June 17, 2015

Wednesday, June 17

Last night, as you all know by my facebook post, I was not in a good place. I cried multiple times, and generally felt exhausted physically, emotionally and spiritually. I wasn't sure how much more I could give. But I filled up on love from my friends, and I (thank the universe) woke up this morning with a new attitude. Well, at least 75% of a new attitude. And if you know me well, that's about as good as it gets. lol.

So today started like any other, we left a group behind in Heart Butte to run the kids camp, and I took the other students and 2 Chaperone's to Browning to more established programs. Well for the second day in a row, kids just didn't show up in Heart Butte. So change of plan, we brought everyone in to Browning. Then we needed Joe's help to get them all back this afternoon in time for horseback riding, which was then cancelled due to rain. So needless to say, today did not go well. We also had canceled our cook for tonight because of horseback riding, so we were fending for ourselves for dinner.

So here we are with 18 hungry volunteers and no cook, and they're all sad and wet. Thankfully one of the chaperones loves to cook and was very good at it! She whipped up some pasta and sauce, and squash cooked with bacon and maple syrup (which I had little faith in but was actually delicious) and some English muffin garlic bread and it was a delicious meal. To top it off, I happened to find some "just add water" brownie mix in the cupboard that belonged to the church - so I borrowed that and made them some well deserved brownies as well.

Now, since my boss and various other Global Volunteers staff are friends of mine on facebook, I must acknowledge that it is against our policy to provide brownies, and for that I am sorry. But not really because my team needed a pick-me-up and so did I. So if I have to replace those brownies out of my own pocket, so be it! lol.

The day ended with Monopoly and Life and a real sense of family and community here in our little bubble of a church. Some tensions faded away from those carrying them, and we found some harmony.

Now, if the rain will just stay away tomorrow, we can get on those horses! I'm 2 for 2 on missed horseback riding opportunities!

Love from Montana, and even a few smiles,

Lindsey

June 15, 2015

Monday, June 15

Today was a good day, and judging by how I felt last night, I'm so grateful. 

I am so very lucky and happy to be here and meeting so many new people. Both my new Blackfeet friends and all my amazing Global Volunteers who I have met so far (a total of 35 so far!) I am amazed and inspired every day by some one or something. This week I have 15 students and 3 Chaperones from Montclair Kimberley Academy in New Jersey (I promise we don't exclusively recruit volunteers from Jersey!). There are some great students who give me some laughs, and who restore my faith in humanity. 

Today we helped out at the grand opening of the Chewing Black Bones camp ground. We helped put up a Tipi, moved picnic tables, played with kids, listened to stories, and then helped take it all down again later that afternoon. 

In between all that, I got to listen to members of Chewing Black Bones family talk about his tipi, and some Blackfeet traditions and culture before being invited in by Clyde Home Gun to share some tobacco (smoked from a pipe) and a prayer for my family. The gentleman leading the prayers asked if I had a little boy... he seemed certain that I did. So I will be very impressed if my first child is a boy, and hopefully he means quite a bit in the future...lol. 

After I left the Tipi I helped organize the volunteers and make sure everyone was making new friends and helping out any way they can with the camp and just joining in the sense of community. And then closed out the day with a quick ATV ride around the campground with Mr. Home Gun and then headed back to our church at Heart Butte to another delicious meal cooked by Patty Heavy Runner. 

I've only been here for 2 weeks - and I've had all the ups and downs I could have expected- but I've also already made so many awesome memories and cannot wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store for me. I miss my family, friends in Chicago, I miss Oreo and Alex (who is last on this list because I'm saving the best for last ;)) but I know that I am here for a reason, and I'm going to live it up! 

If you want to reach me, email me or send me mail! Just ask for my PO Box here in Browning, MT. 

LOVE!!!! 
Lindsey 

June 14, 2015

Saturday, June 13

Today I said goodbye to my girls from Hun School in New Jersey. It was a great week filled with fun, and craziness, and I'm so sad I didn't update you all every step of the way. Drew and I had meetings galore, and shopping for 17 people, and organizing and cleaning and learning and AHHHHH!

To my Hun friends - I hope that you all enjoyed your trip and thank you for being my first. I was impressed by your poise under pressure, willingness to go with the flow, and general awesomeness. Under the amazing direction of your fearless leaders, you surely shone bright here on the prairie.

I am having so much fun, despite the summer cold that someone brought me from New Jersey  (names have been retracted to protect the student/disease carrying monkey). We have cultural speakers Bob Tail Feathers and Cliff Eagle Speaker come by and discuss different aspects of the Blackfeet culture. We have a Sweat up at the Crawford's on Mondays, horseback riding on Wednesdays, the Museum of the Plains Indians and S'mores on Fridays and plenty of great times in between.

The service projects are varied, and so far we have more work than we can possibly get to - which is a good problem to have.

