Tornado Disaster - Crosstown

There's a lot to write on so I'm going to have to be brief right now. Two weeks ago I saw RJD2 and Mann Mann play - the RJ show was pretty good the crowd was as usual - not as energetic as I was - standing there like statues - it hurt the experience. There was some good breakdancing behind us so half the crowd turned to watch them. Then we took off to go catch Mann play. We walked in right behind Honus and no one asked for a ticket, which was nice. It was at a really cool venue - just a big frat looking house, great show, again the crowd not dancing as they should.
I took off Sunday in a van with 10 others to Crosstown, SE MO. A bunch of tornadoes hit this area, an F4 hit Crosstown. 60+ homes destroyed, 100's of acres of trees downed - no one died luckily. Throughout the week more and more of the ERT team arrived until we were at 26 memebers out of the 34. My week consisted of dragging branches, non-burnables and carrying blocked wood (from the sawyers) to seperate piles. Yep. I got to chainsaw a little bit, about 1.5 hrs total - it's really fun. I was in a crew of 5 most of the time with Adam Z. as my leader, we got pretty tight during the week. We worked for a guy named Gary Bonert (the 't' is silent - no joke). He would drive around on his 4-wheeler, no shirt or unbuttoned shirt, cigar in his mouth telling us where he wanted this and this and what to clean up in his yard. He was a hoot. I can't explicate the type of southern, hick drawl he expounded with. We bumped into him at the Super 8 in a nearby town (Perryville) where they were bbqing food and providing beer for the volunteers. He was heading to the hot tub with a bunch of rum and cokes and provided amply for "his crew". We were also working with the Amish and Service International. I tried to chat up some Amish guys but they sure are men of few words. They were from near Carbondale, IL and they were alerted of a tornado nearby due to oak leaves falling to the ground all around their property - they said it looked like a dark cloud steadily dropping down. The Amish, contrary to common belief, are "allowed" to use chainsaws - a fact I was unaware of. Also, they can ride in vehicles if someone else drives - practical measures I suppose. We stayed at a First Baptist church, which was also a hoot. This particular Baptist Church had a "Judgement House". From what I could gather from the pastor - a loquacious, exuberant, impulsive man (no surprise)- there were around 7 different rooms the ticket-payers would be escorted to portraying life and death. There is supposed would be a disaster of some sort dramatized and then some of the people would go to a room called "Hell" and others would go to a room called "Heaven" depending on the deeds of each involved. And Yes!!! Hell had pitchforks, they pumped in sulphur and their would be a horned, red devil. Classic. It opens Oct. 5th and takes 70-100 volunteers to run. I hope I can go.
Red Cross would drive around handing out food during lunch and dinner time - but the food the community provided was 10 times better so we would try to avoid them and head to the Catholic church where the food was stationed. We all ate extremely well. Fried chicken, Muscacholi, beef stew, salads, chili, and a tables and tables of desserts. Yum. Last nite it was one of the Americorps staff's birthdays - it was pirate themed and the bar we went to had a few "washer" courts - a game where you throw a washer into a box 30 feet away - good fun. 12 of us will head back to crosstown Monday and they might rotate us in and out as needed. I am doing well and really enjoyed this last week. Oh by the way, I think all of Crosstown had a Playboy subscription from the 70's as I can tell from the debris lying hither and yon.

Hope you are all well, peace and love, Kevin

Friends, feel free to send me articles or write opinions you feel others need to be aware of or things you are tuned into - it's important to me to still keep up on what's happening even though I can't access it all (a.k.a. the internet) as readily - I will for sure check out what you send. For me I've been checking out: www.guerrillanews.com, the independent paper out of the UK, and pitchforkmedia.

