I arrived at Southdale YMCA around 7:45 and did not see any familiar faces except Brent when i walked inside to use the restroom. I was so happy to see him since he has been a huge advocate for me in regard of YMCA work. I did not get the opportunity to tell him how much it meant for me to see him there. Other important people in my life were there also including Mom, Mark- executive director from the River Valley YMCA, Boss man Dave Grote, Courtney and many others from the YMCA. The send off was great and Marvin (MP3) got everything for us from a list of requests. We even were able to hear the great music from Elton John and Michael Jackson! Needless to say the words of encouragement and well wishes were greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone who attended the send off and to everyone who either called or sent great texts to me.
We started driving and right away our conversations were easy and informative. We told our life stories and shared some details and it became clear that we are going to have a great time. I forgot to tell you my team members names... I will be spending the next 2 weeks with Nancy and Derek. Nancy is from Y-USA in Chicago and Derek works for the St. Paul YMCA.
Our drive for the first 4 hours was pretty uneventful but full of fun and conversation. We arrived in Watertown, SD and went shopping at the Wal-Mart to buy our snacks and some food for the trip. We went to culvers for lunch and it was the first time i think that i have been there and i was pleasantly surprised that the chicken was really good. We left Watertown after filling the car up with gas.
Our drive continued to be smooth and enjoyable but at this point we were getting a little sleepy. We started to play a game of 2 truths and 1 lie. Some of my team members had some trouble and thought that the game was 2 lies and 1 truth, but we learned a lot about each other during the game. We had a little detour and ended up being off of the highway we were suppose to be on. We were able to get back on track and made a quick bathroom stop and to fill up with gas again and now it was my turn to drive.
For a long time I have wanted to climb up on top of a hay bail and get my picture taken, well we were driving a long and came across the perfect spot. So i pulled over and Nancy and I climbed the hay bails and Derek took our picture, it was very difficult to climb they are a lot bigger than i expected. The drive continued....
WE ARRIVE!!
We crossed the river and were on the reservation, that is when it all became surreal for me. I have been looking forward to this trip for years and now that i have arrived i was definitely astonished by the site of the reservation.
We made it to Eagle Butte where the hotel is and decided that we were not going to stop so we drove straight to Dupree. ** Side note: We are arriving into an interesting situation, the executive director Bill W. just passed away on July 11th. ** So we were on our way to Dupree for the memorial service for Bill, we arrived at the Sioux YMCA and were greeted by familiar faces and told that the memorial has moved to a new location. So we got back in the car and drove to Harry's Hall. Arriving at the memorial was very eye opening to witness the impact that Bill had on this community in the short 2 years that he was here.
After the memorial we headed back to Eagle Butte to unload and have dinner.
We meet the other team to discuss our next days programming and then we were off to bed!
I am writing after a nice night of sleep... off to La Plant and Swiftbird to work with the youth!
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