Back to Memphis

It doesn’t feel like it has been 3 weeks since I said goodbye to my friends and family and drove to South Dakota. Do you remember in the first blog after I left when I said that goodbyes are hard because if you are going somewhere, then you have to be leaving somewhere else? Well, leaving South Dakota was even more difficult than leaving Memphis. It has become a second home to me. Over the past 3 weeks I have made lifelong friendships that I will never forget.

The last group that I got to do camp with was a group from Illinois and Nebraska. They had a lot of fun things planned to do and I had a blast. Water day was really fun this week. The water slide was up and running better than before and the kids were having so much fun. They got to play slip n’ slide kick ball where they ran on plastic tarps from base to base. Each base was a kiddie pool. They also got to play duck duck goose with powdered paint then have a color war. Have you ever heard of those color run marathons? Well, the powdered paint was the same kind that they use at those. during duck duck goose, whoever the kid chose, got a cup of paint dumped on their head. The color war was cool, too. When they said “go,” there was a huge dust cloud of the paint in the air. The kids had so much fun! I watched from a distance because I had to ride a bus route later and I didn’t want to be all dirty. However, when my kids were done with the colors and at the playgrounds, Bella Grace sent some kids over to get me. Of course, I had to get her back, so we had a one on one color war. 

Wednesday night, church was cancelled because we had people staying in the church building, so we all went to a rodeo at 3-mile creek. I had never been to a rodeo before, but it was really neat to see. When we first got there, they had Matt pray and then one of the natives sang a song in Lakota. While we were there, we got to see one of our campers, max, ride a pony. It was also interesting to see the older people ride bulls. They are brave to get out there, it’s really dangerous. 

My last week of camp, I tried to soak in my surroundings as much as I could. I knew that I would be leaving, but I wasn’t ready to accept it. I don’t think I accepted it until I was passing Sharp’s on my way back to Memphis. I didn’t start packing until Friday night and I didn’t finish until Saturday morning. 

Saturday was a hard day for me. I got up, finished packing my stuff, then said my goodbyes. We went to each of the houses on the ranch and spent a little time and said goodbye. It was a sweet time, but a difficult one. I think I finished up the goodbyes around 2pm and I started my 6 hour drive to Nebraska.

So, I guess that is all I really have to update. I made it back home Sunday evening around 5:30 and went straight to church. I think that seeing friendly faces made coming home a little easier. I’ll insert some photos of my trip at the bottom. Thanks for keeping up with me these past 3 weeks! I hope you have enjoyed the updates as much as I enjoyed my time on the Rez!