Let’s get this started!
The past two days, I have been safety and regulation-trained by ACE, so that us new volunteers can start working without too much trouble. Speaking of new volunteers, there were 8 of us last saturday at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport: an English guy, two Italian guys, two German girls, an Austrian girl, and two Belgians: me and Gil.
We've been split up over three different locations: There are the wavertree appartments to the south of Flagstaff, in the vicinity of the Northern Arizona University, then there are the Cedar houses to the north of Flagstaff, with nice surroundings but quite far away from downtown Flagstaff (on foot, anyway), and then there is Cisco house, the one which I'm staying in, right in the middle of the town. It's a nice location, and we're 24 people, all 21 or older, living together in a single house. One disadvantage: my bed is located next to the street and the window doesn't fully close, so the first few nights I got woken up by traffic a lot. Fortunately, I'm gradually getting used to it.
Over the past few days, I've slowly begun integrating myself around here: learning the city map, getting to know the other ACE volunteers, getting around, etc. I've still got some work in that department, but I'll get there soon enough. At the moment, I'm only focussed on one thing: getting ready for project!
I'm going on my first project tomorrow!
Yesterday, I've received the first schedule with my name on it, and boy, I am one happy guy right now! I've been lucky enough to be assigned to... wait for it...
Bryce Canyon National Park!
The US National Park Service has called upon ACE to do fencing work at Bryce Canyon, which means that we'll be repairing, improving or putting up new wooden fences in the park. Since the campsites are predetermined, that also means that we'll be hiking each day from the campsite to the workplace, and back again in the evening.
This is an 8-day project, Wednesday through Wednesday, which means that we'll be working 10-hour-days, to correspond with a 40-hour work week.
Anyways, I'm going back to packing... Tomorrow's the time to rock and roll! Look for an update sometime after the 26th.
Steven
(By the way, I've now got a US cellphone, which means I'll stop picking up my Belgian phone. Those who want to reach me, can do so on -REDACTED-. Thanks for understanding!)