Criminal investigations

Today, my main job was to figure out who amongst the Habitat for Humanity volunteers was a sexual predator. Apparently, Habitat International has a rule that a background check must be performed of all volunteers. If any are found to be sex offenders, they are not allowed to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. Habitat Geauga had not been following this rule since... forever... and they figured it was time to get caught up. And what are high school interns for if not probing into the backgrounds of everyone there and discovering all the evil things they've done?

I was a bit uncomfortable doing my job since my views on the treatment of sex offenders conflicted with what I was doing. This was amplified in this situation since anyone who was a sex offender would not be able to volunteer at a non-profit organization, essentially punishing the homeless for their crimes. I had a paranoid fear that one of the most devoted volunteers would turn out to be a sex offender. Luckily for me, no one who volunteered at Habitat Geauga had a spotty criminal record, so I didn't have to make any deep moral choices.

Afterwards, I discovered that the tool box I had painted on Friday was not firmly attached to the newspaper it had been on top of when I painted it. The rest of my day was spent trying to remove the newspaper from the tool box, which I did not finish before I went home.

More Painting!

Ezgi and I finally muster enough courage to paint the top of the very high mural we are painting. We took turns holding the rusty old ladder for each other, while the other one painted the top of the wall. This task would have been to begin with but it was even more challenging in 95 degree heat. We were both dripping in sweat and paint. It was so hot that our painting trays melted in the sun. Ezgi ended up dropping a ton of paint in my hair, which was a disaster. Mainly I'm just hoping that we finish the wall tomorrow or else we are going to have to come back an finish another day. Unfortunately, Ezgi and I angered a hornet that had made its nest by our wall and it flew around, circling us. We were both very scared to paint the wall so we ended up working in the kitchen or about an hour until the hornet left. It was kind of scary though, we were both freaking out.

We did do yoga before we painted and my mom ended up joining the class, which was fun. Afterward she told me that she felt very relaxed and ready to tackle her day, which is why yoga is done. Donna, the teacher, told me that yoga is suppose to be done either at sunrise or at sunset. It should be done to start and end your day. This fact is because yoga brings peace to the body and mind and thus can set you up for a very good day or can help you end your day and prepare you for restful sleep.

The Final Days at Karamu

Hello everyone I hope that the end of everyone's senior project is running smoothly!

As for me the last week and few days at Karamu have been kind of "blaaahhh" if that makes sense. I haven't really do many exciting things. Just really coming in and answering phones all day and occationally typing up something or making some flyers and brochures for upcoming programs and things of that nature. However, today and tomorrow we are going out on interviews at Collinwood High School as well as Ginn Academy. These are the interviews that I believe I talked about in my last post. They are for our Reality Theatre program in which we go out and do these interviews and then our resident playwright takes that information that the students gives and writes a play over the summer which will then be performed at those same schools in the fall. This year's theme of the play is all about being who you are and the places and people that affect who you are. I feel like it is going to be really interesting to hear what these teens are only a year or so younger than me talk about what makes them who they are and how their schools and teachers affect who they are. I'm interested to see if I would say some of the same things or not. These are public schools around the area and as we all know Hawken is private and in the middle of nowhere so I'm anxious to be able to make that comparison. I will be sure to let you all know how the interviews go and I'll probably even share with you a little bif of the comparisons that I found while sitting in a listening.

I will see you all Thursday at breakfast and then again Friday and then again for what is going to be one of the best days of our lives GRADUATION ON SUNDAY!

Helping around the office

This Friday, Cheryl was busy doing work that she felt it was best if she did herself. As a result, I ended up helping people other than Cheryl for the most of the day. The only job I did for Cheryl was to paint one of the toolboxes that I had helped make early in my senior project. Though Dan wasn't asked by anyone to do so, he volunteered to help me with the painting. This was fortunate, since, unlike me, Dan actually had experience painting (certain events made me question whether or not Cheryl had an idea of how to go about painting, either; some people in the ReStore seemed to be confused by the direction she gave me).

After that job was done, I was given work by Meredith Ashkettle, the Restore manager. The first thing she had me do was alphabetize the receipts for donations that had been filled out. This job didn't take very long since since Meredith didn't give me that many sheets.

