We have had a spectacular last two days here in Montana.
We had a picnic with all of the clients of Mission Mountain Enterprises http://mmeempowerspeople.org/, saw Kerr Dam, and even hiked in the National Bison Range!
We also went to Glacier National Park and a POW WOW tonight! Check out all of the new pictures uploaded on our photo website: http://photobucket.com/MontanaTrip09
We are flying home from Spokane tomorrow!
It has been a fabulous trip :)
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Day 4
We just got in from a "team pow wow," our "reflection session," in our tee pee! No, this was not any boring reflection session. Let's just say we had a long time of sharing and compliments of each other, ending in hilarious wrestling and backwards rain dancing and our own circle "team dances" around the inside of the tee pee at midnight, full of Carrie Underwood singing and other fantastic renditions.
We started our day today volunteering at the thrift store, called Twice But Nice. This store is operated by Mission Mountain Enterprises, an organization that serves adults with disabilities on this reservation. In Ronan, the town where we are staying, there is an activity center for adults with disabilities right next to the Thrift Store. The individuals take turns working at the store and doing activities at the center each day. They are remodeling their thrift store next week, so it was great to be there to help them empty out rooms, and pack up all of their inventory! We got to work alongside adults with disabilities from the reservation, and had a lot of fun.
After volunteering at the Thrift Store, we took a tour of Salish Kootenai College, which is about two miles down the "highway." This is the Tribal College on the Flathead Reservation. Each reservation has a tribal college, and according to everyone we've talked to, this is the best tribal college there is. There are nine baccaluarate programs and around 850 students. There are dorms and a dining hall, student government, and other college activities.
After the tour, we went to the Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Consumer Focus Forum. They hold this forum every once in a while to hear from their clients about their services, what they need and benefit from, and any other comments. We were welcomed with a sign and they provided lunch, and even huckleberry ice cream for dessert!
There were around 20 people at the meeting, all sitting in a large circle. These people included the Tribal director of Voc Rehab, the director of DHRD, and the director of another nonprofit that serves people with disabilities of all types, along with volunteers and clients. It was very interesting to hear about the services and challenges in this cultural and rural area.
We had to leave the meeting early, however, to get to our next volunteer placement! We were to volunteer up by Flathead Lake with the Environmental Protection Agency, doing a tribal campground cleanup.
*** One of the coolest parts of everywhere we have been is that each time we go somewhere, we are introduced to so many important people! At University of Montana in Missoula, we met each program directo. At Tribal Health, we met with the director and his staff. Now, at the Tribal offices, we met every single staff person there; they all came down to meet us, introduce themselves, and explain what they do. Then they all wanted a picture with our group! It was so awesome to be so welcomed. ***
The tribal campground cleanup finished earlier than expected, so we took advantage of our extra time by takinga dip in Flathead Lake. Montana is well-known for this lake as it offers the most beautiful view of snow-capped mountains and refreshing, aqua water that comes from snow melt. Peaceful naps were interrupted by some hard-core playful wrestling between Adrian and Josh, which only escalated as the day went on.
After visiting the lake and eating dinner, we came back to the Bed and Breakfast only to have another visit from Rich and his son. Rich, the director of the Environmental Protection Agency, has a 14 year-old son with autism. He was so welcoming of our group and enjoyed Josh, Adrian, and Christy so much that he came over to visit and take some pictures of us and his son. We are hoping his interest and support will help start a Best Buddies chapter here!
With all this action and fun, we have been completely enjoying time with each other and others in the community. It is still noteworthy to mention the awe of the scenery. The breathtaking sunset has a different mystery everyday and leaves a stunning red-orange haze over the rolling plains in the West and reflects on the snow-capped mountains in the East. It brings great closure and beauty to each day.
We started our day today volunteering at the thrift store, called Twice But Nice. This store is operated by Mission Mountain Enterprises, an organization that serves adults with disabilities on this reservation. In Ronan, the town where we are staying, there is an activity center for adults with disabilities right next to the Thrift Store. The individuals take turns working at the store and doing activities at the center each day. They are remodeling their thrift store next week, so it was great to be there to help them empty out rooms, and pack up all of their inventory! We got to work alongside adults with disabilities from the reservation, and had a lot of fun.
