Camp so far...

Monday and Tuesday some of our youth worked on scraping, priming, and painting houses for some really great people. They came back with great stories of beautiful views of the Badlands and very kind homeowners who gave back to them selflessly by making them food and gifts. The rest of our youth worked at Kids Club. Monday we planned skits, songs, and crafts, and then ran Kids Club in the afternoon. Tuesday morning we helped out at the food distribution center by picking up trash, organizing the garage, cleaning bugs out of the light covers, and shredding documents (by hand because they don't have a shredder!). The other group cleaned and organized the comunity center where we are now staying. On Monday night, we were finally able to take really cold showers. The hot water heater isn't working in the community center so the showers ranged from "It wasn't that bad" to "That was the worst shower I've ever had in my life!" Last night we hiked through the Badlands at sunset which was absolutely beautiful. Today we switched assignments so those who had been painting are now doing Kids Club and those who had worked with the kids are now painting. Willard and Rachel's aunt Catherine came out and talked to our group at lunch about some of the culture and traditions, which was really interesting. On the way back to camp we were able to see a storm come across the prairie, which is a truly unique and beautiful sight. Hopefully it will be dry enough for us to travel to the 38-feet-tall metal cross sculpture this evening. I just want to say a word about how truly amazing our group is. Even at Crazy Horse Memorial we had several strangers stop our adults to comment on how polite our youth were and how lucky we were to have such a group. To watch them work in this community is absolutely inspirational. They all work without complaint, volunteer for whatever task needs to be done, keep each other laughing, and they do it all with such enthusiasm. I don't think you can truly understand unless you see them in action firsthand, but trust me, our youth are amazing and we are so lucky to be here with them. Thank you to all of the parents for allowing your youth to spend the week with us!