The next thing I had to do was make the receipt forms. Have you ever seen one of those sheets that has an identical sheet behind it that gets written on when you write on the front sheet? That's what I was making. Essentially, all I had to do was glue the front sheet to the back sheet. This job got boring incredibly fast, especially since I was doing it alone. However, once I was done, so was the day, and I headed home.

Robert's Senior Project- 12

My final post. I will just leave off by saying my project has been very valuable. It has taught me a lot about historical research and the Civil War. Its important to understand all of the documents out there that have not yet been discovered. There must be tons of stories and quotes in them that are one of a kind. If no one every sees these stories they will be lost to history. That is why I believe historical preservation is very important. We can learn so much from documents from the past. They are out there, we just have to look for them.

Robert's Senior Project- 11

So now I am working on my final set of documents, the collection of diary entries from throughout the Civil War. They are: the 1863, 1864, and 1865 diaries of John Watkins, and the 1864 diary of Michael Houck. Michael Houck is the relative of my sponsor, Chris Whipple. These entries are short, just a few sentences every day about what happened that day, but they are still useful because they are a day by day account of the 19th OVA in the Civil War. There is not much new information to be found in these documents, so what I am doing is comparing what is said in the entries to the 1878 book by Tracie. These are two different accounts of what happened, one written on the day and the other written years later, so it is understandable that there are some discrepancies. So for there is nothing major, only that Tracie appears to have gotten some dates mixed up, but it is still good to know if there are any differences. Unfortunately, due to time, it looks like I won't be able to get through everything, but I will do what I can.

Even More of the Same

Thursday came and went just like how I thought it would. After beginning to work on the third collection of works on Wednesday, Thursday was solely dedicated to finishing this task. So this day went on without much change from the last. Step one: flip current piece. Step two: record the data onto the papers provided. Step three: take some pictures of the piece for the online database. All of these steps made up my day. The only thing I guess that I can add to this topic is more on how it is to do this all day. I covered this before, but there may be some things that I could have left out, so bare with me. At first, the cataloging is occupying enough. Just keeping myself busy with what needs to be done. But after a while, it gets pretty draining. I can assume that this is because having such a large amount of things to get through is a pretty far away goal when chiseling away at the load one at a time. You know that you can’t stop the slowing down, but you won’t be able to do anything else unless you continue right on track. I’m sorry if I said any of this stuff in a previous post, but when doing this kind of a task for the entire week, you can’t really come up with anything else to say that hasn’t already been said.

Not Much to Really Say

Wednesday did not have much to report on. My responsibility for that day was just more cataloging of the books. I’ll still be writing the necessary amount of blog entries, but I’m warning that there will not be as much to talk about. Wednesday went pretty much exactly as I had imagined it would. Just spending the whole day working on the next book of pieces. However, one piece of good news was that I now only have to do two the three books. One of the volunteers at the Archives was assigned to catalog the contents of the second book, leaving me with the only the third one remaining. Even though this doesn’t change the large amount of pieces I still have to go, it does severely lessen the number, which is never bad news in my book. So, in conclusion, just more of the same today with some good news, but I really don’t see much changing from this during this week.

No Surprises Today

The start of this week at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve was not slow but also not anything remarkable. Before getting to work on the more cataloging that I had to do, I was told to help set up for a presentation that would happen later in the day. Simply involved laying down plastic sheets on the carpet and setting up chairs. Laying down the plastic sheets was easy enough in that all I had to do was place them and then use tape to secure them to the floor. The only possible hiccup, as minor as it was, that happened was that the second roll of tap that I used was more difficult to work with, but it hardly slowed anything down. After placing the chairs out I went back into the warehouse to continue my heavy load of cataloging. There’s not really much to talk about at this point, just more of the same. Just flipping through the binders and filling out the sheets repeatedly. However, I am glad to say that after that day I finally finished the first book of things.

More kittens!

Today was a day filled with kittens, so it was a good day.
Melissa and I started in Kitten Iso, cleaning cages and taking care of the seven kittens there. It takes a while for us to do this room because these kittens don't get as much attention. My favorite kittens there right now are Moonlight and Adiemus, who are both adorable and lovable.

