AmeriCorps: A Study in Being Uncomfortable

Imagine driving from Northern California to Louisiana. Imagine driving 10 hours a day for five days. Now imagine you have to do it packed into one van like sardines with 11 other people. If there is a hell on Earth, I suppose it would be something like the experience I just described. It’s just downright uncomfortable.

I arrived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana a week ago after driving for five days straight. Here are a few of the many, many things that annoyed me on this trip:

  • People listening to their music too loud
  • People leaving their garbage in the van
  • People eating smelly food next to me
  • People backseat driving
  • People deciding they have to go to the bathroom right after we just left a rest stop
  • Eating fast food for all three meals a day
  • Fearing you’re getting bedbugs from the sketchy motels
on our uncomfortable roadtrip

New Mexico, one of the most beautiful places I’ve been

I could go on, but at the risk of sounding whiny, I won’t. Besides, we did get to drive through Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, all places I’ve never seen before. All you need to know from this is that AmeriCorps is a study in how to be uncomfortable. You sacrifice all your personal comfort and needs in the interest of helping others. I’m not trying to building myself up, but it does take a certain type of person to work for almost no pay in these conditions simply to improve our society.

The discomfort didn’t end with the drive. Our work here is grueling. We are providing mold remediation and suppression to homes in the Baton Rouge area. This entails the following, in this order:

  1. Assessing the damage
  2. Knocking down of drywall (partial or full)
  3. Removing the flooring, paneling, and ceiling as needed
  4. Removing nails and screws from the studs
  5. Removing bathtubs, showers, and toilets as needed
  6. Concentrating personal items in the center of the home
  7. Scrubbing the wood to remove dust and mold particles
  8. Sweeping and removing debris
  9. Spraying all the wood with Shockwave, a high concentration mold suppressant that is four times stronger than bleach

All of this would be hard on its own, but we are also wearing an insane amount of PPE (personal protective equipment). Everyday we wear:

  • Steel-toe boots
  • Cargo pants
  • Long-sleeve shirts
  • A hooded Tyvek suit (which basically traps all the heat)
  • A respirator
  • Goggles
  • A hard hat
  • 2 pairs of gloves

All of these things combine to ensure that I am only dry for about 10 minutes before my clothes are thoroughly soaked with sweat. There was a point a few days ago on an 80 degree day that my respirator was filled with about a thimble full of sweat, and I had to continue to empty it every half hour.

Somehow I don’t mind the work. I like the feeling of working my body until I’m sore and I’m exhausted. But what I do mind is walking into a house feeling disadvantaged because of the lack of equipment we have. We spent two days manually unscrewing over 1000 screws from the studs because we didn’t have an electric drill. We requested one several times, but supplies are short. Instead of covering the homeowner’s personal items with a tarp we are forced to cut up garbage bags and tape them together. And instead of having a much more efficient electric saw, we had to cut drywall by hand using box cutters, which was the most strenuous job yet.

uncomfortable PPE

Our team decked out in PPE

So if you’re ever wondering if the government is using its resources inefficiently, it’s not. We don’t have nearly enough of the supplies we need. Trust me that taxpayer dollars are not being spent.

I’m slightly concerned that we are being exposed to such high levels of mold and on occasion asbestos. But when I see contractors going into the house with no PPE, I realize that AmeriCorps is being overprotective with us. We also have mandatory showers after work to decontaminate ourselves.

To make up for the asbestos, at least our housing is better than any of us could have hoped for. We’re living three to a room with our own bathroom in trailers at the Milldale Baptist Church in Zackary, Louisiana. This probably sounds horrific to the average person, but to us AmeriCorps members who are used to only the most Amish of accommodations it’s like a 5-star hotel. Not to mention the fact that there serve us breakfast and dinner each day. We have to pack lunches, but when we’re done with work we always come home to a home-cooked Southern meal.

All in all, it’s not as bad as I thought, but then again it is the hardest and most uncomfortable project that any of the teams from our campus are working right now. So if everything else turns to shit then at least we know it’s only going to get easier from here.

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