Some Pics Of The Trip

As promised, here are some more pics of the trip. 

Doris-Ann with the ladies from Warm Welcome, the feeding program.  Rachel is on the far right.

Gloria, Bryan, Lynette, and Dave work to replace a window.

I'm not the only one who can blog!

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This is the mens sleeping room.  Bathroom  is the door at the end.  The ladies had one just like it.  These were in the basement of the house we stayed in.

This was an Episcopal church that we scraped and painted.

This is Viola and one of the books that Suzanne Harlow donated to our mission.

I never got their names, but this is a father and son singing group (singing is the term the Lakota use for drumming, but they did also sing).  I have a video of them singing but can't seem to get it to load here.  I'll keep trying.

This is the Episcopal church from up the road.

Julie attending to Jack because he stepped on a rusty nail.

The youth are scraping the Episcopal church.  The masks are a precaution as we're pretty sure lead paint was involved.

Brad with Skye, one of the site supervisors.

I need to quit for tonight because tomorrow has the potential to be another loooooooong day.  But I will update more in a day or 2 and will post on Facebook when I've updated here.

Ciao!

Back in the OH!

I owe you all a profuse apology for not blogging on the last days of the trip.  But the internet and cell service was spotty at best and the last couple of days my computer just would not stay connected.  But here is the news of the group as I know it:

The Shupp-Keating-Thomson group were the first to arrive back in MA.  They are all safe and sound.

The Constantine's were the second to arrive in Beverly and reported back to the rest of us on the humidity level there.  We've been so used to the dryness of the midwest.  It turns out that it really is NOT the heat, it's the humidity!

Group 23 (the 23 folks traveling together) enjoyed a lovely evening in Denver, dining and shopping, and then a yummy breakfast before they left for home yesterday afternoon.  All I know of them is that they landed safely.

Dave and I had a brutal day of travel yesterday, spending over 16 hours on the road.  Just as we were pulling into the campground for the night (or what was left of it!) the song Highway to Hell came on my iPod.  Let me tell you, at that point it certainly felt like we had been on the highway from hell!  But we are up and on our way to Cedar Point for the day.

So...I have tons of pics from Bill, Doris-Ann, and Liz to share.  I promise, cross my heart and hope to throw up on a roller coaster, that I will post as many as possible tonight and then the rest on my Facebook page.  And Kim is planning a slideshow for Mission Sunday at church, so you'll see even more then.

Time for breakfast...see you tonight!

Cindy

You Say It's Your Birthday...it's Lisa's birthday, too, yeah

Ok, well, TOMORROW is Lisa's birthday!  TODAY happens to be one Mr. Bryan Vosseler's birthday, and we are just wrapping up a grand celebration in his honor (complete with party hats!).  Thanks to Doris-Ann we also had cards and gifts and all manner of fun for his special day. 

Gabe took the wearing of party hats to a special level -- stay tuned, and we will try to get a picture up some time.

(This is Julie, by the way, as your special guest blogger correspondent for the evening!)

Things are moving right along here in Mission -- it seems hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day of work here.  Today had several of our folks doing different types of non-construction work (sewing dolls and pillows and curtains for children in the sewing room, working in the Thrift Shop, and helping to serve food in the warm meal program), all of which was VERY much appreciated.  Our construction projects continue to move forward, too -- Giles and his team were able to finish up the work at their site, and Bryan and Dave got a great deal of work done at their site, as well.  Many of the groups ended up at the church in Norris, where one of our groups has been, along with a small cadre of Episcopals from Texas.  The church is already looking worlds better -- and our new Episcopalian friends were very pleased to have a great deal of help and support with the project.  They have remarked several times how dismayed they had been when they arrived at the site, realizing they could not get much done with so small a number facing so much work.  They have told us more than once they had just been discussing that fact when suddenly a bastion of American Baptists arrived.  They said we are angels.

We said, "Yeah, we know."

