Disaster Qualifications

For those of you ardently checking this blog, you will know that I actually did not post this on Wednesday but rather I back dated from Thursday, October 22.

Nonetheless,

had I been in the frame of mind to write a blog yesterday, it WOULD have been about our Red Cross trainings that we had.

I say would have because I did not in fact complete all of the Red Cross Trainings.

I made it through First Aid, and probably could have passed the CPR test from taking it in my previous walks of life, but this time I did not actually make it through the training.

I'm not sure this is quite the avenue to disclose the reasons why, but suffice it today, I was deeply affected by the thought of performing CPR and could not force myself to sit through the training.

The NCCC team leaders and staff we're more than accommodating and rest assured I will finish the CPR course and get certified (lucky for my one of my fellow Corps Members is a Red Cross trainer!)

I suppose it's easiest to say what I was perhaps subconsciously upset about yesterday was the idea of being the help in a disaster. I've always gone by after the fact and helped rebuild (like New Orleans). But I've never done what our Team Leaders are doing in Samoa where they are literally giving the live sustaining necessities to people who not only lost everything, but in many cases have ran out of other places to turn. They are building shelters out of what we would call tents. There are no schools nor churches to place cots and make use of an industrial kitchen. It's the basics.

Sure, I know the odds of me having to do that are slim, but that doesn't change the fact that I will be "qualified" to and could. One of my many reasons for doing NCCC is to help people in need. In my past however, I've chosen who to help, and just how I wanted to do so. This time, I don't get a choice. I'm getting a very broad basic training so that with just a little more, I'll basically be able to do anything.

And it's the anything that's scary.

Disaster qualified sounds cool. It sounds like I'll get to do rough, hard work and really make a difference. But it also sounds like long hours that stretch you physically and emotionally and undoubtedly leave a permanent mark on you spiritually.

This is what I signed up for. I knew this could happen. But being faced with it takes some getting used to.

But I will.

Because "I am an AmeriCorps member, and I will get things done."

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AmeriGET IT!