Winding up my early morning walk, I stopped to speak with a
woman sitting outside the Heart Butte Community Center. What goes on here? I asked, in my naïve manner. Oh, she said, we are having a wake. (Yes,
body lying in the community center for a week). Oh my, who died? My son.
What happened? He killed
himself. She has only 4 of her original
8 children surviving. Scattered
grandkids, and deep sorrow. She found
this son’s death particularly difficult as he was only 30, leaving behind two
young children.
Returning to the church I found a well rested team of kids
and adults, ready for orientation and a day in the park. Our team building activities included
labelling and organizing the kitchen,
emptying the van and organizing and cleaning the storage room(bonus points for
this group: they mopped the floor,
unasked), learning about Heart Butte, and learning about the Blackfeet people
and culture.
Joe, our assistant team leader, and Blackfeet Indian, joined
us for lunch, giving some geographic and culture context to the day. We loaded up the vans and headed out. Up to Browning, through the Northern part of
the reservation, and ultimately up into Glacier National Park. On the way we saw rolling hills, high
mountains, snow, two grizzlies, and sparkling mountain lakes. For these kids and adults from the East it
was glorious, most had never been West of the Mississippi. One team member summed it up by saying: “ I
never want to leave Montana”.
A very tired team returned to Heart Butte, to find a
delicious spaghetti dinner waiting.
Elaine, our cook, and her family joined us for the feast. Currently the kids and one adult are engaged
in a vigorous game of Farkel(reminds me Shari we need to bring to the beach). Lots of laughter, and more relaxed than after
arrival last night.
I am exhausted from many hours of driving and logistics,
looking forward to early night. Tomorrow
brings meeting with Pastor Hill to plan our project work,
Congratulations to Ned and Anne on their engagement, and
mazel tov to their parents, Don and Suzanne.
Another joyous occasion to plan(good luck with that!).
With love from Heart Butte,
Barbara
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