Ok.  We didn't.  But we did enjoy having the chance to meet a new group, to work alongside them, and to share work and supplies, as well as jokes and good stories.

And the church (which really serves as a primary community center for a community that could otherwise feel very isolated) is really looking much better already.

We had a few (small) injuries today, but thanks to Beth and her willingness to drive all over South Dakota at our beck and call, everyone was patched up with no trouble!

Emmett even held a paint brush (with some help from Cindy Shupp) and got some work done!

Tonight we enjoyed another delicious dinner courtesy of our amazing chefs Jed and John (pork tenderloin, potatoes, stuffing, mixed vegetables, salad, and gravy -- yum!  Followed by cake and ice cream for the birthday celebration -- remember the birthday celebration?  That was how this whole thing began! -- which everyone enjoyed).  After dinner, there were not two but THREE cultural events from which to choose -- folks had the opportunity to hear from Lakota Chief Hollow Horn Bear about history and about tradition, or to learn traditional Lakota hand games, or to attend a drumming session with song and dance.  Personally, I enjoyed the cultural event of giving Emmett a bath in a tiny bathroom sink, but word on the street is that the events were all excellent -- and now the FBC fellowships have a great new hand game to learn and master!

Spirits here are good.

There is laughter and good humor and the promise of delicious home fries, sausage, and waffles for the morning (thanks, Dave Antonuk!), so that is good, too.

But people are also weary -- me included -- so I am going to wrap up for now and say good-night.

We'll be back with our noses to the grindstone.  And then -- off to Denver on Saturday.\

Keep us in your thoughts -- we're missing you all, too!

Good night!

Hump Day

It's Wednesday evening and the majority of the group has gone off about 6 miles away to try and find the Rosebud buffalo herd and to see the big sky sunset.  I've gotten so many pics I don't know how I'll get them all on here!

First, a foodie update.  Night #1 was pizza, due to our late arrival and the orientation that we had to attend.  The next night was burgers and dogs on the grill, pasta salad, garden salad and Jed's baked beans.  Yum!  Tonight was slow-cooker beef stew with garden salad and Jed's corn souffle.  The stew and the souffle were superb.  Thanks John and Jed!!

Let's see, work sites.  One is done, a couple are finishing up and we are hoping to get another couple of jobs.  One thing we've been doing is working on the local, very tiny, Episcople church.  Lots of painting and scraping.  John T is entertaining new Indian names after cutting through a home's water line with a sawzall, and having to wait hours for help so that they could turn the water back on for those folks. At celebrations this evening, Dave A celebrated how John built a fountain for a family!

The top picture is Dolores Kills In Water, a tribal elder.  She came with Lakota artifacts and talked to us about the role of Lakota women, which was fairly intense.  The middle picture is of weapons (no part of any animal killed was wasted as you can see from the bones) and the bottom is of beaded moccasins.  She had a great sense of humor and was enjoyed very much.

Here's Anna with Emmett as they were sightseeing on the way in.

One of the jobs that was worked on for the first 2 days was to dig a ditch for a sewer pipe.  100 feet long and 4 feet deep.  Eileen Hadley shows how it's done!

When is a door not a door?  When it's ajar!

Here are Dave C and one of our supervisors, Leon, preparing to install a door.

And, just for fun, here's a picture of a South Dakota hat rack!

 

A couple of more pics before I retire for the evening.  Here, Heidi  shows us that she has mad skills with a skill saw!

Here is a picture of Lynette with a little Lakota boy, Miah.  It's too bad that he is so shy!

  

And lastly for tonight, a special picture for Suzanne Harlow.  Here are Doris-Ann, Lynette, Liz, and Gloria are picking our books and seashells to take to some of the children in homes they have been working in, including 4-year-ol Miah, above.  There is a shelf of free books in the soup kitchen so whatever books we don't hand out will be donated there to reach even more children.  Thank you Suzanne, we are thinking of you!!!

