Volunteer Gina Buonaguro
discovered more than she expected
on the Prairie
"After completing our day's work,
someone suggested we all drive out of town, where even its minimal
lights could not disturb the celestial wonder overhead. We went into
the plains and stopped nowhere in particular except that it seemed like
the perfect place to get out and look. Stars splattered the sky from
one horizon to the other. Never before had I seen so many. Bright ones
like blinking beacons. Faint ones smeared in clusters, sprinkles of
white paint on a blue-black background. The constant breeze shook the
prairie grasses, and the grass chanted back to the wind. Being from the
East where most people I knew would never think to take a vacation in
the prairies, I marveled at South Dakota's unadorned beauty, a secret
splendour for those who only took the time to look. All twenty of us
now shared this secret."
"Every
now and again, when I talk to a friend from that trip or see a picture
of the long shimmering grasses of the prairies, I recall that week of
volunteering where I was taught how to lay shingles on a roof. Where I
discovered the meaning of community, of helping others and being
helped. Where I was able to laugh at myself. Where I learned to gently
lead. Where I saw the person I wanted to become and realized she was
already there."
-Gina Buonaguro
Read her incredible essay here
Stevens Institute of
Technology student Sara Roeder returned to New Jersey with more than
home building skills, as she explored the Lakota belief that all are
related...
By Sara Roeder
Mitakuye oyas’in! This phrase, meaning “all my relatives” in the native
Lakota language of the Sioux Native Americans, became the theme of the
Stevens Institute of Technology team’s trip to Timber Lake, South
Dakota for Habitat for Humanity. With these words, the Lakota culture
attempts to communicate the belief that all life is connected, and
there was no better premise to observe this cultural philosophy than
from the perspective of a Collegiate Challenge.
The Collegiate Challenge is an alternative spring break program
sponsored by Habitat for Humanity during which students spend a week
building a house for a partnership affiliate. The Stevens Institute of
Technology team trekked to the Okiciyapi Tipi HFH affiliate on the
Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in Timber Lake. Upon landing in
the Midwest, the general sentiment was that the group had arrived in a
foreign country, one in which the predictable, geometric patterns
created by innumerable skyscrapers were replaced by expansive vistas of
rolling prairie and irregular rocky buttes.
As the team pulled in to our final destination at the Holy Cross
Catholic School, we were greeted warmly by Sisters Pegge Boehm and
Darlene Gutenkauf with their arms full of an extensive array of bar
cookies: brownies, blondies, pumpkin bars, spice cake, and more. The
hospitality did not end there, as the team enjoyed several home-cooked
meals throughout the week. The accommodations at Holy Cross were simply
the start of the progression to a new understanding of the word
‘community’.
With bellies full and bodies rested, the team embarked on their true
mission for the week: building a house for a Timber Lake family. The
Marshalls are a family of five that have fallen on hard times, and have
turned to Habitat for Humanity for a hand up. The building site was
seven miles away on a gravel road in a desolate town known as
Glencross. On Monday, the team was faced with the challenge of erecting
an enclosed house on what appeared to be little more than foundation
and decking. During the week, the team fought through blisters,
splinters, wind, snow, and precarious ladder maneuvers in order build
exterior walls, interior framing, and complete a roof for the Marshalls.
Although
the work was tough, the team thoroughly enjoyed the time under the
tutelage of construction superintendent a.k.a. crew boss Ted “Teddy”
Eagle (the added help of Adam Westbrook and Allison Moe, two Habitat
veterans in town for a few days, also sped up the construction
process). The camaraderie experienced at the site contributed to the
group’s increasing awareness of the importance of human relationships
in both rural and urban societies. This importance, and relevance, of
human connections also carried over into the Native American cultural
activities planned by the Okiciyapi Tipi HFH affiliate.
While on the reservation, the Stevens team participated in a native
sweat lodge ceremony, listened to live performances of traditional
Sioux folksongs and legends, and also ate the local delicacy: “Indian
tacos”. By far, the most intense cultural experience the team partook
in was the sweat lodge. All 15 team members entered into a deer hide
tent constructed with willows that stood approximately four feet tall
with a diameter of twelve feet. In the center of this tent lay several
igneous rocks that had been heating in a blazing fire for most of the
day. The sweat lodge leader would pour water over the rocks during the
ceremony to create steam which would in turn heat the participants. The
team then endured four rounds of sweating throughout which the sweat
lodge leader chanted Lakota songs and prayers. While the team did not
directly understand the meaning of the words being spoken,
communication and intercultural connections were deepened as a result
of the sharing of this ceremony.
As
the Stevens students return to Hoboken, New Jersey, many of them have
taken on new perspectives as a direct result of their experiences in
the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation and, more specifically, the
Timber Lake community. The students approached this alternative spring
break with open minds and open hearts, and have broadened their
perception of community beyond the simply cordial to the nearly
familial. As a group, we would like to say thank you, mitakuye oyas’in,
for all that you have shared. - 2008
