Currently Listening to: “Ramblin’ Man” by The Allman Brothers Band
Well, had the day “off.” Not really. Woke up a bit late, then met the Martin staff and we departed for Sam’s Club in Rapid City hours away. It took over 2 hours to get there because we had two cars (one of them being Sandra), a van, and our truck (Hank). We spent like 2 or 3 hours in Sam’s getting supplies and extra dry goods for the summer. It was fun, but I really wanted the day off. After Sam’s we met the Rapid City and PR2 staff at RC’s housing site. We went to Dinosaur Park (which overlooked all of Rapid City) and got some Taco Bell/Subway to bring back and enjoy it together. At the site, there was a birthday cake prepared for Alicia and her big “24.” We left and got back to PR later, and had to unpack all those supplies. Went over some clubs and stuff for next week, but tomorrow is it! This is the real deal!
Finished While Listening to: “You’ll Be Coming Down” by Bruce Springsteen
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Sat 6/14/08 12:01 am – PR
Currently Listening to: “3 AM” by Matchbox Twenty
Okay, so Early Bird Week has finally come to a close. Early bird week is when 3 different sites and our Area Director (AD) Faith come to our site and put on a regular week with students and adult leaders: 17 staff and 60 students and adult leaders = craziness. It was great to see how a week works. Here are some highlights and not-so-highlights:
- Bonding with my site staff. I truly appreciate and love the support of Guy, Alissa, and Gennie. We’ve had a lot of fun these past couple weeks.
- Bonding with the area staff. So many friendships have blossomed since we started with the other area staff. There are great guys and girls here!
- The housing site. Curtis and the guys are working great on the site and everything seems to be in working order and I am finally doing laundry since Day One!
- Seeing how a week runs. Even though there were 13 other hands doing staff jobs, it was great to see teamwork and meals, club, and Kids Club run.
- Going to the Oglala Lakota Home Coalition Housing Summit. Katie (Martin’s Program and Early Bird Program) and I went to get people into YouthWorks. We were invited (coerced?) to be a part of the faith-based organizations who help on the Pine Ridge Res. I met with two guys from HUD (in Washington DC) and got to talk with them about YW. They thought immediately we were bigshots who could set up conferences and get things done. Our nametags say “Summer Site Staff,” but they didn’t pick up on that too much. When Guy and Faith arrived, we went around trying to get names and numbers for Work Projects this summer. A lady came up to me with a clipboard and asked to put down my name and organization. I did, and then she told me I would be thanked in name in front of everyone at the Pow-wow that night. Again, who am I? A small fish in this organization. Speaking of which…
- The evening activities. Almost everything went as planned. Monday was the Buffalo “Feed”, but the buffs were shy and didn’t want to be separated from their calves for too long. Hopefully next week they’ll come down. Tuesday was the Oglala Sioux Lakota powwow. It was amazing to see the Native Americans dancing in the arbor and inviting others out during Inter-tribals. I hope we can go to more this summer. On Wednesday our Wounded Knee tour guides all fell through, so I had to study and research both the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 and Incident of 1973. It went well, but I made two awkward and borderline jokes/comments during the talk. I said Oklahoma, which was rumored to be in conditions worse than prison, still was like that today, and when I was talking casualties/injuries during the AIM incident, I said the US Marshals was “our side.” I don’t know why I said that, it just came out. Whoops. Lastly, on Thursday, we had a cookout in front of our housing site. Wish I had pics to show, but they will be coming soon (hopefully…)
- This Friday, we finished the week off strong and went to Wal-Mart for our weekly shopping trip totaling $1,100! That’s a lot of food and supplies…
So as I finish up some laundry tonight, we will travel to Rapid City for some Sam’s Club action and Alicia’s B-day party and Area hangout time. Then Sunday, the real test comes!
Finished While Listening to: “Seeing Through You” by Blue Merle
Okay, so Early Bird Week has finally come to a close. Early bird week is when 3 different sites and our Area Director (AD) Faith come to our site and put on a regular week with students and adult leaders: 17 staff and 60 students and adult leaders = craziness. It was great to see how a week works. Here are some highlights and not-so-highlights:
- Bonding with my site staff. I truly appreciate and love the support of Guy, Alissa, and Gennie. We’ve had a lot of fun these past couple weeks.
- Bonding with the area staff. So many friendships have blossomed since we started with the other area staff. There are great guys and girls here!
- The housing site. Curtis and the guys are working great on the site and everything seems to be in working order and I am finally doing laundry since Day One!
- Seeing how a week runs. Even though there were 13 other hands doing staff jobs, it was great to see teamwork and meals, club, and Kids Club run.