And one last note that I just remembered.  Gary has made it home safely and Nancy has come through her surgery from earlier today just fine!  Praise God!  We hope to have them both, good and healthy, on the next trip.

Good night everyone!

We Shrink By One

It seemed Gary had just arrived (well, he had!) and now he's gone again.  Nancy was taken to the hospital and needs to have surgery so he has flown home to be with her.  Our prayers go with him and we ask that you also keep them both in your hearts and minds.

This will just be a brief post as Emmett is napping and I've yet to get pics downloaded.  I will say that we had a very informative talk with Butch Artichoker last night about Lakota spirituality.  He told us about the Sun Dance and about the rites connected to the Peace Pipe.

I'm hoping that Emmett and I will get to see some work sites later today and will for sure have pictures to share.

That's all for now!

Together At Last!

Gary and Lisa are here!!!  Our "little" group is finally all together, all 39 of us! Phew, that seemed to take a long time to happen!

My work site is napping right now so I'll take a few minutes to try and update to all on what's been going on.

We start each day with morning devotions.  I went for the first time today with Emmett as it is a short walk down the road and the temperature was quite pleasant.  The pastor that run Tree of Life has a theology quite different from what we are used to, making devotions a bit of a challenge for at least some of us.  And he seems to look right through Beth and Julie as if they don't even exist.  There have been other places we've been that have struggled with the idea of women ministers, but none so obviously rude as here.  Beth and Julie spend so much time caring for the mental and emotional health of our group that I worry that there is no one to take care of them.  I pray that God will use their presence here to open the minds of the people that don't embrace them like we do.

Work groups that have interacted with families have found most people very friendly and grateful to have us here.  But it's hard to see the level of poverty and illness here.  Diabetes and alcoholism are 2 of the bigger problems.  On mission of Tree of Life is to educate people about how to eat healthier.  The foo kitchen served about 130 for lunch yesterday.

I'm waiting to receive pictures from the various work sites.  I hope to have the opportunity to take a ride with Emmett at some point to see at least a few of them.  Two of the sites are in another time zone, and the nearest large grocery store is in Nebraska!  We will not be bound by borders of any kind!

By special request, here's a picture of the cutest work site ever, enjoying a tasty zebra at morning devotions today.

I have a lot of pictures and video from Doris-Ann to download of Mike teaching Lakota skill games to the group.  But they are taking forever.  So I'm going to sign off for now and try to get back here at afternoon nap time.  Stay tuned!

Houston, The Eagle Has Landed!

After traveling from all points on the globe MOST of the group has arrived safely in Mission, SD.  We are still waiting for Gary and Lisa whom we expect around dinner time.  Yesterday included much sightseeing for all the groups but was not without it's challenges.  Our living quarters are perhaps a little more cramped than we would like, and the normal house-sized kitchen is nothing compared to the industrial kitchen we enjoyed in West Virginia.  Nonetheless, everyone is safe and healthy and we are air-conditioned, which is most definitely needed here!

I'm alone in the house right now as the groups have gone off to work, John and Jed are shopping, and Emmett is peacefully napping.  The internet connection is spotty, at least for me.  Some folks have no problem connecting with their phones, but I can't seem to.  For right now, here are some pics of the sightseeing that Dave and I did on our way here yesterday.

One of South Dakota's top 5 money crops is sunflowers.  This is a small portion of one field that we passed.  Several miles down the road were about 40 bee hives.

This is just one pic of about 1000 I took in the Badlands.  See the striations in the rock?  This photo doesn't do the colors justice.  Tans, browns, reds, pinks, yellows, and greens at various points in the park.  Pretty darn cool!

This is a bull bison in the Badlands.  He is facing the road, guarding a herd of about 15 cows and their calves.  He was really awesome

And these were my favorite little prairie denizens, the prairie dogs!  There was an a
enormous field with what seemed like thousands of mounds.  They are super cute and curious.

We also saw a bighorn sheep, but went by him too fast to get a photo.

