a-3p, so that is nice.

And here are some pictures finally of my new house!

http://picasaweb.google.com/kristycoleman86/Round2Tulsa#

Welcome to Tulsa, OK

So we have been in Tulsa now for about a week and a half. So far it hasn't been too bad. Little rocky at first getting our living arrangements settled. First we didn't have hot water and then we did and then we didn't again...Now it is pretty decent.



Little overview: We live in the Amos T. Hall Community Center in Northern Tulsa (about 15 minutes from anything semi-interesting). We have a full sized basketball court, pool table, drained pool, bathrooms, locker rooms, huge kitchen and sleeping area. Overall it is pretty sweet. I will post pictures when I go to a coffee shop this weekend because we don't have internet at our "house."We did just get TV and limited cable - CW, FOX, CBS, 5 religious channels, 5 spanish channels and a few others, but no ABC or NBC.

The work so far has been pretty interesting. We are working for an organization called Community Action Project (CAP). They help low income families file their taxes for no charge. They run primarily off of volunteer staff, but of course have site supervisors at all the sites. The training wasn't too bad - just a bunch of practice problems and working our way through them, however painful that was at times.. But we don't get too far out of the really simple forms. Mainly just a few dependents, W2's, and a few others. It is all on the computer too, so very user friendly. :)

We started working with clients today. I have had about 8 so far. Which has been pretty interesting to say the least. I kept getting very strange returns - people pulling out a bunch of receipts, green cards, married recently, kids moving in and out, blah, blah. One family had a translator.. But the people working here are super helpful and you can ask them a million questions and they don't get bothered. Fingers crossed that all the returns are correct and everyone spends their money well since their have been some pretty big ones!

I am pretty excited to start doing my own taxes though, so I can't wait for my W2's!! But before you get too excited...I am still a tax baby. So no sending me stuff yet unless it involves a W2 or two, a few dependents, maybe some social security, even a mortgage. But no rentals or other scary tax forms!

Well, I should get back to work! More to come on my Tulsa/Tax adventures! WoooHooo!

One more thing!

This video was on the news in New Orleans! I did not personally get to work on this house but about half my team did! Of course no mention of AmeriCorps NCCC, but still very cool that we helped get someone back in their home for Christmas after 4 years...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA2TiDh1nxc

Back in Denver

I had a hell of a time getting back to Denver though! My flight left at 7:05a and I arrived at the airport at about 5:35a. It took me and hour and 20 minutes to get through the check in line! I FINALLY got my bags checked in and then waited in security only to arrive at my gate 10 minutes after my flight had left. One of the men that works there said that it was the longest line he had seen since 9/11... It took me all day, but I finally arrived in Denver at 9p and was lucky enough to have my TL pick me up since I missed my shuttle by 8 hours!

The best part though was opening my email today and having one from Southwest apologizing profusely for the inconvenience and giving me and $80 voucher!!! AWESOME!

But now that I am finally back - we are only here for one week! We leave for Tulsa, OK on Saturday. We had our debrief this morning explaining our project in NOLA to our unit leader, another staff member, and to Water 5. Tomorrow we start working on preparing our brief for Tulsa, OK. Couple of random trainings - ATL (Assistant Team Leader) and one on working with kids (Save the Children). We have Baseline on Friday - which should be interesting because I am out of breath just walking up the three flights of stairs to my room.

Sorry there haven't been a ton of pictures, but all of the New Orleans pictures have started to get really repetitive - ladders and painting and scaffolding and painting and ladders....You get the idea. Not so sure the taxes pictures will be much better though.

Hopefully I will be able to post every week in Tulsa, but we don't have internet at our accommodations, so I will just update at the laundromat!

Christmas was good with the Fam. Miss everyone already and Happy New Year!

I added more pics to the Web Album...Captions to come! http://picasaweb.google.com/kristycoleman86/Round1NewOrleans#