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