- Going to the Oglala Lakota Home Coalition Housing Summit. Katie (Martin’s Program and Early Bird Program) and I went to get people into YouthWorks. We were invited (coerced?) to be a part of the faith-based organizations who help on the Pine Ridge Res. I met with two guys from HUD (in Washington DC) and got to talk with them about YW. They thought immediately we were bigshots who could set up conferences and get things done. Our nametags say “Summer Site Staff,” but they didn’t pick up on that too much. When Guy and Faith arrived, we went around trying to get names and numbers for Work Projects this summer. A lady came up to me with a clipboard and asked to put down my name and organization. I did, and then she told me I would be thanked in name in front of everyone at the Pow-wow that night. Again, who am I? A small fish in this organization. Speaking of which…
- The evening activities. Almost everything went as planned. Monday was the Buffalo “Feed”, but the buffs were shy and didn’t want to be separated from their calves for too long. Hopefully next week they’ll come down. Tuesday was the Oglala Sioux Lakota powwow. It was amazing to see the Native Americans dancing in the arbor and inviting others out during Inter-tribals. I hope we can go to more this summer. On Wednesday our Wounded Knee tour guides all fell through, so I had to study and research both the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 and Incident of 1973. It went well, but I made two awkward and borderline jokes/comments during the talk. I said Oklahoma, which was rumored to be in conditions worse than prison, still was like that today, and when I was talking casualties/injuries during the AIM incident, I said the US Marshals was “our side.” I don’t know why I said that, it just came out. Whoops. Lastly, on Thursday, we had a cookout in front of our housing site. Wish I had pics to show, but they will be coming soon (hopefully…)
- This Friday, we finished the week off strong and went to Wal-Mart for our weekly shopping trip totaling $1,100! That’s a lot of food and supplies…
So as I finish up some laundry tonight, we will travel to Rapid City for some Sam’s Club action and Alicia’s B-day party and Area hangout time. Then Sunday, the real test comes!
Finished While Listening to: “Seeing Through You” by Blue Merle
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Sat 6/7/08 10:17 pm – PR
Currently Listening to: “Undone” by Lifehouse
Wow, a week has passed since I’ve had time to write. It has been a whirlwind so far. We’ve met great people and look forward to many visits with all of them. I’ve learned much about the Lakota tribe and their culture. So many people have been such a help to us. Our housing site, Hands of Faith, and its owner, Curtis, have been the best. Curtis and his guys have been working nonstop to get this place ready for 70+ people every week. Here are a couple snapshots that happened this week:
- Went to PR Gospel Fellowship and met all great people including Leon, Joey, Mark and Julie, Henry, and others. Mark and Julie bought us pizza at Pizza Hut.
- Didn’t take a shower for 5 days because we didn’t have working showers. Washed my hair in the sink on Sunday for church.
- Still waiting to get to wash some clothes. Getting down to the last couple of reserve clothes to wear.
- Dogs run around this town like a foreign country. I didn’t want to get attached to the dogs, so I call them all Ralphie, with an adjective describing them before. Here are some of the dogs: Cripple, Yellow, Whitefoot, Golden, Skinny, Starving (RIP), Chipper, Wolf, Old, Gray, and many, many more. Yellow Ralphie is my favorite and comes to me when I call her name.
- Guy and I hit a dog in our rental car. We hit it’s hindlegs going 60+ mph. He had to file a police report and rental car accident report per YouthWorks request. He got laughed at while in the Tribal Police Station for reporting this. A shady process was had, since they made him write the report and then “copied” it and gave him the original.
- We gave our crew names the names of random countries. They include: United Arab Emirates, Turkmenistan, Djibouti, Samoa, Liechtenstein, and Suriname. Different, but better than Orange Buffaloes…
- Been seeing a lot of rain and storms here, which is strange and different for this area according to the contacts.
- Our evening activities include: Buffalo Feed, Wounded Knee, Community Cookout, and possibly seeing some Tribal Dancers. This Tuesday we will be going to a giant pow-wow.
- Friday, our Area Director came to help us shop @ Wal-Mart and our site spent over $2,400! Later that night one other site came to help with early bird week and Saturday two other sites joined us. Tomorrow, we start with our first week!
That’s all I can think for now. We are going to watch “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee” for historical background. Night!
Finished while Listening to: “One” by U2
Wow, a week has passed since I’ve had time to write. It has been a whirlwind so far. We’ve met great people and look forward to many visits with all of them. I’ve learned much about the Lakota tribe and their culture. So many people have been such a help to us. Our housing site, Hands of Faith, and its owner, Curtis, have been the best. Curtis and his guys have been working nonstop to get this place ready for 70+ people every week. Here are a couple snapshots that happened this week:
- Went to PR Gospel Fellowship and met all great people including Leon, Joey, Mark and Julie, Henry, and others. Mark and Julie bought us pizza at Pizza Hut.
- Didn’t take a shower for 5 days because we didn’t have working showers. Washed my hair in the sink on Sunday for church.
- Still waiting to get to wash some clothes. Getting down to the last couple of reserve clothes to wear.
- Dogs run around this town like a foreign country. I didn’t want to get attached to the dogs, so I call them all Ralphie, with an adjective describing them before. Here are some of the dogs: Cripple, Yellow, Whitefoot, Golden, Skinny, Starving (RIP), Chipper, Wolf, Old, Gray, and many, many more. Yellow Ralphie is my favorite and comes to me when I call her name.
- Guy and I hit a dog in our rental car. We hit it’s hindlegs going 60+ mph. He had to file a police report and rental car accident report per YouthWorks request. He got laughed at while in the Tribal Police Station for reporting this. A shady process was had, since they made him write the report and then “copied” it and gave him the original.
- We gave our crew names the names of random countries. They include: United Arab Emirates, Turkmenistan, Djibouti, Samoa, Liechtenstein, and Suriname. Different, but better than Orange Buffaloes…
- Been seeing a lot of rain and storms here, which is strange and different for this area according to the contacts.
- Our evening activities include: Buffalo Feed, Wounded Knee, Community Cookout, and possibly seeing some Tribal Dancers. This Tuesday we will be going to a giant pow-wow.
- Friday, our Area Director came to help us shop @ Wal-Mart and our site spent over $2,400! Later that night one other site came to help with early bird week and Saturday two other sites joined us. Tomorrow, we start with our first week!
That’s all I can think for now. We are going to watch “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee” for historical background. Night!
Finished while Listening to: “One” by U2
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