Y'all Better Git!

Each school team has a call back to use when the whole Corps is assembled. A team member stands up and "declares" (announces to the group his or her name and the school he or she is working at) and the rest of the team yells out this call back. Alexander Mitchell Elementary School's call back is each and every form of "git" you can think of. It started because one of our teammates, Jeff, saw a youtube video about some hillbilly thinking Big Foot was in his backyard and it has evolved to be so many things to us. Definitely one of those City Year-isms.

I introduce "GIT!" because I want to introduce my team. They are becoming my family here and I'm really proud to be serving and working (and eating and complaining and exploring and everything else) with them.

Will is our Team Leader. (TL: remember I said there would be a lot of acronyms?) He is 19, South-Korean American, graduated from high school in a Milwaukee suburb, and has served one year with City Year in San Jose, California. He is an unbelievable listener, very real, and has insight to rival Mamichou.

Sovannra is 24 and has a BFA for Costuming (and something else, though it escapes me at the moment). She has this really cool tattoo of a thunder cloud with a lightening bolt through it raining three little pink hearts on her neck, which the kids find endlessly impressive. Her heart is open and she is anxious to connect with her class, as we all are.

Tia is 21, from Milwaukee, and has an excellent mohawk-ish haircut. She writes constantly and I love to listen to her read her words aloud to us. Her laugh is infectious.

Jerrion is from southern Illinois and he's 22-ish. He's black but has beautiful, piercing blue-green eyes and speaks slowly, with a half-drawl. I love that Jerry is very upfront about politeness and that he loves my snickerdoodle cookies. :-)

Rachel is Filipina-American, adorable, and sassy. She grew up in West Bend, WI, speaks Tagalong and some Spanish, so she is in a bilingual class. Her iPhone has come in handy bunches of times when we need to check bus schedules, as has her realism when I need to escape CY life for a moment.

Jeff is 18, from Baltimore, MD. He plays more instruments than can remember and can be both hilarious and very introspective, which make him easy to relate to despite the college gap.

Angela just graduated from UW-Madison with me, May 2010, with a degree in Theatre and African Studies. She studied in Ghana for a semester and wears a bracelet made of beads of the Ghanaian flag every day. She is truly sweet and a nationally recognized Bavarian dancer.

Last in Nano, nee Nathaniel, my neighbor and boyfriend of Tory (a girl, just to be clear), also my neighbor and a good friend. Nano graduated from Seattle University with a degree in Creative Writing and is from Burlington, Vermont. We bonded over knowing the locations of the only two Dobra Tea Rooms in the country, and through his awesome beagle Finch.

Voila the City Year team of Mitchell Elementary. Now git 'em!