Hey all - hope you are well. I will get right into my week. Monday all 80+ members took off to southern Illinois in a 9 vehicle caravan to begin "Quest". We were split up into teams of 15 and my group had 2 leaders. The leaders were there just in case of an emergency - the team was given maps and compasses and thus began are mission to find locations in the woods and get to out campsite. We each had packs of about 30 pounds. Our group was pretty good at orienteering and so we found the locations fairly quickly. There is a girl named Whitney in my group from Oklahoma - and is one of the funniest people I've ever met - she kept morale up. I also spoke a lot with a guy named Jon - who is very musical and eerily enough shares the same sentiments on almost every issue as I do. We found a cemetary in the middle of some dense woods, which was pretty cool - stumbling upon it around 9:00 p.m. We got into camp around 10:00 p.m. and slept under a rock ledge - being that our campsite was in a very cavernous, rocky area. The next day we hiked for a while and canoed out. The rest of the week we were at a Lutheran camp - just for use of their bunkhouses, mess halls and cooking. We learned about the CCC and how Americorps started intersperced with some activities - skits, a talent show in which Amy my musically talented roommate (she has a cd) and another guy named Jon sang a Shins song and Jon and I sang the sweater song. On thursday we split up into 2 groups: one painted and the other did various jobs with the park service near by. My group moved rocks from a river bed to the slope nearby to stop erosion - I don't have to tell you it was hard work, but our group worked really, really well together. On friday we had a stick ceremony - everyone found a stick which represented them: past, present or future. It got long, but it was a great way for people to vent emotions about their hopes this yr. and their struggles pre-Americorps. The couple who run the show: Kathleen and Bruce Bailey are very cool. I got a chance to talk to Kathleen one on one and she weaved her way into discerning my past - a very perceptive woman. She's done so much and has committed her life to helping St. Louis. We had a party at the Mardel house on friday, which went pretty well...I was sleeping (I have been taking Benedryl for my poison ivy which I have all over my arms, legs, back and some on my face and it makes me quite drowsy) but our neighbor to the left called the police with a noise complaint and the party ended without a bit of drama I heard. Yesterday, some friends and I went to the Science Center - we got lost along the way and didn't know it ended at 4:30 - we arrived at 4:15. Luckily, there was a hot-air balloon launching in a park near the center so we walked over there and saw about 25 take off - it was slightly magical seeing all of them riding the wind toward the arch. I've also been reading a fair bit - "the omnivore's dilemma" which is really good and the last temptation of christ. This next week we will be getting some CPR and emergency first respondent training. I will speak with you soon. Also in case anyone wants it, my number is 320-237-2956, call anytime.

till then, peace, Kevin

Just getting started

So the bus ride down here was well, greyhoundish, not pleasant, but could have been worse. I sat next to a heavy smoker during the brunt of the trip and wow would that have been a good experience for all us social smokers. She hacked up her lungs between cackling with a raspy laugh and wrinkly yellow face. On to better things: Tom and Justin my roommates here in St. Louis picked me up at the bus depot and we were off to visit first the ERT office and then our house. Tom's from Sweden and has done a lot for just turning 21. He speaks 5 languages, studied the culinary arts in Mexico and is well traveled. He's not in the ERT program, but is living here and taking EMT classes with aspirations of becoming a paramedic. Justin is from NY, graduated from Richmond with a degree in Chemistry. He's a stout, boisterous Italian with a hearty laugh. Amy's another roommate. She's a college dropout from Ohio, she wants to finish her degree in Philosophy...sometime. We have similar musical tastes (wolf parade, Andrew Bird, Devendra, etc...). Brian Dolan also lives here. He's 20, from upstate NY - a very interesting cat. More on that later. AJ's the last roommate. A good guy from Iowa - he's a big drinker. I've met a ton of other people, there are around 80 in the program, half are ERT's the other half are in Education. Yesterday we went on a tour of the Budweiser factory in St. Louis - the headquarters. It was boring, but we got some free beer at the end and it was pleasant talking with everyone and enjoying the warm, sunny day. Tonight, we're all going to a potluck at some other Americorps members' house, and afterwards to a box wine party. Next week, we're all going on a week long "quest" trip into the wild....The activities are a guarded secret, but I'll try to inform you of them as soon as humanly possible. Everyone's really cool, educated, sincere and excited just like I am to see new places and help out. I'm feeing great. Hope you're doing well.

Kevin