Day 4x200 Cots = Pure Exhaustion

Today was a super busy day. It has been quite some time since I have been outside and on my feet as much as I was today. But I wasn't alone. Holly and Jenna were outside with me as well as we spent about 10 hours setting up, spraying, cleaning, drying, and taking down nearly 200 Red Cross Army cots.

We arrived at the shelter at 7:30 am and attended the staff meeting. Jenna and Holly headed out with one of our supervisors, David (who we have yet to see laugh), and were given our assignment to clean cots so that we could put them into storage for next time. I was about to join them when I was caught by Dan, the cleaning man, who spends all day every day walking around the entire shelter with Clorox wipes disinfecting EVERYTHING. He asked me if I could clean all of the girls bathrooms and so I did. It only took about 40 minutes because I am getting faster at it. I met one of the ladies in the shelter and her two daughters who are incredibly cute. They were in the bathroom on the lower floor getting ready for the day. The younger daughter who is only 2 was really quiet but so cute with her dark hair that was completely braided with beads on each end. We all talked and laughed for a few minutes which was a great way to start my morning.

After disinfecting the bathrooms I went outside to help Holly and Jenna with the cots. They were just getting started with the help of two older ladies, Vickie and Bobbie. We were supposed to use a Lysol/water mix in a large spraying container and spray the top and bottom of every cot and then use a sponge to wash off the metal legs and ends. The whole process started off fairly slow, but by the end I the day we not only experts, but we also never wanted to see another cot again in our lives. Unfortunately we are doing the same things tomorrow.

A few guys were assignment to being the pallets of dirty cots over to where we were cleaning them. There are about 10 pallets, each of them containing 50 cots. Yes. That is 500 cots total.

Like I said, things were kind of slow going at first because we were a trying to find the most efficient way to do it. It took most of the morning to set up, clean, dry, and take down the first 50 cots. By our last batch we were able to set up and clean 60 cots in lease than 2 hours.

Although we did have help from Vickie and Babbie, a majority of the work was done by Jenna, Holly and I. We worked so hard for so long and laughed most of the time. We made a lot of dumb jokes that if I even attempted to retell would probably sound like the more ridiculous things in the world, so I won't. But it was fun.

Finally at about 12:30 we headed inside for lunch with frozen fingers and aching backs. We sat with little more than a few words and lots of eating for about 40 minutes. None of us were looking forward to cleaning cots for the rest of the afternoon.

By the way. Jenna is from Wisconsin and Holly is from Michigan. If you know anything about either of these places you know that nearly everyone there has a slight accent. Instead of saying bag, they say beg. Instead of tag they say teg. Think of the Mom on Bobby's World, the super old cartoon, and the oh so famous phrase "don'chya know". Yep. Just like that. So instead of sayings "cots" it's more like "cawts". I think its funny.

I should also clarify how to say the name of the county that I am in. It is spelled Nassau but is pronounced "nah" (Nah like the first park of napkin) and then "saw". Nah-saw. Go ahead. Say it out loud. "Nassau County". Now realize that you did just sound like a hick and laugh out loud. Very good.

I don't think I have heard anybody here say it without sounding like a redneck, but if you figure out a way I would love to hear it.

Back to the cots. We were outside from 8:45 this morning until 5:30 pm in freezing cold weather cleaning about 200 cots. Needless to say we feel fairly accomplished but incredibly exhausted and sore. The picture below shows Holly walking with a major limp. She was not alone in that! The three of us were so excited to go to bed tonight.

Most of the Red Cross volunteers in the shelter are a little bit older, like 40's to 70's. Those of us who are young tend to naturally band together and talk. One of those younger people is Damarcus. He is in his 20's and is from North Carolina. He is a black guy who is really nice and way polite. He also has a brother here with him who is 19 and...I can't remember his name. But he is nice too, and incredibly quite compared to Damarcus. He does a lot to help around the shelter but also enjoys eating meals and helping all of us girls as well. He spent about an hour doing cots with us today which was a tremendous help.

After we finally got back to the staff shelter Jenna and I and then Jenna, Dani and I talked for at least an hour. It was a lot of fun to get to know them better and to just chat about life instead of the shelter-as much as we love it. :)

Lights out was at 10:45 and we were all so ready for it! Thank heavens for sleep!

Another day of cots tomorrow! Enjoy the photos!

Always,

Kat

Day 3, a Couple Sweet Stories and an Uplifting Thought

Today was BUSY! I woke up at 6am to the smell of Coffee (yuck) and started getting ready for the day. We didn't have a ton of food here so I mostly just snacked before we headed over to the shelter. They had hot chocolate packets and hot water available, but the water was in a coffee mug and tasted like it was infused with coffee. So I threw away my hot chocolate.

