Backtracking - 8/27/08 - Life on the Rez - Day Five - - -

Wednesday - and our last day at the work site. We went to bed the night before excited, because we thought we were going to be able to bring our lunches to the work site, and have more time there to work. Turns out that we had lunch plans again, but either way, we were going to make the morning worthwhile. After a stop at the Sioux Nation to pick up a few final supplies (including a speaker for music!), we headed out to the church. My job for the day was to help paint the door that led to the storm shelter. Tina painted a base coat of primer on the door, and then I started work painting a medicine wheel design on the door. After realizing that I'd picked up two red cans of paint and no yellow, I phoned a very broken call in to Barry to pick up some yellow. After goofing a couple times, I got the design laid out on the door, and finished the work. Two of the guys spent the morning picking up a trailer and a skid loader so that we could dig a hole to pour a cement pad for the ramp, and also, to put the bell back up on its stand.

Replacing the bell turned out to be one of the most powerful things that happened that day. After working to get the braces set, we picked up the bell with the skid loader and hoisted it up, lined up the notches for it to sit in, and jostled it into place. We got the clapper straight, and pulled the string, and the bell sounded loud and clear across the plains once again. Tina remarked that she got chills seeing it drop into place, and I get chills as I type this now. It seemed to mark the culmination of our week, a group effort to do something that would somehow make a difference, no matter how small.

We got back that afternoon and ended up doing lunch ourselves, and even having a break before the kids arrived. We got to play with them one last time before we would leave, and then sat together with them for a worship service. It was such a wonderful experience to see them worshipping together, and even getting into the worship as they helped to lead it. We then ate with them, which also turned out to be one of the most memorable nights of the week, when I was put in my place by a seven year old that told me I had "fat legs full of hotdogs." Oh Stefani...

After supper, we drove out to a farm, where the grandfather of a couple of the kids raises buffalo. We hopped into the safari bus, and bounced across the country side looking for the buffalo. When we did find them, these gentle giants ambled right up to the windows of the bus where we fed them out of our hands. Oh, what an AWESOME experience. We drove back as the sun was setting, where we then gathered outside the house, and smudged ourselves with sage smoke before we went in to see and hear about a white buffalo calf that had been born on the farm a number of years before. You can read the story here:

http://www.crystalinks.com/buffalocalfwoman.html

The story was amazing to hear from him - he was an incredible story teller.

We finally had a chance to do a talking circle that night, where we gathered together and shared stories and thoughts about our week on the Rez. Only one of us was allowed to talk at a time, and we shared our hearts together, and something stuck out as Karen talked - how the indians believe that as we share time with each other, a piece of their heart stays with us, and a piece of our heart goes with them. It is in this way that we are all "broken" - with pieced together hearts from those that we come into contact with throughout our lives. They are constantly being remade, and in a way, I think that often times, the pieces of our hearts that we give away are only partially ours - other bits that have been added to ours are given away as well.

It truly is God's work, and we are given the ability to use our hands to carry it out.