Global Volunteers Lauren and Jayce describe Blackfeet cultural experiences on their service program. After a productive day of service, a couple of us headed off to the sweat lodge offered by a local family. It was sure to be a unique and educational cultural experience with our new Blackfeet friends. Everyone gathers in a small […]
Journal by Irene, Montana Blackfeet Reservation Volunteer. Today on the Blackfeet Reservation some volunteers started the morning with exercise, while others stayed back to shower and make lunches. Shortly thereafter, we headed out to the elementary school for the Carol White summer recreation program. Most of our volunteer team stayed there for the day, and a few others […]
by Barbara Gironda Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.” I thought of these words often as I looked at the beautiful Montana Mountains. It has been 27 years since I ventured to Glacier National Park as a recent college graduate, eager to start […]
by Mindy Lull, Professor at Wegmans School of Pharmacy Three years ago, I had a wild idea to find a service trip in the United States where I could take a group of my students to experience a new culture, help a community in need, and grow together as teammates. I’ve traveled on service trips […]
LIFE ON THE “REZ” by Todd Cannon I nearly bolted from the sweat lodge before the first round was over. I must have looked as if someone had doused me with a bucket of water – a steady stream of sweat running down my head, torso, limbs. The heat and total darkness inside the sweat […]
Two seemingly different worlds united on the Blackfeet Reservation this summer. Suh Ning Yeoh journied from Malaysia to explore and lend a hand to the people in our host communities of Browning and Heart Butte. How beautiful to hear that the eyes and minds of both Suh Ning and our host partners were opened by their differences and […]
By Tuesday, our team had fallen into a comfortable morning routine of navigating the showers, having breakfast together, and assembling our brown-bag lunches of peanut butter and/or jelly sandwiches. After receiving our assignments in the morning, we headed off in several different directions. Many in our group stayed at the Blackfeet Community College to work […]
Who knew we’d be exposed to Blackfeet culture immediately on our first work day? In preparation, one of our team members, Julie, started us off with an emotional historical message from Chief Seattle: “How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Every part of this […]
This is simply an amazing experience for my daughter and for me. I’m profoundly appreciative that I had the opportunity to do some work related to psychiatry (although I still would have been happy to paint fences!). The treatment program where I did an in-service with the staff on debriefing is really pretty amazing. They were remarkably receptive, […]
Today Ann H, Molly, Kelley and Sunny continued to work with the children at the Nurturing Center. They got a new little boy last night so now there are five girls and two boys all aged six and under. Sunny spent time with Pat who does the cooking at the Safe House making possible menus […]