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
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