We loaded up a few vans just after 7am and headed over to the shelter. It was a short 10 minute drive and as we drove we listened to one guy in the car talk about how women talk so much more than men. Ha. Ironic.

On our way there Dani saw some Geese and was so excited. I responded by saying "oh man, I just want to squeeze them" to make fun of Holly. It was funny and everyone laughed.

When we got to the shelter we entered directly in to the sleeping area. It was kind of overwhelming at first. There are around 250 people living here in the shelter and almost all of them were just waking up. Cots were everywhere. They filled up the entire gym. I didn't know whether I should smile or not when they all turned to look at us while we walked through.

We went down to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to meet the Shelter manager and receive our assignments. Dani was out on security. Crystal went to dorms. And Holly, Jenna and I were assignment to Logistics. We headed out for a tour of the shelter and then our first assignment was to help move boxes around in the kitchen so that more outlets would be available for cooking and coffee pots. Then we went upstairs and helped set up about 10 cots.

After that I was asked by Dan to go around to each of the women's bathrooms to wipe down door knobs, sink handles, stall doors and locks, and toilet seats and flush handles. There are 3 viruses that have been going around both the clients and volunteers. One is a really bad cold, the other is the common flu, and the last is the noro virus. At least 1-2 people on the day and night shift have been assigned to disinfect things all day every day to try and prevent it from spreading. All staff has been instructed to use sanitizer and wash our hands as often as possible. Most of us have latex Gloves on most of the day while we work with clients and equipment.

After cleaning I met up with Holly and Jenna and we set up another 35 cots. It took a while but we became champions at setting up cots. (See picture below)

After we finished I was sent to stand at the front door to check for wristbands as people came in. If they didn't have a wrist band or a badge they weren't supposed to come in. Basically I just stood there for 3 hours because who wants to sneak in to a shelter?

We had a meeting with our logistics supervisor about how to get everything done that we needed to and then I went and decontaminated all of the women's bathrooms...again. I did a few other odd jobs here and there and then I was time to head home. Most of the girls in the staff shelter took showers that night because we all felt so gross. The showers were super hot which I was grateful for. Then we went to sleep! I was so tired that I couldn't even finish my blog post for the day. But here it is now.

Story 1: I forgot to say that after the lady yesterday found out I was a Mormon she asked if I was going to pray for everyone there in the staff shelter. I enthusiastically said yes and then she walked away.

Story 2. While I was in line waiting to get dinner one of the clients in front of me turned, looked at me, and said someone is calling for you. Confused, I asked "me?" She explained that they were calling for a Red Cross worker. So I looked over to the tables where people were sitting just as someone yelled "Help! He's chocking! So I jumped over a table, pushed an old lady out of the way and....I actually just ran back to where he was sitting while thinking "I can't believe this is happening. I sure hope I can remember what I learned in First Aid". When I got there I said the First Aid "Sir, are you okay?" He was definitely frazzled but the lady next to him said that he was doing okay and he wasn't chocking anymore. Then he says "But I think I'm going to throw up". So I grabbed a trash can that was sitting 5 feet away and put it right next to him. He kept downing food and so I tried to get him to slow down and take it easy. He admitted that he hadn't been feeling well all day so I convinced him to let me go get medical services so that they could talk to him. He ended up being okay, thankfully, but it was quite the experience.



Uplifting Thought: Obedience Requires Faith, But It Is Absolutely Worth It.

Day 2

This morning, I woke up in New York City. I looked out my window and could see Broadway and a sign for the Letterman show. I quickly got ready and went down in to the lobby to meet up with Cecil. I bought an apple turnover and we headed out at 8am for the Manhattan Red Cross chapter, a 15 minute walk through the city.

When we arrived at the chapter we went through in-processing and headed over to orientation. While standing in line for processing and also while sitting in orientation I was behind 4 girls who looked like they were about my age. When the teaher asked during orientation who was going to work in shelters they all raised their hands. Afterwards I talked to them to let them know I was doing sheltering as well and we have been hanging out together ever since. Their names are Dani, Crystal, Jenna, and Holly. They are all Americorps/Red Cross volunteers who are stationed in Phoenix Arizona. Holly is originally from Michigan and Jenna is from Wisconsin. Both Dani and Crystal are from Phoenix. (In the picture of the 5 of us below left to right it is Crystal, Jenna, Dani, Me, and Holly)

We headed over to check in with our supervisor and get our assignments. The shelter center asked for our names and then told us that we hadn't yet been assigned and they were still trying to figure things out. So they took down our phone numbers and told us we were free to roam around the city until they called us. So we headed out.

