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.
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