Its an early morning ladies and gents! How early may you ask? Breakfast is at 7. Not the kind of breakfast where you meander in with your pajamas on, no you need to be prepared for work by 7. This might have been a little easier to deal with if I would have slept better the night before but unfortunately I was a little too worried about other things to get a good nights rest. Breakfast consisted of oatmeal, bagels, cereal, yogurt, and fresh fruit. All of us kids did our best to keep our eyes open but the adults told us we looked like we were still sleeping.
Following breakfast a lady named Pinky came to talk to us. She was in charge of an organization to help people financially and she also owned a grocery store in a little town near us. She came to assign us to the projects we would be working on for the rest of the week.
After she left, we got right to work. We split into two groups, one group would be painting inside a church and the other group would be cleaning up outside. I volunteered to be outside. I love being outdoors so it really was a no brainer for me, until I stepped outside and was told that it was 95 degrees out, and apparently we were at a higher elevation too so that made it seem way hotter. Lovely.
I did many different jobs outside. First, I started painting the back of a shed that was "tagged" as they call it or graffitied. It felt good to paint over it and make the shed look brand new. It was also kind of creepy because, the shed was not very far from where we had been sleeping, which meant there had been people there at night while we were sleeping and we didn't even notice. It was a very comforting feeling...not. After that I helped fix a fence, we took an old board off and put a new one on, I even got to use the screw driver! Then I held a ladder for our leader while he painted a building way up by the roof.
After that my friend and I went to paint over the graffiti on the back of the church. There was a little girl that had been hanging around the yard named Cherish, adorable name right? Anyways she had been following me around secretly for awhile so I approached her and asked her if she'd like to come help us paint. Cherish was only 5 years old, but I learned she'd been through a lot. It only took one little question for that sweet little girl to open up and tell her story, all I had to her was how many family members do with? Now that I think about it she never did answer the question, but she told me about her two aunts that used to live with her. She told me that her two aunts had been fighting (my mind can only imagine what..drugs? alcohol? money?) They weren't just arguing either, they had been physically fighting, throwing punches and pushing each other, and it ended up with one aunt smashing her car into the other's. Then Cherish said in a matter of fact tone, "The police came and handcuffed them and took them to jail, I miss them."
My heart was breaking for this girl, I couldn't come up with words to comfort her and it made me sad that such a young girl would experience this. I asked her how she had heard about this, silently praying that she wasn't there when this was going on, but she said "I was there". There I stood, getting yet another one of the many reality checks I would have on this trip. This was the first young person I had connected with on this trip and her childhood spirit was already broken. She was acting like much more of an adult that her aunts had been. It made me realize how lucky I was to have such an easy, carefree childhood. I had only known Cherish for a little while but I was attached. She promised me she would come back and play at kids time, but she never did. Each day I would scan all the kids faces to see her but she was never there. I still worry about her and pray for her, I hope she is okay.
Following this the adults told me I didn't look very good and I must have been in the heat too long they sent me inside to get some water and would only let me return to work if I went in the church to paint because there was a huge fan. We had a quick lunch of sandwiches and then went back to work for about an hour, then we were finally done. After getting cleaned up (very minimally) we headed downstairs for devos. It was nice to have some down time with the group for a little bit the theme for our devos that week was "God Gets It" I thought it was a really cool theme that shows that God can relate and understand any part of our life. On that day we were particularly focusing on praise, praising our Father. We have so many things to be thankful for, things we take for granite that we shouldn't. That was one thing I learned on this trip. Seeing people who barely had anything made me feel guilty about the way I had been living my life. I wasn't thankful for the little things like safety, cleanliness, food, and having the opportunity to work.
After devotions, we had about 45 minutes of free time before kids time. Us ladies were quite exhausted and decided to use our free time to take a nap, I think all of us had fallen asleep before our heads had even touched the pillows! Anyways, that nap flew by way too fast in my opinion and it seemed like in five minutes we were woken back up to loud noises in the basement; children. I had been looking forward to this part of the day. I love children and like to play and get to know them. But once again, I wasn't prepared for what I was about to see (this seemed to happen to me a lot on this trip). Most the kids were dirty, and I mean really dirty. Some actually looked like they had been rolling around in the mud, I kid you not. Their clothes were worn out and many were not even wearing shoes. Most of all the kids looked neglected, I wondered if some had ever received any love at home at all. This is the impression I got when I first looked at the kids, before I had even gotten to know them. Kids time was only an hour, but it flew by. I read books to them, colored, played games, and even got in on a kickball game. We also gave the little girls flower clips for their hair. I can not even explain to you the look on their faces when the clips were put in their hair. They felt like they were princesses, it was wonderful. Their smiles lit up the whole room. Most of them didn't say thank you, but we weren't offended by that. We realized that it wasn't their fault since they probably were not taught manners at home.
Following kids time, we got into our vehicles and drove out into literally the middle of nowhere. But in the middle of nowhere was Betty's Kitchen, a restaurant. It's literally what it sounds like, we were in her dining room eating and our food was made in her kitchen. It wasn't a big house either, it was two trailer homes but together. The view was amazing we were at the top of a huge hill and it was beautiful there. Here I had my very first Indian Taco, it was made out of fried bread, and I really enjoyed it. Betty was also able to talk to us about some interesting history. Her elders had been very important people in the Indian history and it was cool to learn about it.
We then enjoyed a scenic view on the way home. Once we got back, we had a speaker named Uncle Will. Seriously people, I can honestly say he is thee COOLEST MAN I'VE EVER MET IN MY LIFE. I probably should have dedicated a whole blog to him. I know I only met him that one night, but I will still always refer to him as my uncle. Uncle Will is a teacher and a musician. He is a very respected man in the community, he has won a Nammy which is a Native American equivalent to a Grammy. He was all for the young people. He believes in the young people with such a passion that I've never seen before. He stands up for youth and woman's rights. He also brought his wife with. He referred to her as his other half, when he said this to us all of us girls let out a big "awwwhhh", he didn't say anything to us about it, but he probably thought we were crazy because I found out later in the week that that is what most respectable men in their culture refer to their wives as. What's is even cooler is what he called us. He said is not going to call us a kid, because that is a baby goat, and children is not a word in the Lakota language, so what do they call their youth? Ready for this?...drum roll please....Sacred beings! :) Seriously I'm going to hold that against my parents forever, and its super cool because that is now what our youth pastor and other leaders refer to us as. Uncle Will had so many wonderful stories and lessons to share with us, I could have listened to him all night, even though I was so tired. I wore a smile on my face for pretty much the whole time he was talking, because I'd never had an adult talk to us like that before.
At one point he looked at a sacred being in our group and said, "you my man, can be President of this country when you're older, I know it. Please though, when you become President get rid of Columbus Day. I'd much rather see us have an Obama Day, he is someone who is important in our country's history, but can you tell me why Christopher Columbus deserves a day? What did he do? He came to our country and claimed that he founded it when my people were already here, and raped our young girls. Now, can you tell me why this kind of man deserves a national holiday?" This is something that really stuck with me, there was so much truth to what he was saying.
He also sang a song for us called Hard Life. Look it up on youtube its great!
He had a great message about how the youth is our future, so we need to have faith and believe in the youth. He is a great man who is looking for a way to improve others life. One of my favorite quotes from him was "You start the fire and I'll bring the oil!"
"I remind you to keep using the gift God gave you, let it grow, as a small flame grows into a fire." 2 Timothy 1:6
After Uncle Will left we had circle time. This is where everyone sat in a circle and a passed the talking stick around, you were only allowed to talk while you were holding the stick. After that we all headed right to bed for some much needed sleep.