We made a quick stop by Starbucks so that Jenna could get her caffeine fix for the morning. After that we walked around a ton. We saw lots of buildings, a river, a huge ship, and a New York "park" that was really a walkway with about 2-3 feet of plants on each side. (See picture below)

Holly saw a HUGE pigeon on the road that was really round for a bird. She told us that she "just wanted to squeeze it". Needless to say none of us understood why since it would be super gross and it would probably just poop on her if she did squeeze it. She was relentlessly teased for the rest of the day. Her nickname is now "girl who likes to squeeze pigeons". Nicknames for the rest of us are yet to be determined.

At about 12:30 we received a call from the chapter summoning our presence to receive our assignments. We hurried back only to be asked 3 questioned and be handed a piece of paper. We were assigned to the Nassau County shelter. The shuttle was supposed to leave at 4pm. We were sent back to our hotels to pick up our luggage and return again to the chapter. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a Steak Grill place for lunch. it was directly across the street from the theater where they are showing the musical "The Book of Mormon". Haha. We ate chicken sandwiches with avocado in them. Yum.

After lunch we picked up our luggage, hailed a Taxi (mostly the driver just saw us and stopped) and headed back to the chapter. Then, we waited.

After we waited, we waited more. Then a little bit more. And then we were told that the shuttle wouldn't be coming until 5. So we waited more.

After that we were informed that it wouldn't actually come until 7. So we left and went to a hole in the wall Pizzaria and ate awesome pizza for dinner, while laughing so hard because we were all so exhausted, almost to the point of going crazy. This was also the time when Holly received her appropriate nickname mentioned earlier.

After dinner we went back to the chapter and waited some more. We took a few pictures (see the one below of the 4 girls) and then waited a bit longer. Our shuttle didn't come until about 8pm. I ended up being put in a different van from the 4 other girls because there wasn't enough room, but it all worked out okay because we were going to the same place and I was able to sleep on the way there.

Although we are working at the Nassau County Shelter we are sleeping in a staff shelter with a secret location which I am not allowed to disclose-partially because I don't know where it is. I do, however, know that it is on Long Island.

After the ride here we unloaded our stuff and went up to the 3rd floor of the building where all of the other volunteers who are working in the Nassau shelter were staying. We met the shelter manager and received 2 official Red Cross blankets (Sweet!!!), and chose which cots we would be sleeping on.

One of the cots near me belongs to a lady who is about the same age as Mom. She came over and told us that it was time to go to sleep and we needed to listen to our Mom. I like her already. She also asked me what I was reading and I told her it was The Book of Mormon. She said "good for you" and then walked away. That seems to be the most common response from people here.

I know that it seems like I had a fairly unproductive day, and that is because I did. But it was really cool to meet and spend time with so many volunteers at the Manhattan chapter and to get to know Jenna, Holly, Dani, and Crystal. They are all super nice and way fun to hang out with. So far we have gotten along great and I am excited to be able to work with them.

I am also REALLY excited to get to work! Tomorrow I leave the staff shelter at 7am to report for my assignment!

Wish me luck!

Always,

-Kat

Day 1

What an incredible day! Yesterday November 26th I submitted my availability to the Red Cross. The chapter supervisor told me that I would be on my way to New York in 24 hours and it was true. I caught a flight out of Salt Lake on the 27th at 1:30pm. I had a 2 hour layover in Pheonix where I met Tina, another Red Cross volunteer. This is her second deployment since hurricane Sandy hit the East coast. The first time she drove the Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) across country, which took 5 days. She is pretty peppy and super nice. She gave me some tips of what to do and where to go and I am even more excited to be deployed than I was before I left.

We departed from Pheonix at 4:15 and headed out to the JFK airport in New York City. I sat next to Madalyn an older lady who is a lawyer with one home in the big city and one in Pheonix. As I was explaining to her that with national deployment we are given a phone number to call to set up our flights and another phone number to call when we get to our destination she began to be a little worried. She couldn't believe that I didn't know where I was going to be located, let alone where I was going to sleep that night. She fidgeted in her seat for a few minutes and then handed me her business card and told me to call WHEN nobody came to get me. She was really concerned. I thought it was funny.

I arrived at the JFK airport at 10:45 pm and met up with Tina again as well as a guy named Cecil. We called the phone number and found out which hotel we were staying at for the night and how to get there. We picked up our luggage and then went out to the street to catch a cab. Yes. I caught a cab. It was awesome. Super expensive though. We each dished out $20 just to get to our hotel. The ride was awesome though! We drove past Bloomingdales and I caught a glimpse of time square. Cecil and I are staying at the Park Central Hotel for the night. I have my own room on the 21st floor. Pretty Awesome!!!

Tomorrow I report to the Manhatten Red Cross chapter at 8:30am to receive my assignment!

I will keep you all updated!

Peace out from New York City!

