After arriving in Hallowell, a day early, I found another Americorp employee walking on the street. I noticed he had a certain rugged look about him so I chanced asking him if he was a part of the same program I was in. He was, only in a slightly different field. He invited me to stay with him. We watched Braveheart.
When my program started, the next day, I was thrown into the schedule and remained in it until the end of the summer. There really was no time alone and no time I didn’t have something to do or someone to talk to. Everyone in MCC (Maine conservation Corps) had an orientation week at a camp beside a lake, a nice taste of what the rest of the summer would be like. I'm not sure how much of use we learned during the scheduled activities. However, we learned a lot about each other and had a blast doing it. Every night sports were played, fire-circles made, conversations had and friendships developed. I found myself leading many of these activities. I felt a natural drive to motivate people towards activity. In the process I found that getting groups of people to do something is a tricky business. It needs to be approached with a sort of sideways-directness. Clear intention mixed with with enthusiasm and a casual non-important attitude while assuming that others will follow you seems to work best. By the end of the week I felt close to almost all of the people in the group and was dreading the moment when we would be divided up into our teams-we would be spending the entire summer with. I genuinely have to say that I was very lucky with my team-members. We had no choice in the matter of who would be on whose team and besides a few factors like work preference we were divided op completely randomly.
My team and I spent two and a half months living together in two different cabins with minimal contact with the outside world. A situation both isolating and sweet. It makes my heart melt. There was Jennifer, our team leader for the first part of the season. She cares about people almost too much. You don’t realize how much she cares until you have lived with her for awhile. She is strangely weird which ends up being normal. She sees the offbeat creative side of others. Usually at some point during dinner she would burst into uncontrolled laughter we called Jennifer Giggle Fits. Everything is open with her, making her easy to talk to. She put up with my complaints about what I thought were overly strict company policies. We usually talked it out and made amends with a hug.
The assistant team leader, although I was never able to view him as that because he was so laid back and friendly, was Jared. Jared studied philosophy in school and continues to study it in life. We talked about what philosophy actually means although I can’t exactly remember what definition we decided on. I feel like it should mean something like “the pursuit of Truth” which is helpful in describing him. Deep discussions about everything is a passion of his. Everyone agreed that he was an excellent conversationalist. In contemplating his next bite of food or where to place a rock, he took his time. He strove for quality and control in all his actions.
Whitney was on summer break from school. Going on walks looking for birds, specifically owls, was a favorite activity of hers. I don’t know how she did it but I think she finished a Sudoku puzzle every day. I learned to play cribbage this summer and played her several times, with no success at winning, she was nearly undefeated. Any new game played she mastered quickly and became very difficult to beat. She knew so much about birds, especially chickens, that we called her Mother Chicken Nerd. Sometimes on the weekend she would make breakfast for everyone and then clean it up before anyone could get to the sink.
When I felt my enthusiasm lacking there was Courtney. Calm and strong, no one ever really mentioned it but among her best traits was virtue. Different from doing “the right thing” she would do the upright thing. After a long week of work she would get up an hour earlier than our already early start time and go on a run. Following the rules of our employers and society she filled in the gaps with her own fun and loving creativity. She stopped to ask me how I was doing when no one else thought to notice then ran up a tree to set up the grip-hoist. Another time, while moving a heavy rock on her own, she dropped it on her hand. Her fingers being crushed she called me to help her without a trace of anxiety in her voice.
At first I thought that Sheldon was really “cool” but that's just because he was coming from ATL. Really, he was super sweet. He was training to become a firefighter in the fall so we would sometimes go on runs together. Almost every friday he would turn the speakers up on his truck and we would dance to techno. He knew a lot about everything. I’m not sure why no one has written an article on his ability to read and retain information. A 500 page book could be devoured by him in a day, well part of a day really. He did not spend hours and hours reading, only a few. He finished Thoreau’s book In the Maine Woods in a single day. I never finished the first chapter, it was just too thick. He entertained us with hilarious and horrifying stories from the years he had spent in the army.
Augusta became our team leader towards the end of the summer. She fit in well with our group adding a caring and quite presence. She hated unnecessary discipline or being too nitpicky. She was just respectful and kind. It was easy for me to have conversations with her. She had worked for MCC for a while and knew a lot about setting rocks and living in the woods.
The end of the summer slipped away too fast with a recognition ceremony with all the groups... then we split up. Its hard for me to remember events and things we did but the people are etched in my heart. I became closest with my immediate group but instant and deep connections were made with those in other groups. In my mind, Maine is a place of magic and fairy tales, sunshine, passion and adventure.
This is a quote taken from the MCC newsletter describing our team.
“I was impressed by how much work they were able to accomplish. The team completed three staircases and half of a staircase for the fall crew to complete. They also cut half a mile of new trail, sidehilled, quarried many stones, and set up high line systems to complete the stairs more efficiently. After work they baked homemade bread and cookies made in the cabin, had great dance sessions, and swam a lot. It was a pleasure joining their team.”
Alexander, this is SO interesting. I love your descriptions of your teammates. You have a discerning heart.
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