Week of July 21
After three days of traveling by vans, the youth group from Simpsonville UMC, Greenville South Carolina arrived.
They were very happy to get out of those vans!!
Circling up for instructions from Mike and Libby
Unloading their luggage from the trailer
Coop has made new friends already...
Fun Times...
The team will be split into three teams and will be working in St. Michaels and Fort Totten. They'll be putting a new roof on a house in St. Michaels and repairing (adding new) siding to a house in Fort Totten. The third team will be doing clean-up throughout Fort Totten, and taking the debris to the dump.
We'll be going to Tokio for Sidewalk Sonday School.
Ready to go to work...
Loading up the trailer...
The house we will be roofing...
Playing with the children...
Unloading the shingles...
The Tribe's bison herd is out grazing today...
Ready to do siding!
Playing with one of the puppies...
Playing with the other puppy...
A beautiful view, while carrying the siding...
What better way to end a hard day's work than by playing volleyball...or...
by repairing the bell...or...
napping...or...
riding out to the burial grounds...or
playing kickball!!!!
Coop keeping an eye on things...
Work continues today at both the roofing and siding sites. The other team will continue to clean up neighborhoods in order to get ready for Pow Wow...
Progress...
Coop keeping an eye on things...
Working Hard...
Don't Fall Off!!!
Ground Crew...
Dr. Russ McDonald stopped by this evening. He spoke of the lack of housing here on the Reservation. Of the approximately 7800 people who are enrolled in the Tribe, 4500 live on the reservation. Of these, many people live in substandard housing. Many of the homes the people live in are airbase homes that were given to the Tribe. They were already in poor shape when the Tribe received them. The remaining 3300 people who are enrolled in the Tribe live in border towns, Devil's Lake, New Rockford and others. 57% of the peoples here live in poverty. They have lived in poverty for so long that they think that poverty IS their culture.
Russ' family...
Russ also spoke to us about the importance of drums and drumming in their culture. He sang an honor song for us...
It's always interesting and enjoyable to hear Russ speak. He's a good man.
The evening skies over the Reservation are beautiful...
Today, both the roof as well as the siding will be completed. Once the siding is completed, the team will put up a small fence at the house. When finished with the roof, the roofers will be going over to Andrew Moren's home for some roof patching, dry-walling and insulating. Clean-up is on-going - they will join the roofers this afternoon.
The clean-up crew stopped by the siding site to give them a hand...
Looking over the fencing materials
They made quick work of the fence...
Playing with the children...
Screwing in the final screw...
Tuckered out from all the hard work...
Finished!!!
And...We're Done!!!!!
We work up Thursday to another beautiful day. Today, the roofers will be back at Andrew's home this morning continuing the patching, insulating and dry-walling...
The siding crew is doing some interior painting at a house in St. Michae'ls that the team from Oil City, Pennsylvania worked.
The clean-up crew continues their clean-up work.
They'll be done with their respective projects this afternoon. The team will sight-see tomorrow (Friday) and join us at Powwow Friday evening. They will be leaving for home Saturday morning.
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