After volunteering at the Thrift Store, we took a tour of Salish Kootenai College, which is about two miles down the "highway." This is the Tribal College on the Flathead Reservation. Each reservation has a tribal college, and according to everyone we've talked to, this is the best tribal college there is. There are nine baccaluarate programs and around 850 students. There are dorms and a dining hall, student government, and other college activities.
After the tour, we went to the Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Consumer Focus Forum. They hold this forum every once in a while to hear from their clients about their services, what they need and benefit from, and any other comments. We were welcomed with a sign and they provided lunch, and even huckleberry ice cream for dessert!
There were around 20 people at the meeting, all sitting in a large circle. These people included the Tribal director of Voc Rehab, the director of DHRD, and the director of another nonprofit that serves people with disabilities of all types, along with volunteers and clients. It was very interesting to hear about the services and challenges in this cultural and rural area.
We had to leave the meeting early, however, to get to our next volunteer placement! We were to volunteer up by Flathead Lake with the Environmental Protection Agency, doing a tribal campground cleanup.
*** One of the coolest parts of everywhere we have been is that each time we go somewhere, we are introduced to so many important people! At University of Montana in Missoula, we met each program directo. At Tribal Health, we met with the director and his staff. Now, at the Tribal offices, we met every single staff person there; they all came down to meet us, introduce themselves, and explain what they do. Then they all wanted a picture with our group! It was so awesome to be so welcomed. ***
The tribal campground cleanup finished earlier than expected, so we took advantage of our extra time by takinga dip in Flathead Lake. Montana is well-known for this lake as it offers the most beautiful view of snow-capped mountains and refreshing, aqua water that comes from snow melt. Peaceful naps were interrupted by some hard-core playful wrestling between Adrian and Josh, which only escalated as the day went on.
After visiting the lake and eating dinner, we came back to the Bed and Breakfast only to have another visit from Rich and his son. Rich, the director of the Environmental Protection Agency, has a 14 year-old son with autism. He was so welcoming of our group and enjoyed Josh, Adrian, and Christy so much that he came over to visit and take some pictures of us and his son. We are hoping his interest and support will help start a Best Buddies chapter here!
With all this action and fun, we have been completely enjoying time with each other and others in the community. It is still noteworthy to mention the awe of the scenery. The breathtaking sunset has a different mystery everyday and leaves a stunning red-orange haze over the rolling plains in the West and reflects on the snow-capped mountains in the East. It brings great closure and beauty to each day.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Day 3
Check out all of our newly uploaded pictures at: http://photobucket.com/MontanaTrip09 !
Adrian: "Living in the middle of nowhere is very quiet and peaceful. And we watched the sun set and we want to move here."
We had a delicious breakfast of fruit and quiche, and then headed to the People's Cultural Center in Pablo, just a few miles up the "highway." We got an awesome tour by the Native American director. It was fascinating to learn about the Native American culture: some of the highlights being all of the different ways they use bitterroot, and taking only what you need and giving back to Mother Earth.
Josh: We looked around at coyotes, buffalos, bisons, and bears. We rubbed coyotes' skin. They made clothes for a baby you can carry on your back. And feathers run in the back, and dancing. We talked about Indian tribes. We saw big a necklace, and Indians made it.
Adrian: We saw a whole bunch of cows and horses. We watched video of a pow wow.
Christy: We also learned about how they use plants for medicines.
Jessi: After the tour, we got right to work outside!
Adrian and Josh: and pulling up, and digging hole in back and putting flowers around it. And we ate pizza for lunch. And pulling up roots. We took a break and watched Indian movie, eat pizza, spend time together, take a break, and go back to work.
One really exciting part of the break was getting pepsi cans from the vending machine in the People's Center that had BEST BUDDIES logo artwork on the can!!!!!! Everybody, check out Diet Pepsi cans and look for Best Buddies! We found one all the way here in Montana!
Our job was to pull up the gardens' non-native plants, which we learned to identify, and make the soil ready, and then plant native plants for outside the people's center. We spent all day doing this job.
A man from the Tribal Newspaper came and did a story on our community service project!