After that we moved to the Kitten Room, where there are currently nine kittens. Normally one would start in the Kitten Room because the kittens there have been cleared and are healthy enough to be adopted, but today we didn't. We cleaned all the cages, which meant I got to hold up to two of the kittens. My favorites are two orange tabby kittens, which I've named for myself, but the shelter calls them Hazel and Florence. My other favorite is a orange tabby tom who was on hold to be adopted that day named Asher, and to create more space since all of the kittens in the back were moving up, we decided to put Asher's siblings in with him. They were separated into twos after their surgery, but since they were from the same litter it was okay to combine them again. Unfortunately, the kittens didn't get along like we thought they would and we had to move Asher to another cage all by himself.

Melissa and I then set up the empty cages for the new kittens and began the process of transporting them. We started with Adiemus and Moonlight, and they didn't like their new living arrangements very much, but we tried to comfort them as best we could. Then we transported the next three kittens, and they were much more angry being held than the first two. The last two kittens were an easy move, as well, but after all that work Florence and Hazel managed to knock over their water bowl. This meant we had to clean their entire cage AGAIN, but it also meant I got to hold my favorite kittens again!

When all of that was done Melissa and I cleaned all of the cages in Kitten Iso, and then moved on to clean all of the cages in Recovery, as well. I felt like I needed a chisel to get off the mess in those cages, but somehow we managed.

Robert's Senior Project- 10

Another perhaps interesting topic is how the soldiers fighting for the Union felt about the soldiers fighting for the Confederacy. Its kind of a complicated relationship. The Confederate soldiers are definitely perceived as the enemy. In nothing that I have read have I found any indication the Union soldiers had any real moral objection to fighting fellow Americans. If anything, the Confederate soldiers were like people from another country. Usually they are called the "rebels" or the "enemy", and there is often descriptions about the southern territory feels really foreign even though its really part of the US. There is a lot of teasing; before battles begin one side may yell insults about "rebels" or "Yankees". These are all insults but they are said in a funny way. So its not as if the two sides hate each other either. Many times Union soldiers will talk to confederate prisoners about home life or something like that. And really, once the war ended the two sides would get together and talk. Because very often a Union soldier will know a rebel. Either they were friends or they may even be related.

Kittens!!

Nothing all that exciting happened today. Melissa and I started in Kitten Iso, cleaning the cages and getting food and water for the babies, and then giving them attention. There are currently seven kittens in Kitten Iso, and usually I hold one or two so Melissa doesn't have to worry about them getting in her way, but since there are so many we usually have to use cat carriers to hold them while we clean.

When that was done, we decided to do Drop Off. One of my favorite cats in Drop Off, Henrietta, who usually is very reserved and shy, came directly up to us today and was very affectionate. She began rubbing her head against the water bowl and accidentally tipped it over onto her head. It was such a funny moment, but Henrietta must've been very embarrassed because she immediately retreated to her litter box.

On Thursday mornings two girls come in to volunteer and take care of the Kitten Room, and while their help is appreciated and needed, Melissa and I more than likely need to go back and redo their job. We have a certain way of preparing the cages so that kittens who usually climb the bars don't fall back and hit their water/food bowl, thus tipping it over and making a mess. We place the food/water bowls in the back of the cage so the kittens can climb all they want, but most other workers just put the bowls at the front. So, we had to redo every cage, but the upside to this is that I was able to hold a bunch of kittens today!

The rest of the day went normally, we finished up doing Quarantine, and then checked to make sure all the cats were still okay.

I spent a long time in the hot sun/windy rain writing down names on the bricks in the front garden. There are a lot of bricks there, and a lot of the names engraved on the stone are weathered so it's hard to tell what they say. I would much rather be cleaning cages than recording the names of donators.

Hep from the Legal Community

This Monday, a vast majority of my time (five hours) was spent inputting the contact information for members of the legal community (lawyers) into the Habitat for Humanity database. There was a somewhat weird moment when I entered the contact for information for one my friend's father; it was an eerie sort of, "Hey, I know him!" moment. Apart from that, the day went by normally and was just another day of data entry in the office.

The next day, the contact information was put to good use. A member of the Habitat for Humanity office named Christine Bucknell wanted to send letters to all of the lawyers in the database asking them for money. The letter they sent was asking for $1000, which seemed like a lot to me (my friend's dad wasn't going to give that much). However, the donation envelope that was to be sent with the letters allowed any amount to be donated, so it seemed like $1000 was more of the ideal than the expected amount.

