Interestingly enough, the start to my day today was the conclusion to my day yesterday. I had posted my "Day 3" blog a little earlier than I usually do, because I thought my night was winding down. As it turned out, my buddy Greg had us over for a bonfire last night, and I feel like the entire experience is a pretty story to tell.
So we left our house pretty late last night to drive to Greg's place which is no more than 15min away from where we are staying. It was getting dark and his road is basically a random dirt path off the highway in the country, and the only distinguishing features of this road are that it's between mile marker 36 and 37, there is a black mail box, and the road is closed off by a yellow gate. Don't forget. It's getting dark. Those "distinguishing features" were not all that helpful, so trying to find his place was a little bit of a struggle for me. We didn't miss it though! We made it down his driveway after a little debate about whether or not we should leave the car at the top of the hill (it's a pretty steep driveway), and Bo (Greg's dog) was there to meet us.
Spending time with Greg is one of my favorite things to do on the Rez, because nights like the rest of our night are a fairly regular occurrence when I'm around him. To start off our bonfire experience, Greg filled a pit with some firewood and gasoline. Needless to say we had a fire started in no time. After the fire was started, we all just sat around the fire, watched the flames, and spent some time bonding. We talked about so many things, but we spent a good amount of time discussing blowing things up and marriage...
So anyway we were in the middle of discussing one topic or another and somebody noticed some reflections coming from along the shed, near the stream, probably about 100 yards from us. We all peered into the darkness and we all saw the same reflections. We thought they were eyes, and some even thought they saw two pairs at times.
Once we all confirmed that we thought they were eyes, Greg mumbled something, shot up from where he was sitting, and jogged into the house. He came back with a pistol and a shotgun explaining that if animals are getting that close to the house and people, they probably have rabies. He thought they might be skunks.
He told somebody to take the shotgun because he had his pistol, so I grabbed it. A brief, "What am I going to do with THIS" went through my mind, but it was only when he told me that if the rabid skunk started to run, he wouldn't be quick enough to shoot it, that I let that thought slip out of my mouth. He told me I was supposed to shoot the skunk, so that cleared everything RIGHT up. P.S. I've never shot a shotgun before.
There was a lot of thoughts going through my mind as we walked down to the shed, and I honestly wish we would've found something (because I secretly wanted to pull the trigger), but we found nothing. The animals may have run, or the pairs of eyes that we saw COULD have been the reflectors from the trailer sitting next to the shed. I guess we'll never know. But I got to hold the shotgun a good 15min, so that was cool.
We made it back around 1am (we broke our intern curfew. Oops!), and Jonny and I decided to take the morning off from lifting. I got a 8hrs of sleep, but it was so hard to wake up. I ate quick, while reading devos, then I went off to do Housing Coordinator things.
There are over 100 individuals coming to Mission in less than two weeks, and they are staying in a high school for the week. It's my job as the housing coordinator to find the lady in charge of the school and ensure everything is a go for that week. It seems like a pretty easy job, but my search took me a lot longer than I intended it to.
I drove over to the school that I've stayed in every year for the past five years during LJ Week. With that being said, I thought I had a pretty good idea of where I would find Nancy, but I didn't actually know where her office was located and she didn't return my call. So I walked across the field to the doors to the school, and all four doors were locked.
I remembered there was a building that appeared to be offices farther west, so I walked back across the field and down the street a little ways to find offices that were labeled BIA Offices. I wasn't quite sure about this one. I'm not well versed in the way offices are set up in the rez, but I thought I knew enough to know that the BIA and the school were two different departments on the rez. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot else on this block so I really couldn't think of a better option than walking in and asking for Nancy, so that's what I did. It turns out I was right. Nancy wasn't in the BIA Offices.
However, the gentleman I ran into said that if I go back East, there's a building that looked just like the one I was in, and that's where Nancy will be. I couldn't really understand what he meant, because the two buildings that I saw didn't look anything like the one I was standing in, so I just walked back East to the cafeteria.
I don't know why I thought there would be offices in a cafeteria that I have also spent a good amount of time in for the past five years, but it turned out to be okay. Another gentleman was trying to get into the cafeteria to drop off some stuff, but I told him it was locked, so he said he would have to call Larry to let him in. I knew that name! Larry is the grounds manager, so I was hoping this guy knew where Nancy was. He said he didn't know, but he asked if I had tried the school offices. I told him they were all locked, and he asked if I had tried the East entrance around the back.
What.
There's another entrance to this building? I've stayed in the school for the past five years and I have not once seen this exit. Sure enough, those doors were open., I walked into the first office I saw, and I asked for Nancy. The lady I talked to told me Nancy was down the hall and to the left. So close. I finally found Nancy and she was very helpful. I have most everything figured out for LJ Week except what rooms each church will by staying/meeting in. Tomorrow will be a logistical day.
The rest of my day was mostly spent out at Saint Francis with Jonny. I have spent the past five years running a kids club, so it's really fun to just walk around SF and see who I run into, because I know a majority of the kids there. I saw some kids I knew and played some basketball, then Jonny and I made it back in time for dinner.
So that's my day and a half. I'm sorry this got so long; I don't have to stop to take a breath while typing so I get pretty long winded. Thanks again for reading. I appreciate your support.
Hasta Mañana,
Brenden
Things I learned today:
1. Skunks can have rabbies.
2. Planning can be my greatest weakness. Sometimes I just need to let go and listen for God to tell me what's important for the day.
3. I can make tracking down people way more difficult than it should be. Its like playing Where's Waldo, but worse.
4. Isaiah 58:10
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