Reflections From The Rez

The past 24 hours pretty much sum up the best and the worst on the Rez. On Monday night, we attended a powwow in Porcupine. The event concluded the first day of a housing summit on the Rez, being co-sponsored by Re-Member. During the day, various speakers presented updates and new ideas on promoting affordable, adequate and sustainable housing options on the Rez. After a crazy thunderstorm the sun poked through the clouds, leaving us with the perfect night (in other words, it wasn't 90 degrees any more) to watch a traditional powwow with dozens of dancers. As the night concluded, and we made the drive from Porcupine back to Pine Ridge, I had a chance to reflect on my time here so far: the good and the bad, the improvements and the things that have become worse. Wednesday morning I awoke and was assigned to a work crew that was traveling to a house about 45 minutes away from Pine Ridge. I drove a van of volunteers out, and was able to talk to them as we made the drive. Many had been...

How does one paint the side of a trailer without a ladder? You stack tires laying around the yard on top of one another to stand on. Welcome to Lakota problem solving 101. Working on a wheelchair ramp at a house that must have at least 10 or 15 kids inside. They don't have running water, so they use a van to shuttle water from up the road.

Photos from the Pow-wow last night are on Flickr, I'll update with a blog entry today or tomorrow... http://www.flickr.com/photos/corytrue/

Tom (the Executive Director) brought up an interesting point during the orientation for the group here this week as they were introduced to Re-Member on Saturday afternoon. Many, including Tom, describe the poverty on Pine Ridge as being that of "third world" levels. Tom noted that earlier in the season, he was challenged in this definition, with the suggestion that the term "developing nation" is now used as a more descriptive term for locales that experience poverty today. The reality is, Pine Ridge is not a developing nation. Earlier this year, I visited Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. As I experienced Honduras, it is easy to see how one would deem the poverty I saw there to be that of a developing nation. In Tegucigalpa, the capital city, streets are lined with chain restaurants, factories, growing neighborhoods -- as well as run down businesses, abandoned homes and slums. Outside the capital, as one moves further into the rural...

New photos up on my Flickr page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/corytrue/ Busy day on Monday, which will end with a pow-wow in Porcupine. Update soon.

I’m here! In spite of the best efforts of US Airways, United and Frontier Airlines, I finally arrived at Re-Member at about 10 p.m. on Friday night. The trip out was eventful, as always. I left home at 3:30 a.m. on Friday morning, caught my first flight from Portland to New York, and had sixty minutes to make a connection at La Guardia. Shouldn’t have been a problem, but I had to change airlines and terminals, and go through security again. Despite my best efforts, I was two minutes late arriving at the ticket counter, and was told I would have to bump to another flight. Little did I know that the random henchmen at the Frontier counter were booking me a first-class ticket to Denver, to make up for the fact that I was going to have to sit in the terminal from 9 until 2 in the afternoon. So yeah, seat 4A was a good time. I boarded with all the businessmen who were wearing sports coats in my shorts and flip flops. Lunch was a step up from economy class (a $6 “snack pack) as we were serve...

Didn't sleep last night. At all. Left home at 4 a.m. Quick flight from Portland to La Guardia, but it was too quick. Sat on the taxiway waiting for our gate... I was two minutes late for my transfer. Friendly Frontier people quickly rebooked me though, on a United flight at 2 p.m. (only problem was that, at the time it was 9 a.m.) When I checked in with United, I find out they put me in first class. Sweet life. I may be arriving in Rapid 3 hours late, but it will be done with class, first class.