Uh-Oh

This morning( Wednesday SLAM) I woke up and made the ultimate decision to NOT wake anyone up like prior days. Instead I slowly woke up before the time the morning alarm would normally screech at the lovely time of 7:45. I decided to take a shower... In the sink... and I put on my socks and left the rest of our room alone, as many do not like to be woken up on any day of the week. Breakfast was served a little later than usual which resulted in a late start to go root digging. We got in the cars and Jake, Liam, and I jammed out in Happy's car as we made it to the Long House where we met our host for the day. Our host told us hard stories of the results of drugs and alcohol which set a somber tone for the quick discussion. However, as she continued there were signs of hope and it was clear her faith was strong in our creator. She rescued dogs, and adopted a little girl at the age of 2 months, the baby girl had meth in her body as a baby. She has raised her ever since and she was her pride and joy in life. Back to our focus, we hopped back into our cars and hit the road to the mountains... that is where the true chaos began. So! We are now back in Happy's car and we began to ride down roads that clearly haven't been driven on for awhile. We had to pull over to hop in the back of Mollie's truck to continue on this bumpy and wet roller coaster ride. We drove through deep water trenches and I was most impressed by the way our church van kicked booty through the rough waters! We were going smooth until we looked ahead. Our lead slid into the side of the road which caused her to get stuck. Quickly, our team leaped into action as they hopped out of all vehicles and went to help her! Our team gathered logs, a bumper that was claimed as "un-useful" and some other scraps that may have helped? Ha. To continue, through rough waters and lots of pieces and parts to attempt to get this car free, we couldn't. The end. Joking, but we did call a tow truck as the rest of the group hiked along. Through beautiful plains that weren't disturbed by much, the rolling hills screamed comfort and it was peaceful. We got the the location were the roots grew and we began to dig on this majestic land. We heard that the men that came to tow us out were questioning why we were on this land. There was a possibility that we could to be fined. To elaborate, in tradition, non natives are typically not allowed to be on this land, and definitely not to go root digging. I learned later that women are the only natives that can do the root digging as well. In conclusion, it was an honor for our team to hunt for some roots with a member of the Yakama Nation. It was amazing to say the least, we even found a bearded lizard, that was radical! Lets go onto the next activity, cause I'm getting bored. We then went back to the long house and got to go inside, this was rare and this was great. We walked in their footsteps and learned how their funerals worked, it made me feel guilty, this is because they treat their bodies with so much respect and pride and compared to us, they honor the bodies with such care. Let me share a fun fact with you. Once the body dies, they must hold a funeral, and at that funeral they begin the grieving where they fully accept that the spirit has left with the dead for just one year until the memorial which is one year later where they can reveal all association with the body once again, if that makes sense. If not, feel free to talk to me later (; Okay, next subject folks! We got back in the caravans and hit the epicenter of Yakama Nation and went to their museum, I wanted to hang out with another one of our hosts, his name was "Elton" he took me on a tour of the whole museum and it was breath taking and it shocks me on how much he knows about his culture, at such a young age. He talked to me about fishing, it was his specialty, he knew so much and I could see his eyes sparkle when I talked about fishing. Now I am gonna go play wall ball, and to do so I have to wrap this whole spiel up first. We ended the night with dancing and a divine dinner of fry bread and salmon, the best salmon I have had. Everyone had smiles on there faces today and it was clear we all learned a lot more about our creator. What an amazing and blissful day.

Goodnight folks.

-Joshua Hren