Week 2: Welcome to Rosebud!

On Saturday we finally got to leave Denver and head to South Dakota! We packed up our cars for the summer (a Toyota Yaris and an all red Pontiac Minivan)...and naturally, I get to drive the minivan! Our trunks were full- not only with all of our luggage, but with boxes of shirts, devo books, site information, etc. It was definitely comparable to the good ole days when the Nazzies packed up for summer camp at Indian Lake!

I've been able to cross off four new states because we drove through Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and finally, South Dakota. I've never seen scenery like we saw before- and it was definitely scenery because there was barely any sign of life on the roads except for fields and fields of cattle! But, we drove by mountains in CO, mesas and prairies in WY, and green rolling prairies and fields and rivers in Nebraska and South Dakota. I never thought I'd say it, but its absoultely beautiful here in all of its nothingness. The roads are just lined with fences- no billboards, loud traffic, businesses or anything! As Heather and I were driving, we noticed it was progressively getting darker and eerier as we got closer to South Dakota, and none of us had great feelings about getting to the rez earlier. We were listening to 96.1, which is the Sioux radio station out of the Pine Ridge Reservation (awesome music- I would totally recommend it!), and they announced a sever thunderstorm warning. It promptly started pouring rain and lightning would strike on the fields right as we were driving by. It was pretty bad, but there was absolutely nowhere we could stop and wait out the storm. So, we just slowed way down and the storm passed. We've learned that storms come up really fast in SD, and you can definitely see them coming across the sky!

The storm wasn't the only roadblock we ran into on our way into Rosebud. We had plans to stay with a local pastor for a few days until we could get into the high school for the summer. When we called the pastor to tell him we were close, we found out that his brother had just died and that we no longer had a place to stay. He gave us a number to a member of his congregation to let us in to an old church building that was no longer being used...talk about creepy! We were glad to have somewhere to stay, but the building was old and really crowded, with a rundown bathroom and kitchen for us to use. It was frustrating to be there because we fell behind on tasks that needed to be done! On the brightside, the church was located near Sinte Glaska University, a tribally run university, and I saw prairie dogs for the first time ever! They had towns all over the lawn by us and often would chirp, pop their heads up, and flick their tails at us- super cute!

We spent the weekend checking out the reservation. We went to two church services on Sunday morning- a United Methodist Church with about 11 members (from about 2 families!) and the Christian Life Fellowship (which is the church of the pastor we were supposed to stay with). It was awesome to meet more members of the community- with a pretty even mix of Natives to whites. At the CLF, a guy even prayed in Lakota (the native Sioux language) and we sang Amazing Grace in it, too!

Today (Tuesday) we were finally able to meet with the principle at Todd County High School, where we will be staying this summer. The school is super nice (especially compared to other YouthWorks sites- we joke that we're staying at the Ritz for the summer!). Todd County is the county that makes up the Rosebud Indian Reservation, and it is the tenth biggest high school in South Dakota. At the beginning of the year there were about 440 students enrolled; at the end there were 350. High school dropouts are a huge problem on reservations, and its difficult to get teachers to teach. Many of the teachers at TCHS are young and working for Teach for America. Gangs are a problem at TCHS, and can often be recognized by wearing the same colors. We have been busy today getting our facilities set up, washing dishes, unpacking, and making things feel like home, but we still have a long way to go!