Then, we went to Mission Mountain Enterprises! MME serves adults with disabilities with day-activity centers, a thrift store run by adults with disabilities, and group homes around the reservation.
We had fun talking to the man that made the rugs (a Native American man with disabilities at the center). We had fun talking to the different people onto disabilities.
It's nice meeting Native American people with disabilities. They are really nice people. They have lots of people with downs like us. And they do sports. They were really impressed with their weightlifting abilities, and told all their friends! We talked about basketball too. We made such good friends there, that they invited us over to their grouphome that evening for game night.
After we visited MME and finished our jobs at the People's Center later that afternoon, we went to Lake McDonald. This lake was crystal clear, aqua blue, made of snow-melt from the mountains that surround the lake. It was so peaceful and beautiful, a perfect relaxation break from a high-energy day. Absolutely unbelievable scenery, in such a remote location.
After we went to the lake, we went to the Group Home, got a tour of their nice house, and then played basketball!
Adrian: "We had fun beating the girls in basketball [we played 4 on 4 boys vs. girls]. I kept dunking on them, and when I missed Jessi called me Ben Wallace. We are going to give Jessi and the girls a re-match in basketball."
Josh: "I have fun today in basketball. Stephanie said, 'you wanna check me?' and I told Stephanie, 'You can't beat me in basketball,' put my hands stretched and hands streched and made my basketball in one hand and I made it!" I am having fuun on that game in basketball me and adrian playing and we play a lot and Stephanie and me bumped backs.
Josh fouled Stephanie, probably, every time she had the ball. Adrian threw Jessi off the pavement, too. And I made Jessi jump holding the ball up.
After this, we went to dairy queen, in the "city' of Ronan, and even sitting on the curb outside of DQ was a breathtaking view. We had a lot of fun taking silly pictures, and had a really fun day bonding together all the time!
Adrian: "Living in the middle of nowhere is very quiet and peaceful. And we watched the sun set and we want to move here."
We had a delicious breakfast of fruit and quiche, and then headed to the People's Cultural Center in Pablo, just a few miles up the "highway." We got an awesome tour by the Native American director. It was fascinating to learn about the Native American culture: some of the highlights being all of the different ways they use bitterroot, and taking only what you need and giving back to Mother Earth.
Josh: We looked around at coyotes, buffalos, bisons, and bears. We rubbed coyotes' skin. They made clothes for a baby you can carry on your back. And feathers run in the back, and dancing. We talked about Indian tribes. We saw big a necklace, and Indians made it.
Adrian: We saw a whole bunch of cows and horses. We watched video of a pow wow.
Christy: We also learned about how they use plants for medicines.
Jessi: After the tour, we got right to work outside!
Adrian and Josh: and pulling up, and digging hole in back and putting flowers around it. And we ate pizza for lunch. And pulling up roots. We took a break and watched Indian movie, eat pizza, spend time together, take a break, and go back to work.
One really exciting part of the break was getting pepsi cans from the vending machine in the People's Center that had BEST BUDDIES logo artwork on the can!!!!!! Everybody, check out Diet Pepsi cans and look for Best Buddies! We found one all the way here in Montana!
Our job was to pull up the gardens' non-native plants, which we learned to identify, and make the soil ready, and then plant native plants for outside the people's center. We spent all day doing this job.
A man from the Tribal Newspaper came and did a story on our community service project!
Then, we went to Mission Mountain Enterprises! MME serves adults with disabilities with day-activity centers, a thrift store run by adults with disabilities, and group homes around the reservation.
We had fun talking to the man that made the rugs (a Native American man with disabilities at the center). We had fun talking to the different people onto disabilities.
It's nice meeting Native American people with disabilities. They are really nice people. They have lots of people with downs like us. And they do sports. They were really impressed with their weightlifting abilities, and told all their friends! We talked about basketball too. We made such good friends there, that they invited us over to their grouphome that evening for game night.
After we visited MME and finished our jobs at the People's Center later that afternoon, we went to Lake McDonald. This lake was crystal clear, aqua blue, made of snow-melt from the mountains that surround the lake. It was so peaceful and beautiful, a perfect relaxation break from a high-energy day. Absolutely unbelievable scenery, in such a remote location.