My job was basically to put the donation envelopes in the letters which I would then put in envelopes. I would then put a mailing address label on the envelope that corresponded to the address written on the letter. I put stamps on some of the envelopes, but this project required more stamps than the entire office had, so Christine said she would buy more stamps later and put them on the envelopes herself. This job actually ended up taking all day, so I didn't do anything else on Tuesday.

WFR- Part 5

So, last evening a couple of friends and I left after classes to go rock climbing. Although I don't go rock climbing frequently it was cool being able to just get out there and climb a couple of faces and boulders. Most of them were very seasoned climbers and guides so i was in safe hands. Anyways, today I learned about heat related injuries (heat stroke and dehydration) and did a few simulations where we preformed a few traction splints and dealt with stroke/seizure patients. We also learned about anaphylaxis shock and how to administer epi-pens.

The end of the course is near and I'm only one written test and a practical exam away from getting my WFR license. I get the test later tonight and tomorrow I am to preform a simulation that I must execute nearly perfectly in order to get my license.

Messy Day

Today was not the best day I've had working at the Humane Society, but it wasn't completely terrible. Melissa and I started in Kitten Iso, and I got to hold all of the cute kittens and entertain them, which is always fun! This morning I also gave a tour to my senior project adviser, but after that was done Melissa and I had to redo a kitten cage because the monsters were climbing their cage bars and tipped the water bowl. This is why cleaning up after the kittens can take hours of your time.

It was later in the morning when I learned that one of my favorite cats had to be put down because of her behavioral issues, so that wasn't good news. I really liked Ophelia, but it would have taken her a very long time to adjust to the Humane Society and then if she was ever adopted it would have been stressful to adjust to a new home, as well. The sad truth is that the Humane Society can't make exceptions for every animal, no matter how much they try, and space is necessary for other animals that can use it.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I went through my daily routines, and nothing too exciting happened until we had to clean Recovery. Usually cats are kept in this room, but a few days ago there were puppies in two of the cages. Puppies are much, much messier than cats, and in their wake they left the worst mess I have ever seen. Melissa and I worked together to clean all of the cages there, but it took us a long time because there was just so much to clean.

Ladders and Avocados

Mere came and helped Ezgi and I paint the sun and his face on the wall today and it looks pretty good. Another problem is the wall is pretty tall and Ezgi and I are both scared to stand on the old ladder that the center has, to paint the top. The ladder is really rusted and scary looking and really can any of you imagine Ezgi and I trying to lift this ladder into place without breaking anything? We tried to put it in place and almost dropped it off the deck, which is about a twenty-foot drop, which is scary in and of its self. The owners mother Barbra (who we refer to as Grandma) was sitting there laughing at us in our futile attempts. We adore her. We also realize we may have made a mistake getting only light colors because they are kind of bright and in your face. I’m just hoping Ezgi and I pull it off. On a separate note Tom, the manager of the raw foods kitchen returned from California and now the kitchen is running much more smoothly. The Juice is usually finished by about ten-thirty or eleven. Tom even let us play around with the different smoothies they made. Ezgi and I made one for ourselves that was the green juice as its base (cucumber, celery, lemon, and parsley), cilantro, ginger, garlic, more parsley and avocado. I like the smoothies a lot more than just the plain juice because it has more of a kick to it. I enjoy the flavor a lot more. During this whole time Ezgi and I ate about an entire avocado between the two of us, with just salt and lemon juice on it (which is delicious). Tom was teaching us about how to tell when an avocado is perfectly ripe or not.

Painting!

Ezgi and I are painting one of the building’s walls at our project. The problem is Ezgi and I literally have no idea what we are doing. The walls condition is not great; it has a mural on it that is peeling away due to weather exposure and time. Ezgi and I spent a morning chipping away at a lot of the peeling paint, unfortunately when we put a new coat of paint over the existing paint more of the existing paint begins to peel and we have to undo our hard work. We have designed a mural of a sky with a large smiling sun in the center with henna like designs coming out, growing less dense as they reach the end of the wall. We went out and bought all the paint we needed with one of the guys that works at the center with us. When we returned from the store we realized the center had about one paint brush, so we turned around and went back to the store and bought tarps and brushes to paint. Since Ezgi and I do NOT know how to paint outdoor walls we really did not know what to buy, s we sort of guessed. Luckily it has not rained while we’ve been at project so we have been able to start painting. We put down most of the base color, which is a sky blue. Mere Mendosa is coming to help us paint the sun and detail work on the wall because she is a lot more artistic than Ezgi and I. Hopefully that goes well!