Hurricane Sandy

Trisha Holmes

Emergency Services Manager

The American Red Cross

I am available to be deployed starting on the evening of the 27th of November. I have a final at BYU on December 13th at 7:00am and need to be home on the evening of December 12th in order to be prepared to take the test.

Please let me know if I can be deployed to help on the East Coast. I will also contact Priscilla later this morning to confirm the information. Thank you. 

Sincerely,

Kaytlyn Monsivais

Ita Stories

Over the past year I have had the wonderful opportunity to get to know my Abuelita-my Dad's Mom- better. It has been a really good opportunity for me to develop a better relationship with her and learn more about who she is and the things that she has experienced.

I have been told many stories at least twice and other stories at least four times. I recorded a lot of the stories and will hopefully post them in her own words eventually, but I decided that for this post I would share a few of the experiences that my siblings and I have had as her Grandkids over the last year.

Story 1: Ita has a cell phone. It is just a little cell phone, and it is mostly used for receiving calls, very rarely for making calls and never for texting. Because she is old, she is also hard of hearing, and thus her cell phone is always on the highest volume for ringing. Her ring tone has been the same since...I think she originally got the phone. The actual ring tone is a fairly catch tune which I think will be ingrained in my mind for the rest of my life since when it goes off you can hear it throughout most of the house. She also receives more calls in a day than I receive text messages, so it goes off quite frequently.

The other funny thing about Ita's phone is that even though it is on the highest volume for the ring, she often doesn't hear it. There have been multiple times where she was sitting with a bunch of us in the living room and her phone would go off. We would all look at her and wait for her to realize that her phone was ringing, but she wouldn't and so one of us would have to tell her. Classic. :)

Story 2: Ita has a bell. You know, those bells that are at reception desks so that if the receptionist isn't there you can ring the bell and they will come? Ya. One of those. (See picture below if you are still confused)

Over the last few months Ita has become more and more immobile. There were a lot of things (now it is everything) that she can't do by herself that she needed help with. If she needed something she just needed to ring the bell and someone would come up and help her. It started out as a fairly good idea. She would ring the bell once and someone would come and that was that. In the last 3 weeks it has progressed to the point where she still rings the bell....but she NEVER rings it once. She will generally ring it between 6-18 times depending on the need at hand. For example: If she needs to use the bathroom it necessitates about 6 rings. But, if she needs to have her food tray moved closer to her or her blankets moved up, that usually requires up to 18 rings. I am still trying to figure out the logic and any kind of a consistant patter, but I'm at a loss.

Story 3: This isn't something that I have experienced over the last year, but rather a more recent event, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The weekend that Ita was in the hospital a few volunteers in the family took over shifts to go and sit with her since she hates being alone. (Because of this, for the last year there has always been 2 people in the Monsivais house at all times unless Ita was at church or the doctor) The night shift that I took she slept fairly well. Well enough to dream and then talk in her sleep for a little over 3 hours. It was hilarious really.

At first she was kind of mumbling different things. I caught a few names like Hyrum, Maria, George, Chuy...things like that. Then she got louder. There was a point where she was calling for her husband, Manuel, and she was yelling. Well...as much of a yell as you can get out of a seventy-six pound, 86 year old Ita. It was loud enough though that I was worried about the hospital staff coming in to ask what was wrong.

My favorite part though, was when she started calling for my Mom, Rebecca. It started off something like "Becca! Becca! Rebecca!" Then she slouches back in bed, starts shaking her head, and says "Oh boy" like Ita always does when she is kind of annoyed at something. I busted up laughing and had to cover my mouth so I wouldn't wake her up.

Later that night she woke up after one of the nurses came in and started talking up a storm. She started telling me story after story and I was able to record most of them. About an hour and a half later she tells me that she is wasting all of my time and that I should go back to working on my homework (I was  really just watching a movie on my laptop, since nobody should ever willingly do homework at 3am). I said "okay" and told her to try and get some rest. Then she asks when dinner is coming. Confused I tell her, "Ita, it is 4:30 in the morning". It took another hour and a nurse to convince her that yes, it really was morning and that breakfast, not dinner, would be coming soon. It is probably a good thing that she was so confused because otherwise she wouldn't have told me so many stories! It also explained why every time she did wake up she told me to "turn on the light mi jita".

Spanish Lesson of the Day: 
Word: Mi Jita  Pronounced: "Me Heat-The"(ha ha) Meaning: My little girl/daughter



And to close out, here are a few more pictures from the last few weeks.

                                                                   Provo Storm Clouds

Temple Thursday 

Because Cotton Candy makes a buffet all the more appealing?

 Leah's Bridal Shower

 Bridal Shower Decorations

Maria's Halloween Costume: Joshua

My Halloween Costume: Lt. Commander Dax

This is the type of bell that Ita has.