Going with the Flow

Early mornings and late nights with so much in between.  This is the way the trip always goes.  No time for blogging yesterday so I will catch you up.  We stopped in to see Rosie, Allyssa, and Frieda at the Singing Horse on our way out of the reservation to go to Walmart in Nebraska.  So good to see these friends–it’s hard to catch Rosie at a standstill, she is always moving!  After visiting for a bit and doing some initial planning for other activities, we moved on to visit the OLC Nursing Program in Pine Ridge.  Michelle Bruns, one of the faculty members (who the students say looks like Tonya Broughton at IUS) took time out of her very busy pre-call back week schedule to show us around the school and talk about the program.  One thing that I learned this visit is that students must travel to either Sioux Falls; Cody, Wyoming; or somewhere in Nebraska (each from 6-8 hours away) to take the NCLEX.  They are increasing their enrollment to 25 students this semester, which will be challenging due to space and the limitations of having only 5 faculty.  Michelle is an absolute pleasure to talk with, and she gave some insights on some new developments on the reservation unrelated to the nursing program.  We moved onto the Walmart in Chadron and got all of our supplies.  Using our usual divide and conquer method, we were able to get 5 overloaded shopping carts full of baby supplies, booster seats, diapers, hygiene items, and physical activity items for kids.  Remember the limited cargo space in the SUV?  Well, the students tackled the loading of all of this (plus our food for the week) like pros!  They also continue to be very patient with our flexible plans and what seems like continuous driving.

After the allotted one hour of siesta time back at the motel. We went back to the pow wow for the grand entrance.  It is something that everyone should experience at least once!  We saw our new friend, Cecil–who left the circle to come over and shake our hands.  We gave him an IUS T-shirt, and he was so appreciative–said that he will wear it out!

The pow wow is such an amazing experience, and the students’ reactions are always something that I enjoy greatly.  They are getting more and more comfortable, and I love to see the openness and ability to recognize the positives in the Lakota way of life.

Here is our friend, Cecil (photo by Danielle Ramser).