Home From The Mission Trip
@marsha32 (6631)
United States
June 18, 2016 11:16am CST
It was a good trip with good work done. Too much to type about really!
The picture is of those of us who were in the group.
We had a little delay in our train trip out there and ended up getting in about 1 am Sunday morning to the mission. We got up for breakfast at 8 and then church at 10.
Sunday was then lunch and planning for the Bible schools that started that night.
We did 2 Bible schools. We split into 2 groups and went to 2 Navajo family's homes and hosted the Bible school outside at their houses.
Monday through Wednesday was breakfast at 7:30 then to work by 8 am. There were 2 crews that were doing sheet rocking projects at 2 different houses and then the paint crew, which I was on.
My crew painted the science room and the furnace room in the school. We also weeded around the school and at one of the lady's homes on the mission. We also went to a family's home and helped them clean their yard.
Work ended at 3 pm each day so that we could relax a bit before supper then heading to do our Bible schools.
Quiet time was at 10 pm and hopefully sleep to get ready for the next day.
Thursday we spent the entire morning on a long hike up a Mesa to see some Indian ruins. Yes, this chick, who is afraid of heights and gets tired very easily, actually hiked to the top and back down again!
Then Thursday afternoon we took the 45 minute drive to go see the house that the group helped build 2 years prior.
Then it was cleaning, cleaning, more cleaning, and packing.
We got up Friday morning at 4 am and loaded up on the school bus for the almost 3 hour bus drive to get to the train station.
A little delay in our train trip home too, of course. But, HUGE delay when we got to Partridge, Kansas and found that the big bad storm blew a fence over on to the railroad tracks. They had to call in machinery to remove it with no idea when that machinery would get there.
The conductors finally decided that those of us getting off in Hutchinson could get off the train if our rides would come to Partridge and pick us up. They did and we got home at 4:30 am.
Up this morning to get the kids to Bible school by 9 am and reeling ever since.
It's going to take some major time to get back to a routine here at home. Let's just say that no one did about anything while I was gone around the house either and leave that one to your imagination.
I will probably base a lot of my posts over the next week or so around various parts of my trip. I took loads of pictures and videos.
It didn't bother me too much to not have wifi or even mobile data. If we walked in the right spot we would get a signal on our phone and a message would come through. When some idiot (that would be my husband) decided to share bad news with me from home in a message on Tuesday, that's when I put my phone on airplane mode--but that news continued to worry and haunt me all week. Sigh......
Enough writing for today--have some things to figure out.
10 people like this
10 responses
@celticeagle (189915)
• Boise, Idaho
18 Jun 16
Sounds very eventful. You got so much done. Good for you!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
18 Jun 16
At work, we've been watching some documentaries on the plight of many of our Native American peoples. Sadly, they have some of the highest poverty levels in the country, and often don't have clean water or reliable electricity. I'm so glad your group decided to help out, as the plight of those people are a direct result of our government's actions (or lack of actions). We need to do more to help them. God bless you!
@marsha32 (6631)
• United States
19 Jun 16
The family that we held Bible school at their house was one of the poorer ones. There are many issues with money. Most of the women are the bread winners of the families we met, selling their weaving or jewelry.
However, many of the homes we were able to get in to they had large big screen tv's and direct tv, and even the poorest had cell phones....smart phones, not the time flip phones from the government like my mom has.
Not saying they still aren't poor though.....and things are still hard for them...and they do work very hard for what they do have.
Like the government owns the land and all they own is the house that is on it.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
19 Jun 16
@marsha32 Many people blame our federal government for the woes of the Native Americans, and to a great extent they do have to shoulder some of the blame, but I was reading recently about financial mismanagement on the reservations, and the article indicated that the tribal leaders and tribal governments share much of the blame as well for the poor conditions of the people. The federal government funnels billions of dollars a year to the Native Americans, and this is supposed to be used to help the people, but numerous audits have revealed that the money is never making it from the tribal government down to the people. Somebody, somewhere, is getting rich, and yet the poor people continue to live in squander. I know it's much more complicated than just what I described here, but the system is definitely broken and in need of fixing. Meanwhile, the people continue to suffer.
@JudyEv (382259)
• Rockingham, Australia
21 Jun 16
I'm sure many of us look forward to hearing more about your trip.
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
20 Jun 16
It sounds like you had plenty to do. I am looking forward to visiting with you, but will probably not be online until tomorrow evening.
@gr8nana6 (6614)
• Conyers, Georgia
19 Jun 16
Sounds like you had an awesome trip and y'all got a lot done in the week there. I'm sure you are glad to be back home, even if you are saddled with everything that wasn't done, lol.