Pastor Hill continues to be a valuable resource, and we have an amazing cook named Patty Heavy Runner here in Heart Butte. She and her family eat dinner with us often and she has been a real pleasure to get to know. I look forward to getting to learn more about her and her family as the summer goes on.

Well I wanted to just get SOMETHING down here to catch people up. I promise to try and write more during this trip - a new school also from NJ- although it's my biggest group of the summer at 18 people (15 students, 3 Chaperons) and the female chaperon is my roommate for the week. So time and space to write are limited.

Anywho...night all! Missing everyone reading this!
Lindsey

June 7, 2015

Friday June 5, 2015

Today started off with breakfast at the bonfire site outside the church. We knew it was going to be a long one finishing up all the odds and ends of what we needed to do. We woke up at 8am – with no cold water – and just got busy cleaning after breakfast, and as I write this I just showered, and am laying in bed for the first time at 1am.
Today we had to:
·         Break back in to the church, after we locked ourselves out during breakfast. Drew climbed up on the roof and shimmied through a window that only opens half way.
·         Clean an entire church space, top to bottom, while doing enough laundry to have bedding and towels for 17 people.
·         Break in to the lot where the Global Volunteers storage shed was to get said laundry.
·         Break into the church annex space (with the Pastor’s permission) to grab some firewood for the bonfires this summer. We used half of it tonight while having a well-deserved beer and enjoying the sunset before getting back to work.
·         Grocery shop for 4 days for 3 meals a day for 17 people.
·         Make 17 beds
And all this needed to be done between 2 towns, 45 min drive apart. Needless to say, I’m exhausted, so today’s blog post is a short one.
Thank goodness the day ended with hot water FINALLY running so after 13 hours of manual labor and cleaning and insanity, I was able to end it with the fist true shower I’ve had since Wednesday morning.
So I leave you with a wish that you all could see the stars I saw tonight as we finished our day. Thankful for strong bodies to complete the labor, and with full stomachs and a warm shower. I wish you all could have that feeling. There’s nothing like it.
Lindsey Ball

June 5, 2015

Thursday, June 4, 2015



Today started off really rocky and went up and down and sideways from there.

I could not sleep last night. Partly because the bunk beds at the church are super soft and not supportive (I’ve since acquired a stiffer Global Volunteers Mattress that I will be testing out tonight. I have high hopes). Partly because the silence is so deafening that the slightest noise is noticeable and we’re in an old building. And lastly because I feel, off and on, SUPER overwhelmed. It is a lot of work to set up this program and I am grateful that Drew is here, and he’s been here pretty much once a year since he was 10 for varied lengths of time, so he has been just taking me around, filling me with everything I need to know and introducing me to everyone I’ll need to speak with this summer to make this program successful.

So we met so many people today. Started off with a very laid back coffee with some local Heart Butte folks, Spud, Jimmy and a woman who’s name I can’t immediately recall,  who may be helping us out with the dinners for the team and just bringing the community out to help and support us. Global Volunteers has been coming out to Browning for 16 years now, but this is our first time extending the program to run in both Browning and Heart Butte. So we are really trying to engage the local community and the first couple teams probably will see a low turnout and slow trickle in to the work projects out here. But to hopefully avoid that, we met Cliff Eagle Speaker, who works out at the Heart Butte school, about getting some of the kids involved in activities during the days to keep them out of trouble and hopefully, if we can connect with some of the older Natives around, to teach them more about the culture, heritage, and language that is slowing dying off with the older generations.
After those meetings we headed in to Browning to load up the van with a bunch of stuff from the storage shed (including my awesome new mattress) and then tried to visit the major work sites there, to let people know we’re around and to prep them for having volunteers starting Monday. Then we attended a 3 hour Chamber of Commerce meeting, and then desperately needed a beer. So Drew drove us out to St. Mary’s Lodge and Resort where I had a nice local wheat beer and some bison chorizo nachos. By this point I was starting to feel really anxious about the upcoming night – hoping I can sleep- and just the load of work I have ahead of me. Luckily at St. Mary’s I had some cell service and was able to text my mom, and call Alex for a little relief. Then we headed back to the church and unloaded the van a bit and decided to call it a day.

Everything here is gorgeous. The mountains, the greenery, there are horses running along side the road with the mountains in the background at sunset… I mean COME ON! I truly hope I can post pictures sometime soon, but they couldn’t possibly do it justice. Despite the anxiety and the work ahead, I know I’ve made the right choice, and when I settle in, this summer is going to be truly amazing. If anyone wants to come join me this summer – I think I still have spots available on later teams. Globalvolunteers.org. Come see what all the fuss is about!

With Love,
Lindsey


OH! And PS, pretty sure (thanks to Sheri, Pastor Calvin’s wife) that the room I’ll be sleeping in once we set it up is haunted. Apparently when they opened up the church, after years of being boarded up, they found a shrine to an (in her words) “old white man with bushy eyebrows” who is “definitely dead”. We learned today that his name is Abe. I think Abe and I are going to be good friends. 

