Introduction/ Day 1

For those of you who don't know, this summer I am spending 8 weeks on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Some call it an internship; some call it a missions trip. All I know is that it's going to be quite the experience. During the following eight weeks, I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen or what I will be doing, but I do know that I am officially living on the Reservation as one of five "interns".

As an intern I am hoping to volunteer in some way with the Tribal Government here on the Reservation, but more importantly I am here to learn what life is really like on the Rosebud Reservation. Some of you know I have been on missions trips to the "Rez" before, but those trips always held a sort of surreal feeling within them. A feeling that has not allowed me to understand the people of Rosebud as fully as I feel is necessary.

So that's my introduction. A little bit about why I am spending 8 weeks on the reservation and what I hope to be doing out here. The rest of this post and the following posts I hope to write will be written with the intent to give all of you back home a picture of what my life is like during these next 8 weeks.

Let's start with Day 1. There isn't a whole lot to say about today, because the drive from Farmington, MN/ the Twin Cities area to the Rez is typically about a 9hr drive in my experience. I left around 8:30am to pick up a buddy of mine who is also interning with me this summer, and after a couple stops to meet up with people, get gas, or just take a break from the road, we pulled into our new home on the Rez.

Our new house is a teachers house. Three guys lived here, but they left for the summer and they were gracious enough to let us live here during the time that they are gone. It's very spacious and way nicer than any of us expected, so we are feeling very spoiled.

Tonight we had dinner together and took a walk around town. Then we stopped in a field outside of a school to play some frisbee. Tomorrow we have to be up bright and early for Intern Training. The schedule is 12hrs long. Pretty exciting stuff.

Thank you all for reading. I truly appreciate it.

Until tomorrow,
Brenden


Things I learned today:
1. Stephen loves to change lanes during 8hr road trips
2. The gas station in Murdo across from the Pilot charges $.50 more for their water than they should
3. Jonny is better at identifying rock bands than I am... even though he only listens to '60s music now. Embarrassing.