Good evening my friends and family! Today was a great day that included many smiles and laughs. I started off my day with helping get all of our donations sorted and in order which was a feat in itself. After we finished that we headed off to Rosie’s to give her some of the donations for her family. She has some beautiful artwork and beaded jewelry that I plan on buying tomorrow when I get to see her again. After that we had intentions on going to the Pow wow again but we seen a couple carrying their baby down the street (which seems pretty common) so we stopped and gave them a stroller which led to more people showing up. We went to a house that had numerous children there and at least 4 adults that I had seen. Other students were checking the adults blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure. I spent my time hanging out with the kids and trying to talk to them about exercising. They didn’t care about any of what I was saying they just wanted to play around with the toys I gave them. That is fine though, because at least they were being active and were smiling. I also spent time with the father/grandfather. He had a lot to say to us as well as telling jokes which i enjoyed. He was pleasant and gave all of us a history lesson on what happened at Wounded Knee. After we were finished at his house we were directed to go across the street to another family who needed supplies for their children. I had seen some kids playing outside from the other houses so I decided to give them some of our stuff such as gatorade, belvita, coloring supplies and a basketball. One of the children was being more forceful towards me telling me to get him more things like the belvita crackers and tried to take the other little boy’s from him. I didn’t really know how to respond to him so I just said you have yours and we need to be fair and let him have his. I also said that we didn’t have that many left to give out which was the truth. I also noticed with everything I personally handed out no one thanked me in any way shape or form. In our culture that is rude, however, I am not so sure with this culture if that is typical or not.
On our way home the instructor made a pit stop to camelback mountain so we could climb it. That was so much fun! It didn’t take as long as I thought it would and thank God for that. I thought I was going to die because of how out of shape I was but alas, I made it to the top with the others. It was such a beautiful and peaceful view from up there and I loved every second of it. I take that back, having to walk through the freezing cold creek was not so much fun.
I do have to say that I was surprised at how easy it was to speak with the adults of the tribe and how hard it was to speak to the children. I thought it was going to be the exact opposite. I thought the children would talk to me more but they looked at me like I was crazy most of the time. There was one little girl that I adored. She was quietly playing with me. When my back was towards her she would come and poke me or tap me on my shoulder and walk away then turn back and smile at me. I wasn’t completely shocked by their living conditions because I was given so much warning from the teachers and prior students that came here. I think today was considered a success even though I didn’t do as much health promotion as I was hoping for. I am hoping they will at least read my pamphlet and learn more about nutrition.
Clarissa's Blog 
I loved seeing your interactions during this impromptu health promotion stop. Even if you feel like you did not do much education–the mantra here (because there always can be more) is some is better than none! Even if one person makes one small change or uses one bit of information that was received, then our efforts were a success!