After we went to the lake, we went to the Group Home, got a tour of their nice house, and then played basketball!
Adrian: "We had fun beating the girls in basketball [we played 4 on 4 boys vs. girls]. I kept dunking on them, and when I missed Jessi called me Ben Wallace. We are going to give Jessi and the girls a re-match in basketball."
Josh: "I have fun today in basketball. Stephanie said, 'you wanna check me?' and I told Stephanie, 'You can't beat me in basketball,' put my hands stretched and hands streched and made my basketball in one hand and I made it!" I am having fuun on that game in basketball me and adrian playing and we play a lot and Stephanie and me bumped backs.
Josh fouled Stephanie, probably, every time she had the ball. Adrian threw Jessi off the pavement, too. And I made Jessi jump holding the ball up.
After this, we went to dairy queen, in the "city' of Ronan, and even sitting on the curb outside of DQ was a breathtaking view. We had a lot of fun taking silly pictures, and had a really fun day bonding together all the time!
Days 2!
Hello from Twin Creeks Bed and Breakfast! We are "group-blogging" tonight, and we are excited to tell you about our past few days!
On Tuesday we went to Missoula! We first met with the director of the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (the UCEDD), called the Rural Institute. (The Rural Institute at the University of Montana is the equivalent of the Kennedy Center at Vanderbilt.) At the meeting was the director, and about ten of his colleages, directors of the different programs they have! It was fascinating to learn about how they tackle issues of health and disabilities in such rural populations. Dr. Dykens, from Vanderbilt, got to share many things we do at the Kennedy Center and also got to ask many questions and learn about the rural programs.
Adrian: "It was a lot of fun asking questions about life in Montana and about the Indians. And also, they talk about how the Indians lived in the past, on hunting for food while the female Indians make clothes."
Josh: "I am having fun. We talked in the meeting about disability and us with disability, they talk about college, and they talk about school buses and transportation and medicine.
Travis: "I was impressed by the caliber of people that they gathered just to talk to us. We had the directors of so many programs, it was almost like if you had any kind of question of any part of the world of special needs or anything, it was at that table. It was pretty intense."
It was really great to have an inclusive group meet with such important people, and there was a great deal of mutual respect in the room.
We hiked up to the "M" in the top of Mt. Setinel.
Adrian: "The hike was really fun. We hiked all the way up to the M. We had bottles of water and sunscreen with us, and clean clothes and deodorant. I love taking pictures with the girls. We saw the football field from the M."
Josh: " I love hiking. We have fun hiking. Me and Adrian's buddy, Travis, we have fun and we got a biggest competition to see who was the fastest walker to the M, and Travis fell and I was the first one up there."
Steph: "In my opinion, it was a really fun group activity, where we all got to do something together. It was one of those uniting, shared experiences. It was fun to have a specific goal; if we were hiking just to hike, we probably would have stopped earlier."
Jessi: "We got to walk around Missoula, and go to the Big Dipper Ice Cream store! It was a really small, but beautiful college town. I cannot believe that it is possible to go to college amongst such scenery! Mountains on every side, and literally right outside our meeting room was a mountain."
Josh: We have fun with the ice cream place we went to. We tried that first shake, huckleberry ice cream.
On the drive home, we said, "We can stop anywhere you want, we're in no rush!" We found a random sign with an arrow that said, "Interpretive Outlook," so we stoped and interpreted! It was really a gorgeous views. After that, we talked about dinner. The girl planners were like, "What should we have?" Finally, we were really excited about our consensus to have Tomato, Avocado, and Cheese sandwhiches grilled on the grill. And then, we realized, "That has to be unappealing for the guys," and asked them, and they confirmed. We saw a sign for Taco Shak, and the next thing we knew, the three boys ordered 15 tacos for $14, and ate all of them while the girls enjoyed their "estrogen sandwhiches," as named by the boys. "They were delicous."
When we came home, we watched the amazing sunset, and took a "hike" around the bed and breakfast property.
