Meeting the MLC

My Americorps position is with the Multilingual Leadership Corps (MLC) for Goodwill Northern New England. I have yet to begin my position so the particulars of my role are not particularly particular at this point.

Say particular again... 

Particular.

I'll be working with English Language Learners (ELLs) at K-12 public schools all over Lewiston County. These are primarily Somali refugees or the American-born children of Somali refugees. 

Within the MLC are 17 different Americorps members all doing similar work with ELLs. We came from Maine, Washington State, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, and of course, North Carolina, to do this work. 

We began training on Mackworth Island near Falmouth, ME. We did a ropes course and had a training session on the brain science of behaviorally challenged children who have a past history of trauma or living in poverty. I loved, loved, loved the training session. It was great to have even in these initial stages of my Americorps experience to have affirmation of my love of learning about the physiology of psychological processing. One of my goals for my Americorps term is to gain clarity on whether or not I truly want to try to become Dr. Hunt or not. Anywho.

 The MLC trying to do a silly picture. This group is meshing so well; answered prayer.

As mentioned previously, my Maine expectations were not met when I first arrived. The following pictures shall demonstrate that my expectations were not far-fetched, and were actually appropriate. After our training session, we had about an hour to walk around before driving to our next training location. Mackworth Island is about a one mile loop and it is absolutely Maine-y.

I will take all visitors to Mackworth Island.

 Dog cemetery for governor's dogs.

 I could not stop thinking of Starchild (D.P.) when we reached this particular region of the forest on the island. There are these Fairy Houses that people build for the forest faeries. At first glance, you feel like you're in the Blair Witch Project. Then you decide it's pretty cute and want to make one too.

Fairy House!

Fairy House!

 Fairy House!

Forest of fairy houses!

Since it is an island, there is obviously water surrounding, as it is with most islands. This made my Maine dreams come true.

From Mackworth Island, we drove to New Gloucester to do several days of training at an alternative boarding school called Opportunity Farm. It also made my Maine dreams come true. As I was driving in, there was a giant and super vivid double rainbow (just like the YouTube video) stretching all the way across the land and ending with one side in a valley of fallish colored trees and one side at Opportunity Farm.

)

One part of Opportunity Farm.

Looking out to the valley from the farm.

Part of what the 10 students at the school do are agricultural and forestry chores, so there are chickens running all over the place and a few nice trails next to the property. As a service project during our training, we helped clear and mark one of the trails with some of the students. Afterward, we walked to a roadside apple orchard. Much of what I've done so far with this group has reminded me very much of RA training at Queens. I'm loving it.

Tomorrow is for apartment hunting and Friday I begin my job.

JB