wondering what washtay is? read to the bottom!
We were all so excited to start volunteering Monday morning bright and early! Since there were groups from Penn State, Ohio Wesleyan, and Central Michigan, us Spartans were split into various tasks Tree of Life needed done.
Some went to the St. Francis Indian School.
Above Dan Na, Fara, and Stephanie worked in the classrooms and spent the day with students.However, on my first day I went to White River Nursing Home. This was an amazing experience where I met some wonderful people. The volunteer coordinator was great and let us hang out with residents for the majority of the day.
The first person to greet me was Bernadine. As soon as we walked in she was shaking our hands and introducing herself. Consequently, we bonded instantly over some magnetic darts and later played some checkers. She was, however, a cheater! Bernadine stealthy was moving her pawns (not Kings) in both directions on the board. We had a great time playing board games.
After a rousing game, Emily and I decorated for the upcoming St Patrick's Day.
After, it was lunch time for the residents, so we decided to take a break as well. My lunch consisted of a peanut butter and jelly (most pb of course), string cheese, clementine, trail mix bar, carrots and some water.
To preface Melissa's story, there is no such think as driver's licenses or driver's education on the reservation and drunk driving is rampant. Before she was even 16 years old, Melissa was involved in a drunk driving accident that left her paralyzed. She has spent years in and out of surgeries, recovery, assisted living facilities, and family member's homes. To my shock, Melissa described her accident as her "savior" of typical reservation life.She portrayed her life if it were without the disabling car wreck as a life of no purpose, being knocked up at early age, using drugs, alcoholism, abusive boyfriends or spouses, no prospect for a good job. It was SHOCKING to hear anybody describe such a traumatic experience as "saving her life," which is how she has illustrated the accident that left her paralyzed. Melissa was an inspirational person to talk to and it was a joy to learn about her life. More about her on Day 5!
I also had the pleasure of hanging out with Dale. We actually did the center's daily exercises and stretches together! He had some great stories about fishing and told me to look him up if I went on a trip to Montana or Canada. He also loved his chocolate pudding.
If you notice in the picture below Dale and I are both wearing baseball caps. In passing conversation I mentioned, "I like your hat," and then Dale proceeded to give me his veterans baseball cap. I was in shock when those words had left my mouth since Caleb, who has been volunteering on Rosebud for 3 spring breaks, warned us about the Lakota kind, hospitable, and open-handed characteristics. Their culture and people have such pride and generosity that when they receive appreciation for a material object they will present it to the complimenter, in this case me. I was left with his veterans hat for a few hours until I was (thankfully) able to convince Dale to keep his hat.
We left the nursing home on the first day of service with a feeling of accomplishment and having learned a ton about true reservation life. We made the journey back to Red House to find our counterparts having started to heat up the chili!
I enjoyed some water, wheat dinner roll, and some vegetarian chili tons of kidney beans, northern beans, crushed red pepper, corn, and some seasoning. Yum! Not as spicy as I wanted the "spicy" chili to be but it was still good. I had made three different pots, one with meat, one vegetarian - mild, and one vegetarian - hot. We quickly enjoyed dinner and headed back to Tree of Life to enjoy our first night of Cultural Events!!Dolores Kills-In-Water was our first guest presenter for the week. She was a wonderful speaker with some beautiful Lakota artifacts and anecdotes. She is a retired social worker and a graduate of Sinte Gleska University with a degree in Lakota Culture. Dolores began here cultural presentations when she educated local Lakota children at school about their own people, which is not widely taught by most teachers. She witnessed that as the education of their own culture grew, so did their grades. However, even with this hope most Lakota children aren't exposed.
Dolores became involved with Tree of Life when their volunteers helped when her roof collapsed. She's been doing cultural presentations for volunteers ever since.
Dolores described Lakota women as very strong members of the community who were responsible for preparing the skins, meats, firewood, and the housing. They were strong willed, the family protector and providers. She cemented this with a story of three Lakota women preparing the skin of a buffalo using sharpened bones out in the field. One of the women threw the bone into the field since she heard an animal.The next day the three women go back to that spot and find an enemy warrior with the bone scraper straight through his head (picture below).
To sum it up, Lakota women were the backbone of the tribe!
Lakota game similar to the "cup and ball" game. This Lakota version is made with deer knuckles.
All handmade!
Animal bladder to hold things, including liquid.
Another interesting cultural note is the symbolism behind turtles and lizards. The above picture shows where Lakota people would place their children's umbilical cord after birth. Little girls were preceived as turtles for their direction and perserverance and long lives. Little boys were symbolic of lizards -- which meant they were swift, and if they lost a tail it would grow back -- demonstrating the resiliance of men. :)
Hand-crafted box made of animal hide.
We also were given Wasna to try. Wasna is essentially cornmeal and buffalo meant that can be packaged in very compact for traveling. This provided food for warriors and hunters.
Fun Fact: The US Army actually purchased this from the Lakota people since it was much more nutritious and flavorful than rations at the time for US soldiers.
After we had this taste we made some after dinner snacks ourselves when we headed back to base camp. Of course this meant some pb. Che had NEVER experienced ants on a log and celery...she's 20 years old.
Look at how excited about the delicioiusness she is!
I enjoyed some apples, peanut butter, and honey.
For reflection we played ASB Jenga. It works exactly like regular jenga, but there are questions on the blocks that you answer like:
Q: How does an ASB compare to a typical spring break?
A:You bond with 11 seemingly strangers and spend 24hours for 7 days with them. They become friends like you cannot explain. You experience powerful memories of your service work with these people that bond you in a surreal way. For me, it's a meaningful and powerful way to spend my spring break away from campus.
Q: What was your favorite moment of ASB so far?
A: Probably either meeting Melissa, Bernadine, and Dale at the nursing home or Fara driving in the middle of the night through Iowa and creepily turning around after swerving from a plastic bag in the road, "Don't worry, I'm driving now."
Fun Fact: The US Army actually purchased this from the Lakota people since it was much more nutritious and flavorful than rations at the time for US soldiers.
After we had this taste we made some after dinner snacks ourselves when we headed back to base camp. Of course this meant some pb. Che had NEVER experienced ants on a log and celery...she's 20 years old.
Look at how excited about the delicioiusness she is!
I enjoyed some apples, peanut butter, and honey.
For reflection we played ASB Jenga. It works exactly like regular jenga, but there are questions on the blocks that you answer like:Q: How does an ASB compare to a typical spring break?
A:You bond with 11 seemingly strangers and spend 24hours for 7 days with them. They become friends like you cannot explain. You experience powerful memories of your service work with these people that bond you in a surreal way. For me, it's a meaningful and powerful way to spend my spring break away from campus.
Q: What was your favorite moment of ASB so far?
A: Probably either meeting Melissa, Bernadine, and Dale at the nursing home or Fara driving in the middle of the night through Iowa and creepily turning around after swerving from a plastic bag in the road, "Don't worry, I'm driving now."
This day was washtay (good in Lakota)!
Posts
