First Work Day

Mon. June 20: Although we were well prepared for hot, sunny weather we were less so for the cool, breezy, rainy day that greeted us. After a quick breakfast of hot and cold sweetened cereal all 50 or so people went down to the Workshop to unload lumber across the deeply rutted, muddy lot. It seemed best to do by “Bucket Brigade” and took about an hour to finish. We then took some of the lumber just unloaded into the Workshop and semi trailer and put it BACK onto two of the trailers to take to worksites. Groups 1, 2(mine), & 3(Marv’s) went together to put a skirt on a mobile home about a half an hour drive from Re-Member. The highway is being redone along our drive and, especially right where we needed to turn off, it was pretty dicey as we dealt with the slippery mud. We settled into diverse roles of varying expertise only-sort-of guided by an Oglala construction leader named Matt. There was no safety equipment and many half-charged power tools and there was a great deal of standing around wondering what we should do. But despite the nearly all day drizzle we managed to get nearly half finished before it was time to go back. The van and trailer became hopelessly mired in the mud as we tried to pull away, but a helpful 4-wheel drive pick-up came along and managed to give enough assistance to get it up the drive, onto the new but unpaved roadbed and back on the temporary highway. Along the way we found out that, along with not having a director this week, the Cook hadn’t been seen for 2 weeks so the kitchen was being managed by the Project Managers with help from the volunteer teams. The potatoes hadn’t adequately cooked for a potato bar so they creatively put out chips instead and it became a nacho bar. The evening’s speaker was a Lakota musician named Will Peters/Ta Canku Luta Waunspewicakiya/Teacher of the Red Way who wanted to mainly talk to the Youth about respecting themselves and others. He spoke for about an hour, sang one song, and gave us the opportunity to buy jewelry and his CD, made with his son. I bought a turtle necklace and Marv bought the CD. Afterward the Edgewood group returned to Kiksuya for “Thorns & Roses”, to work on our “group” song, and to get Prayer Partner gifts.