We then had a "team pow wow" where we built an awesome fire, and made s'mores! We sang songs around the camp fire, and had sharing time. It was great to get to know each other even better.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Adrian and Josh's First Post
as the first two days came and gone from day one when i adrian lajuuan ewing and joshua reece putman with travis and jessica with stephanie cristy came to arive at the nashville air port at four thirty a m in the morning to catch the first flight to denver as even we knew we was still not awoke we still already had a blast at the air port before we even got on bourd the plane as we were ready to take off into the air and landed into denver and only had a hour to have as much fun taking restroom breaks and water breaks while looking around as i was checking out the all the females in a nice way talking to some of them as they seem as the niceses people you will ever find and will ever meet while me my bestest buddy travis that is so awesome between him joshua puutman and me with jessica we make look way better all of you vanderbilt students we are loved males and all you beautiful females from me adrian lajuan ewing to me as a special olympic power lifting champion with bench press 230 pounds and dead lifting 420 pounds to me you are royal qweens of my home town nashville were i live and go vanderbilt number one in s e c football
~Adrian
I am having fun. I love this trip! I like hiking, meeting people, and college. And I spend time with our best buddies. We had fun today, we been to get some ice cream. That's all I have to say.
~Josh
~Adrian
I am having fun. I love this trip! I like hiking, meeting people, and college. And I spend time with our best buddies. We had fun today, we been to get some ice cream. That's all I have to say.
~Josh
Monday, June 1, 2009
First day!
Check out our photos at: http://photobucket.com/MontanaTrip09
The first day of traveling was so rewarding, and getting up at 3am did not even put a damper on the day! Our group maintained such a positive attitude, excited the entire time about what was to come. Appreciating each moment made the long day very enjoyable.
For Christy and Adrian, it was their first time in an airport, and for Christy, her first time flying! Both of them did so well throughout the travels, and want to fly again!
We arrived in Spokane, rented a car, and all of us were awe-struck. Nobody in our group has ever been to this part of the country! Experiencing these new sights together has been spectacular. The scenery is unbelievable, and the photos cannot do a bit of justice to the vast landscapes we saw as we traveled from Washington through Idaho into Montana, and into the reservation in Montana!
Never can we go anywhere without somehow connecting with old friends... so I got to see Ben Cook from Falcon Camp, who lives in Idaho! He lives right off the interstate 90 that we drove on to get to Montana, and he met our group for lunch at the last stop of "civilization" before we continued on I-90 into mountainous paradise.
All around were rocky mountains that stretched to the sky, waterfalls, rivers, and just fantastic views. We sang to country music songs and cd's, and "oo'd and aah'd" every moment of the way, literally seeing more and more spectacular views each minute.
Elisabeth Dykens, the professor who is joining us on our trip, flew into Missoula earlier in the day, and met with the Director of Tribal Health for the Flathead Reservation in the afternoon. We joined later in their meeting, and had the incredible experience of speaking with this knowledgeable tribal leader as our first introduction to Montana, let alone the reservation! We learned a lot about health care, issues with disabilities, tribal financial struggles, and different types/uses for medicine, among many other cultural facts.
Last night we had a pre-trip dinner in Nashville for the participants and families. We read books on Montana, and got excited about different parts of the culture and area from looking at pictures and reading sections together. We all had our own "lists" of what we wanted to see and do. One of the things was Huckleberries, like in Huckleberry Finn. We saw a road-side ice cream place, and pulled in and got Huckleberry Shakes! They were DELICIOUS! We went to the grocery store this evening and saw lots of huckleberry items. We cannot wait to try more Montana specialties.
If you look at the pictures, you can see that our Bed and Breakfast is just breathtaking. I never thought that it would be so luxurious!! We have TVs, dvd players, a hot tub, gorgeous rooms, kitchen, common rooms, etc. And the best is the VIEWS! It is on a HUGE piece of land, and you can look forever and all you see is animals, grass, and mountains. There is a MOTE (or river) surrounding the property! It has beautiful paths around it and the landscape is like nothing any of us have ever experienced. Tonight, we had a great time walking around the property, playing with the animals, and grilling out on the porch. We ended the night with a game of Uno, and now it is time to go to bed to get ready for our day in Missoula tomorrow!~Jessi
Check out our photos at: http://photobucket.com/MontanaTrip09
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