A trip to the Mountain, painting, weeding and a double rainbow

Tuesday, July 14 2015

No time for a long walk this am, just a quick stroll around the "hood" before getting everyone off to their various projects.  The "mtn team" headed out with Carlton, for a trip the youth camp high in the mountains for some clean up work(more on that later).  The kitchen crew was painting, and several of us headed for the garden at the college to start weeding(even I picked up a hoe for awhile).  After everyone was settled in, I headed out to meet and greet a variety of folks in the community:  the daycare center, the nursing home(where the same two gentlemen I played bingo with last year were still seated in the lobby), and the college admin office.  Turns out the admin assistant's daughter is Junior Miss Crow and a champion dancer.....after some conversation, this lead to an invitation for her to join us for dance and fun with our team, and now has expanded to an evening with dancing, drumming and singing.

Back at Head Start I spent several hours talking with Les, hearing about his life off the reservation in Billings for years a manager for Jiffy Lube, and his decision to return to the reservation and devote himself to education for young children.  Some of this came to him during the Sundance ceremony, attended twice a year, its 3 days of praying and singing, no food or water the whole time.  He has become quite attached to the team. and ended the day by taking a group on a drive up in the hills.  He also invited us on a fishing trip for Friday morning, to include fishing, and a fish fry to follow.  The team is thrilled.  

After errands and a lovely swim in Hardin, I returned to find the mountain team returned, full of great tales and good humor.  Suffice to say that their task was cleaning out toilets at the mountain camp.  The amazing thing was their attitude:  " It was a disgusting job, but we had a great time".  This was buoyed and supported by Carlton, who as the local community member was welcoming, fun, and the first "hand " in to start the cleanup work.

The double rainbow over the hills this evening was a beautiful and auspicious way to end the day.

Love to all of you
Barbara