It's now after noon and the closest work group has come back for lunch.  They are very hot and tired as they are digging ditches to correct a sewage problem.  There is a report from another group that they have encountered black widow spiders and are requesting raid.  The excitement never ends!

I'm going to sign off for now.  Please pray for our work, our people, and the SD Lakota.

Cindy

So. Much. Corn.

Corn everywhere!  New York, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota.  I should have taken pics in every state and given you a corn tour, but I don't think it would have been nearly as exciting as it sounds.

So I did manage to get a picture of our friends when we left them this morning, just because I know how you all love pictures.  So here they are, The McSweeney's!

 That's Mark, Stephanie, Ryan (an Eagle Scout!), and Nicole (soon to be Dr. McSweeney!)  They provided us wonderful hospitality including chocolates on our duvet, a lasagna dinner, and a pancake breakfast.  We almost just unhooked the trailer and stayed right there for the week!  Thanks, guys!!

Today was a 12-hour drive day, and I lied to you earlier.  No corn palace today.  We're hitting that on the way back.  Sorry Suzanne, you'll have to wait a little longer for pictures.  But just to tie you over, here's a picture of....corn!

That is some genuine South Dakota corn right there.  Stay tuned to this blog to see how that corn becomes a palace!

We saw some other interesting creatures today.  Here's a pic:

Odd, 3-armed creatures that appeared to be stealing our wind, for nefarious purposes I'm sure.  Keep watch, they're probably headed to a corn (or soybean) field near you!











I think all our folks are out west now.  The majority will be converging on Mission, SD tomorrow evening but for now, here's a taste of what folks have been up to.

This is the Constantine's at what I believe is Zion National Park.  Breathtaking!

This is Emmett, out littlest mission tripper, trying to decide if he is unsure about being in Nebraska, or just being in that yellow chair!

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And this is Heidi and Giles, pointing at Crazy Horse.  They have also been to Rushmore already.





I'm completely exhausted so I will leave you for the evening with this picture of South Dakota, taken at about 9pm as we neared our destination for the night.  May you find the beauty in it that I did.  Blessings, Cindy

About Halfway There...

Tonight we are in St. Charles, IL with our friends The McSweeney's.  They used to live in Tewksbury and Nicole was born 6 months after Christopher.  I haven't seen Mark or the kids since they moved here 11 years ago so our visit has been awesome.  But they won't pose for pics so you can't meet them in person.

Tomorrow we will arrive in South Dakota, staying in Keenebec after very brief stops to see the Corn Palace and Sioux Falls.  There is nothing too much new to report today and I'm not sure I'll be awake enough tomorrow night.  But be sure to check in Sunday evening for pics of Wounded Knee and The Badlands.

Goodnight!

A Very Looooong First Day....

...but I learned several things.  First and foremost, knitting while in the truck is much easier when you aren't the one driving.  But seriously, I would NEVER knit and drive!  What if I hit a bump and dropped a stitch??!!

Funniest sign so far, while driving thought upstate new York:
"Correctional Facility Ahead.  Don't Pick Up Any Hitchhikers"

Yep, that's a true store right there.

Currently in Sandusky OH at about 8:30pm.  There are strange creatures in the trees overhead that I'm convinced want to eat me.  Cicadas?  I don't know.  I'm thinking Langoliers.  (Any Stephen King fans out there?!)

So, I know you've been waiting anxiously to see them, so I will keep you in suspense no longer.  I give you......COWS!

They were across the highway from a rest area.  I just liked them so here they are for you to enjoy.

Since I know you love pics, here's the trailer just before it was closed and locked for the trip:

Despite his protestations we DID NOT let Bill back his kayak, even though we clearly had room for it.

And one last pic, of a cool hotel across from a gas station in PA.  I don't know the name but I really want to stay there sometime:

As I unplugged my camera from the computer I got a message that said "There are no pictures in memory."  Maybe not in the camera's, but there are in mine, for sure.

See you in St. Charles!