Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Dosing down in transit accomodation
Monday, January 28, 2008
On the final straight
Billings, Wal-Mart and Indian Tacos
Bored and pissed off in the land of my dreams
I woke up in a bad mood this morning. A brooding cloak was thrown over me as I slept and I couldn't shake it. Emma had come back to her house and just gone back out to the Sun dance without calling in. It felt like we were inconvenient guests that she wanted to go away. So 7 of the delegation sat and twiddled our thumbs. I didn't fly these kids across the Atlantic to sit in a trailer watching shite TV!
I realised that by hook or by crook I had to ensure the Billings trip comes off. All I could think about was that I could be in Brighton at Gay Pride, drinking, eating and hanging out with friends. This did not improve my mood. But to be fair, the kids just got on with it and made the best of it. I was really impressed and proud of them.
Monday 6th August
I was still wound up this morning. So I bagged the rubbish and took it over to the dumpster. I then went into the club and accessed my email. Emma was there and I decided I couldn't let this go on. But it was a delicate situation. I felt frustrated and a bit angry. So I asked Emma what was happening today, and that leaving teenagers to fester in a trailer on a Rez with nothing to do was a recipe for disaster. Emma looked embarrassed and explained she had been left to organise the delegation, make federal funding bids and do funding reports. She was even paying for food etc for us from her own pocket.
My anger vanished immediately and I told her it was out of the question that she paid for food etc herself. I said either this is, or it is not a delegation, and it was the club that should pay. She spread her hands in helplessness and admitted the club had no money. I told her we had contingency money and we'd sort ourselves out. She looked so relieved I realised that this had obviously been playing on her mind.
In the afternoon we all piled into the minibus and headed out to the back country. Emma had been a fire fighter and knew the back country well. We drove along a rutted track through wooded areas recently burnt down by forest fire and arrived at a trail that ended high on a mountain side and looked down to the Tongue River, which forms one boundary of the Rez. Then Emma drove us back toward Morning Star View where we picked buckets of Choke Cherries for the elders- who Emma said loved them, and reminded them of their childhoods. Then we headed further into the back country to a large fire watchers tower. There were spectacular views from its ricketty platform.
We headed back to Lame Deer through all sorts of paths that appear to be unmapped. In the end we reappeared on the Highway near Jim Town- the bar on the Rez' boundary that drinkers use- coz Lame Deer is "Dry" ie it is illegal to drink alcohol on the Rez. We got back quite late, watched a DVD and went to bed.
Today was a much better day.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
I was up at 7am again this morning. Nicky was already out running. I made tea and climbed the hill behind the trailer. The air was still and cool in the early morning. Lame Deer, lay like a teenager, underneath its duvet of sleepiness. Dogs barked and the odd car crawled along Cheyenne Avenue. I sat a while drinking it all in. Finally I walked down the hill and over to the club.
We went to Ashland in the afternoon and visited the museum , church, replica of the first Missionary School on the site and the modern High School. The wooden log cabin of the last century contrasted starkly with the school that's used today. The school staff were busy preparing the buildings for the return of the students. The smell of floor polish was overwhelming. On the walls were framed photos of the various years graduates, back as far as the 1940/50s. Each face telling a story of hope or expectation- it was looking at a physical expression of Blake's songs of innocence and experience.
News arrived that Deshanda had gone into labour (and I couldn't help remembering leading our first exchange to Lame Deer and meeting Deshanda as a 13 year old) and Emma will be a great grand mother! Emma quipped that all she needed now was a great grandpa!
Emma told me the story of Kino- the fruit machine at the casino. Her grand children would ask where she was going, and she'd tell them she was off to visit Kino. After a while they said to her, "Grandma, we don't like you going out with Kino. Everytime you go out with him, he takes all your money!" They thought Kino was her boyfriend!
The arrow I made was hoisted onto the sundance lodgepole and Emma says that the dancers were really pleased with it.
We didn't see Emma tonight as she was visiting Dee in the hospital. So we cooked nachos and watched "Little Miss Sunshine". I talked to George on the telephone tonight.
Thurs 2nd Aug
I woke up early again thinking of home and the last time I was here. How different everything is this time.
Otis looks like he's been bitten by a Wolf spider and has a large painfully red blotch on his arm. We went over to St Labre again today and I took the opportunity to buy some books. While I was at the shops with Nicky, Kaz rang Cassie and lost the opportunity to speak to her.
As I walked back from the shop a couple of horses meandered across the highway as casual as you like. Everyone is excited and looking forward to going to Rocky Boys Rez in the north of Montana visiting George.
Hang in out in Lame Deer
Woke up before 7am. Given this trip counts as a "holiday" in Kaz's eyes I coukdn't believe I was up so early. Nicky was obviously feeling the same because she was out running! We got up and I pushed the group over to the Club for breakfast. Things have changed since last time we were here. The computer suite has ceased to exist, so I had to use a PC in the office to email Kaz. In the afternoon we were loaded onto an American school bus and went to Ashland. The Catholic school of St Labre is there and has a swimming pool.
On the way there we arrived too early so the bus driver headed off along a road. Before I knew it I was staring down at an Amish settlement.
A young girl had taken a shine to Issak. He wasn't impressed, so naturally he was wound up by the group about it! The Venturers enjoyed the swimming and the chance to cool down. As I stood outside the Swimming pool building a pony meandered along and started to eat grass along the sides of the pavement.
Liam Pitt found marshmellow spread and Peter thought he'd died and gone to heaven. As we pulled up by our trailer Rick arrived and invited us to his house one evening next week. Sharing with the Christian boys was an experience. They had tried to be helpful by drying our clothes in the dryer on full heat... Nicky freaked out! The rest of the night was pretty quiet.
I was awake again before 7am. The group had breakfast at the club again. The trailer was looking like a bomb had hit it. I made the Venturers clear it up. You could hear their protests all the way over in Billings! The activity was swimming again. Some Venturers stayed at the club and roller bladed instead. Emma had askedNicky to make an arrow for the Sun Dance. But at the last moment she was told that she couldn't- being a woman, The actual Sun Dance is a very male ceremony. So I had to make the arrow. I didn't do a bad job considering the arrowhead was only ornamental and split the arrow shaft. In the evening we cooked for ourselves in the trailer. Katie ate like she had hollow legs! The group was starting to jell together. Latter with no activity planned we hired two DVDs- "23" and "Little Miss Sunshine". Everyone laughed at the end of LMS and felt pretty good.
The club is undergoing one of its periodic financial crisis. There were scarcely any workers employed at the club and the teenage programme has suffered.