The first few days of the trip is always busy, busy, busy—trying to get organized, making contact with friends on the reservation, and getting to our health promotion sites in a timely manner. As soon as the pow wow and related events are over, our schedule lightens considerably, and everyone can take a deep breath and recharge. Monday brought us to a day of no planned health promotion so it was the perfect day to venture into Badlands National Park. The park is super busy with vacationers and motorcyclists up for Sturgis. We meandered through the park stopping for photos frequently. The students were able to see buffalo from a distance, a big horn sheep, and of course, the prairie dogs. We stopped at Robert’s Prairie Dog Town in the park for viewing a bit more up close. After realizing that we were only 10 miles from Wall at this point. We ventured into the town so the students could experience Wall Drug in all of its tourist-trap glory. It was a bit too much of a crowd for me with again MANY motorcycles and vacationers, so we didn’t stay too long.
We have had some laundry challenges this week with no facilities at the cabins. Suzie very kindly allowed us to come to her house to do laundry with some students staying behind to do laundry by hand. Even laundry provides unexpected opportunities for learning. The two students who did go got the experience of a lifetime when Lance arrived and provided a very detailed explanation of the Sundance ceremony. I learned quite a bit from this discussion—in my experience some are not open to discussing the ceremony in-depth which I understand completely. The conversation with Suzie is always lively and filled with laughs so this was a nice break from the trip’s other activities.
Nursing Students at Pine Ridge 