Re-Member!

As many of you know I will be working at Re-Member for the next four weeks as a Program Manager, and I’ve learned I can never have a non-eventful trip when heading to the Rez. Long story short I was supposed to land in Rapid City at 1:30pm on Friday and head to Re-Member, but instead I arrived 10 hours later, stayed the night in a hotel, heading to Re-Member on Saturday. Though it wasn’t ideal (I didn’t feel settled in which was hard since I was interacting with volunteers and it was also my first time meeting a lot of the staff), it all worked out and I am officially on the Rez for 4 weeks!

So far being on staff is slightly weird since the volunteers look to me for answers to questions and to direct them, and I’m not always sure how to respond or what the proper way to direct them is. I’m still trying to figure things out and the rest of the staff has been really great at helping me learn what I need to do and where things are. I’m not 100% confident yet but I’m getting there (especially now after having a work day under my belt). I slowly, but surely, starting to find my place as a part of staff at Re-Member.

The tour day on Sunday was pretty hot, but Re-Member has started doing the tour day in reverse so we aren’t hiking in the Badlands in the heat of the afternoon. It seemed to work pretty well, and even though volunteers were hit pretty hard with a lot of tough information they all were able to enjoy many other aspects of the day.

Monday was the first work day and I stayed at Re-Member to work on bunk beds in the workshop. I was glad that my first day was doing something that I was pretty familiar with. Overall the day went pretty well, the morning was spent sanding (even though the sand paper didn’t like staying on the sanders) and after lunch I worked with 4 volunteers building frames for the bunk beds. It was great getting to interact more with the volunteers as well as seeing the enjoyment they got out of using the power tools.

Today I got to go out on the Rez and finish a skirting job with David and Megan, though we didn’t have insulation so we weren’t able to completely finish the job. We ended up coming back here mid afternoon and paneling some of the outhouses with the scrap wood from the skirting job. One of the younger volunteers learned that this is my first week working at Re-Member and started jokingly calling me “rookie”. It was a lot of fun getting to interact with some new volunteers as well as a few from yesterday. I also got to drive the van for the first time which went well, though I did make one “rookie mistake” when I cut it a little close when passing a car (it turned out fine, no one got hurt :-P).

I love being back at Re-Member and being able to see the beautiful sceanary! It’s also nice that there is a familiar face among the volunteers, Jake, someone who I met when I volunteered in August. Though it was disappointing his siblings weren’t able to come back this week (especially Kate). I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the week brings as well as my next few weeks here!