As each day nears its end, the sun lingers near the edge of the horizon, illuminating all the eye can see with a gentle, magical glow. The sunset reflects the pace of life here, lingering, it takes its time but in the most beautiful way. For all those who know me I run at the speed of the energizer bunny, always looking for something new to do and complete. The pace of work and general life is a lot slower in the community, this is neither good nor bad, just different and something which I have been slowly adjusting to. To cope, I have already read two books and a half in a just over a week. Nevertheless, the last week has had its moments where two hands did not seem enough. Saturday the community held a belated mother’s day event during which Lily and I helped set up and take down. The festivities included bingo, arts and crafts and some amazing food. The celebration allowed us the opportunity to meet much of the community as well to create a bond with the children in the community. That same night we had up to ten children come by to visit and play at our apartment, including a few kids who even stayed the night on our pull out couch! They are some truly amazing kids, kind and fun loving. The fire truck attached to our apartment was especially a hit. Lily and I came away with many lovely pieces of art from these talented young ones.
Sunday morning was a lazy one but that afternoon was filled with enlightenment and coffee, a very wonderful combination. We were invited over to visit with “papa Henry”, an elder of the community. We spent hours chatting, listening and drinking coffee on his back porch in the early afternoon sunlight. Sundays are usually quiet days, left to prepare for the week and to reflect, our visit with Henry was perfect in that spirit. The week ahead was a little more tame and routine than the first, being our first full week of work we used it to settle in further to our roles, helping around the office and discussing with those who work out of the band office and our supervisors specifically.
Wednesday Lily and I were offered a wonderful opportunity to attend an informational summit in High Level. At this summit we learned about the possibilities for introducing solar power into reservation communities. The presentation was given by Green Arrow, an Aboriginal Renewable Energy Corporation owned by Montana First Nation. The summit offered some interesting possibilities, as well as free lunch. Friday was also special in that we helped deliver food boxes out to community members. Lily and I packed the back of my truck up and were given a list of names, no addresses, and a directions of “out towards the forks”. Needless to say two newbies to the area got hopelessly lost once or twice! We made it eventually, thanks to the help of the houses we did manage to find and we got to meet yet more people from the community!
Other activities we have filled our time with include fishing, making tea popsicles, going for long walks to the park, movies nights, playing with kids in the community, driving to Fort Vermillion and a lot of reading. So much reading in fact that when one of the local kids of the community proclaimed she was a princess because of the makeshift crown she had, and Lily followed up with Queen, after I had made a few suggestions for mys title the kids told me, “no you are definitely the librarian”.
The first week and a half of my time spent here in Boyer has flown by. It has already offered me some very interesting opportunities and I have met some wonderful people. Apart from what I have already gained from the community, I have also gained personal insight from my living situation. For the past few years I have adapted the moniker of “Adult House Cat”, meaning that someone should probably feed me and generally take care of me, but if I were left on my own I could probably survive. However, I am already seeing that this is no longer true, I am closer to a true “Adult Human” than I previously thought! Meaning I can cook, clean and generally conduct myself in a more poised manner then I knew possible, I had not realized since I have lived at home or with a family all my life up to date. This realization in itself is powerful, if not a bit daunting. But, nonetheless I am excited and ready to keep on this path and see where it leads.