Wednesday, June 3

It’s the end of my first full day in Montana, although we have no internet here at the church yet – so I don’t know how many of these I’ll be able to type up before I can actually post these. So I hope you’ve scrolled down to read this if it’s been a while!


Today I met Pastor Calvin and his wife Sheri, who are our lodging hosts in Heart Butte, Montana. I feel a real sense of belonging with them in they have lived everywhere I have lived so far! Before Pastor Calvin came to this mission church and the Blackfeet reservation, he lived in Hobbs, New Mexico for four years. Before that, Elk Grove Village, Illinois. They have real Hatch Green Chile in their fridge at home, and a sense of humor so I’ll be just fine.

They took us to the church this afternoon and showed us around a bit. We got to hear about the 7 wolves, 1 Bear and her cub, and 1-2 cougars who have made their home near the church here. I immediately wished I had taken the time to get a firearm license before coming out here but I was assured (not that it is reassuring) that most of the surrounding community have guns and would alert us if they see the wildlife roaming about.

The church is pretty much what you’d expect from a church in a small community. It isn’t a Ritz Carlton, but it has running water, a kitchen, laundry, and even a fire pit where I hope to make s’mores every Friday with the teams.

Around Browning and the rest of the reservation there are many stray dogs – I hope to come home with no less than six of them (sorry Alex lol). But other than that the only thing that can be said about first impressions are 1. It’s so quiet. I may be as overwhelmed as a child just getting a cochlear implant when I get return to Chicago and the city life. 2. It is stunning. It’s greener than I expected and the mountains are close on the horizon, so still and looming, and still topped with snow. 3. It’s lonely. Drew is still here, but in the quiet and the dark, I’m very acutely aware that I am alone here, without my support systems and without a way to contact them as of yet. I am sure I will always be surrounded by new volunteers and Pastor Calvin and his wife and a ton of other people I am destined to meet, but right now I’m lonely. And that’s the worst kind of alone. But don’t worry, friends. It will get better. I’ll make it better.

Tomorrow we have a ton of meetings and more and more errands to run to get this place ready for our first team. I’m hoping we’ll set up the internet soon, as it will make my job a whole lot easier (with all the reports and things I need to do) and also just to have some way to stream music and movies to keep away the silence.

So again I say goodnight, and send your love into the universe, I’m sure to feel it every time I start to think I’m alone.

Lindsey 

June 3, 2015

Montana Bound

Good morning from Great Falls, Montana!

So far it's been a hectic trip filled with late flights and crashing at this Heritage Inn in Great Falls to get some errands taken care of before we take the 2 hour drive (one with which I will become intimately familiar having to do it every Saturday for the summer) to our lodging in Heart Butte.

After saying goodbye to Oreo yesterday (and after many may tears), Alex and I had a nice breakfast at Elly's pancake house where I tried not to cry repeatedly into my pancakes and skillet breakfast and then we headed to the airport.

Once at the airport I was greeted by the most incompetent customer service agent I've ever encountered. I was informed that my flight would be delayed 2 hours and I would miss my connection in Denver. There are only 3 flights (on tiny tiny death trap planes) to Great Falls every day from Denver, so I would have to be placed on standby for the 6:50pm flight. The agent couldn't tell me if I could get lodging, why my ORD-DEN flight was late, or where Montana was, which was evident when he suggested I go to Philadelphia, and then asked me what was around Montana. Eventually I turned his computer screen around, told him what to click, and was secured standby for the later flight. Fully frustrated, the rest of the trip went off seamlessly and took a total of 12 hours, most of which sitting in airports, to get here.

Drew picked me up at the airport and we both quickly grabbed our bags and headed up to our rooms at the Heritage Inn to get some sleep. Which brings me to now. It's 10am currently and I'm watching a show on gangs on Spike TV while waiting to go to breakfast. So I figured I'd throw together this quick and scatterbrained update!

Drew is here with me for the first week. He is the son of the founders of Global Volunteers and has led teams on the Blackfeet Reservation in previous years and spent time here with his mother as a child. I look forward to having his expertise in my first few days and with my first team in order to get settled in and getting going.

Today Drew and I will be going to get supplies for the summer camp we hope to run from our lodging at the Heart Butte Methodist church (Global Volunteers is a secular organization but the church was chosen for lodging purposes). We want to get lots of different game balls, and games and some other equipment to keep the kids and volunteers happy for the summer. We also have to go to the bank to get my debit card for program funds, and buy me some toiletries I didn't bother to pack since I knew we'd be shopping and I wanted the space for things like pictures of family to keep me grounded this summer.

In the next couple days I will probably be going dark. If you need me, text me, as service on the reservation is spotty from my understanding and the Internet is not yet set up in the church.

I look forward to posting further updates as I have them, and getting started with my new adventure! Send me positive thoughts, and mail when I can update you with my P.O.Box in Browning.

Love!

Lindsey