On August 20th we waved good-bye to Everett as he took flight to Mobile, Alabama, ready to begin a 13-month stint with Americorps.
He applied in mid-July with the intention of starting their 10-month community service program beginning in January. The day after he submitted his on-line app, he received a call from the South Alabama Emergency Response Team asking if he'd be interested in applying for their program. The thing he was most interested in doing with Americorps was Katrina relief, so when the SAERT folks explained that they would be a team of 22 trained to be one of the first responders in natural disaster or man-made emergency situations, he pounced at the chance.
He applied in mid-July with the intention of starting their 10-month community service program beginning in January. The day after he submitted his on-line app, he received a call from the South Alabama Emergency Response Team asking if he'd be interested in applying for their program. The thing he was most interested in doing with Americorps was Katrina relief, so when the SAERT folks explained that they would be a team of 22 trained to be one of the first responders in natural disaster or man-made emergency situations, he pounced at the chance.
A whirlwind of phone interviews, faxing documents, fingerprints and background checks followed, and within a month of their initial contact with him, I put Number One Son on a plane for a year away.
His initial report on arriving in Mobile: "It's f*cking HOT here. Mildly unpleasant, really."
He has since failed his initial pack test in which he had to trek 3 miles wearing a 50-pound pack in 45 minutes. He did it in 46. Little slacker. BUT then the team was dropped in the woods with the objective of hiking 19 miles out. They got lost on the first day, turning it into a 24 mile hike, and two team members wound up dropping out. Everett made it through and apparently the program director decided he could forego re-taking his pack test in light of the fact that he managed to schlep his full pack 20+ miles.
He's supposed to be getting an apartment with a couple other team members, but so far they're all still holed up in some rooms provided by a local church. He bought two bikes at a local pawn shop, one a circa 1970s Olympic bike which he plans to ebay at some point, the other a Schwinn road bike he's using to get around in Mobile, which he likes much better now that he's somewhat acclimated to the 94% humidity.
I'll be setting Ev up to post his own dispatches from down South, so look for his continuing adventures...Here are a couple pics from his going-away bash.
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