Week Four at Karamu

Wow guys senior project is seriously going by faster than I ever thought it would. Its like I'm really comfortable and loving it here and we only have one more week left. Anywho...

Today is day sixteen of my and I just wanted to let you guys know what has been going on around here at Karamu. Yesterday, we finally performed SPEAK at Warrensville Library and it was definitely the most memorable experience of this project thus far. Just to be up on a stage with professional actors and actresses just showing them my own talent was incredible. I even got to sing in the show which just made it all the more exciting. Performing poetry and writing it as well has always been a passion of mine so to be able to pay homage to all the great African American writers was a very rewarding experience. I got lots of good feedback and they have even invited back to perform it again with them sometime which was great. It was just nice to have people come up to me and tell me how great of a job I did and to really accept my talent. I have some footage that I will be showing the day of presentations so that should be pretty cool as well. Moving on, today has been a lot of phone calls because Karamu is getting ready to set up their Reality Theatre program and so what they do is get the kids from different schools involved so what we have to do is set up interviews and things. We do that because Reality Theatre is essentially a play that deals with different topics every year but we interview teens because their voice is what makes the play. For example, this years play deals with identity and knowing who you are so we are therefore going to interview the teens about who they are and the things around them that can get in the way of who they are and based on those things the playwright here at the Karamu House will write a play using those voices and then when school starts they will go back to those schools where they interviewed the kids and perform the play for them followed by workshops and discussions so its actually really cool. I'm really sure what the rest of the week has in store but I will be sure to keep you guys posted. Hope all is well with everyone's senior project!

WFR- Part 4

Hey guys, I just had my first half of classes. We looked through slides of rescue missions my teacher, Bill, lead. Bill is looks like a british, balding version of Anthony Hopkins who had numerous experiences with SAS operatives, rescue missions, and paramedics. Experiences that he'd have to kill you if he told you. Anyway. We looked at pictures of people caught in blizzards on top of Mt. Washington. Some of them were frozen solid, others got lucky. One unfortunate climber had a ice axe penetrating his abdomen through and through (He survived). Although we didnt learn anything new first-aid-wise, we did learn the details on how rescue missions work. What surprised me is that when I picture rescue missions, I think of highly trained professional veterans wearing uniforms all knowing what to do and while for many rescuers, that is true, the reality is: many of the rescuers are exactly like me. some of them are around my age and possess the same amount of training as me (maybe even less!) called up on a random weekend to preform a life-saving rescue. It's crazy to hear that once i get my license, I can qualify to be one of these rescuers pulling people out of life threatening situations.

It's about time for class, I just wanted to share my thoughts. I might go rock climbing with some other students later!! should be fun. Until next time....

WFR- Part 3

Hey guys, so after our hiking and movie-night filled weekend off we started up class on monday by learning about dislocations. We were taught how to reduce (snap back into place) shoulders, fingers, knee-caps, etc. We also learned how to create the fabled traction splints for broken femurs (If you've ever been to OL first-aid, you'll know why it's "fabled"). We also talked about head-trauma and how were absolutely helpless when it comes to treatment and our only hope is by diagnosing it and praying for a swift rescue. We ended that day with some more simulations!

Today, the rain FINALLY stopped and the sun actually came out, yet we spent most of our day inside learning about cleaning wounds and preventing infection. We also talked about chest trauma and why it sucks (seriously, you can pucture you thorax and your lungs and air could escape from that hole and thats called a "sucking chest wound"). We also learned how to build a litter (stretcher type deal) out of sticks and rope and did some simulations where we transported victims after treating them. We also looked into abdominal organs and such. It was really awesome.


WFR training begins to feel like a first-aid intensive combined with a summer camp vibe where I'm one of the youngest ones. Sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable, but we all share the common outdoor interest so its always really fun.