celebration, failure, and learning

I could not wait to share the past four days of orientation w/ you...so I am writing once again.

Monday was a fantastic day- a huge thanks to everyone who contributed to the joy and love I felt on my birthday! Honestly, I spent the entire day beaming from voice mail, to message, to card, to gift, to birthday cake and balloons from my new community here at Red Cloud. The group of volunteers I will be working with are truly wonderful. Gosh, the word running through my head the first day of orientation, also my birthday, was GRATEFUL. We spent a majority of the day getting to know one another, the Red Cloud School mission, and what it means to live as a community of faith. I went to bed smiling, with a peace and joy-filled heart, knowing that this year, in addition to celebrating being 22 years old, I was able to celebrate a new period of life here at Red Cloud and Pine Ridge- and truly mean it.

Tuesday we ventured to Porcupine, SD- where 4 volunteers are living and working...and we shared in the 'excitement' of the volunteer hand book in the morning. :) Funny how something so mundane can actually be enjoyable when the environment is new and relationships are just being established. One blessing I have felt in this domain is the fact that I feel extremely welcome here within a Catholic community- and being from a protestant background, this was a bit unnerving for me. However, I share many common values with the Jesuit tradition, making it simple to feel at home amidst the predominantly Catholic group of volunteers. I have been able to be myself and even act really goofy already- something I wasn't exactly anticipating for the first week. I hope my fellow volunteers are still able to respect me despite my consistent episodes of (oops- belching!) :):)

One positive note for my mother- SEVERAL volunteers enjoy running, so i have been able to run alongside others in my explorations of the countryside- and now I intend to run with a guy who is hoping to train for a 1/2 marathon! :):) We'll see what happens there...I've made no promises. Wednesday our group soaked in as much information regarding bus driving as we could stand- but to no avail.... sadly enough- we went to Rapid City today to test... and I took three CDL tests- general knowledge, passenger, and school bus tests- and FAILED not one, not two, but ALL THREE SECTIONS by one question each. Thankfully so did most of my counterparts, and we are at it again tomorrow. (still two chances to redeem my academic self) So what began as an exciting concept of driving bus is actually turning out to be a difficult path of existence for the next week. I have learned through the process- that it might actually take some prior studying to pass this test! More to report on this later. (and then comes the physical skills test- yikes!)

So, no great photos yet- but just wait- they'll appear someday! :)

And such is life here at Pine Ridge. Hot, yes. But yesterday afternoon I spent outdoors enjoying some basketball, volleyball, and swings! God made the sky so beautiful with scattered, fluffy clouds and beautiful breezes. I try not to complain of the constant sweat which accumulates in our nearly air-condition-less accommodations, b/c winter will be here sooner than I wish.

That is all for now- thanks for the comments, they are much appreciated...and please feel free to send this link on to others who may not have received it yet.

I smile again, as I head off to lift some weights and prepare my mind and body for the teaching task ahead of me. :) LOVE TO ALL.

Em