B.i.n.g.o!
Now three full days into our week on the reservation, the experience so far has been nothing short of exciting, challenging, energy exerting, and overall amazing. Unlike many of my peers, I am not someone who works with children on a regular basis for their job, so the presence of 40-60 campers ages 4-17 is a relatively new concept for me, and a learning experience overall.
Each day we split camp into morning and afternoon sessions, each with a variety of activities to choose from both inside and out. The campers are energetic and inquisitive, and love bouncing from one activity to the next to experience arts and crafts, baking, playground games, and sports activities. With potential impending thunderstorms, we have many indoor activities, including making slime, bead melting, watercolor painting, shrinky dinks, and rafia bracelet making. Outdoors, campers have been playing disc golf, soccer, basketball, playing on the playground, hiking, and making a slip and slide. All of the campers have been open and welcoming since the day we arrived. There have been a million hugs, piggy back rides, smiles and laughs.
One of my favorite parts of the week so far has been the opportunity to meet some of the local community members. A small group comes almost every night to play horseshoes, and on Wednesday morning we hosted a community breakfast and bingo game. At morning bingo, the community members were friendly, open and welcoming, telling us about their positive experiences with Simply Smiles, and sharing some of their own stories about their families and life on the reservation. At night, the men playing horseshoes have been more than willing to teach us how to play, including the proper way to throw the horseshoe (despite our clear ineptitude). A man close in age to myself even let us borrow his horseshoes, and we were able to play a full game against him. Spoiler alert: we lost. We spoke briefly after the game, discussing our backgrounds and the experiences of the week so far.
For the remainder of the week, we have plans to visit the Missouri River, a basketball skills challenge for the teens, and a planned discussion with Madonna Thunder Hawk and Marcella Gilbert. I am elated by the experiences of the week so far, and excited for what is to come.
Each day we split camp into morning and afternoon sessions, each with a variety of activities to choose from both inside and out. The campers are energetic and inquisitive, and love bouncing from one activity to the next to experience arts and crafts, baking, playground games, and sports activities. With potential impending thunderstorms, we have many indoor activities, including making slime, bead melting, watercolor painting, shrinky dinks, and rafia bracelet making. Outdoors, campers have been playing disc golf, soccer, basketball, playing on the playground, hiking, and making a slip and slide. All of the campers have been open and welcoming since the day we arrived. There have been a million hugs, piggy back rides, smiles and laughs.
One of my favorite parts of the week so far has been the opportunity to meet some of the local community members. A small group comes almost every night to play horseshoes, and on Wednesday morning we hosted a community breakfast and bingo game. At morning bingo, the community members were friendly, open and welcoming, telling us about their positive experiences with Simply Smiles, and sharing some of their own stories about their families and life on the reservation. At night, the men playing horseshoes have been more than willing to teach us how to play, including the proper way to throw the horseshoe (despite our clear ineptitude). A man close in age to myself even let us borrow his horseshoes, and we were able to play a full game against him. Spoiler alert: we lost. We spoke briefly after the game, discussing our backgrounds and the experiences of the week so far.
For the remainder of the week, we have plans to visit the Missouri River, a basketball skills challenge for the teens, and a planned discussion with Madonna Thunder Hawk and Marcella Gilbert. I am elated by the experiences of the week so far, and excited for what is to come.
Comments
Post a Comment