Last Sumer I spent the very last team week in on the Rez in Warm Springs, Oregon. I worked most of the week cleaning the community center. I washed graffiti off the walls and scraped gum off the floor. A lot of the same kids hung around the community center all week. One of the hard things about going to Warm Springs is that I didn't know any of the kids. Up here in Yakima most of the kids know my name and I know theirs. I kept expecting to see a kid that I knew come around the corner, but I didn't. However, I did befriend two girls while I worked. The first day I met Hazel and Raelynn, they followed me around the center so curious about what I was doing. The next day as I was scraping gum off the floor I heard my name "Heather!", being called down the hall way. It was Raelynn calling my name. She wanted to help me so I handed my tool for scraping gum off the floor to her and we worked side by side for an afternoon until the floors in the community center were shiny and clean.
On Monday was our first day of the summer with teams at Totus Park. I had been at Totus for about two minutes when I engaged a group of middle school girls. I was going around the circle asking for names and two of the girls said Hazel and Raelynn. I asked if they were from Warm Springs and they said no, that they had lived their whole life around White Swan. As I questioned them more I discovered that they had spent one week with relatives in Warm Springs last summer. It just so happened to be the very same week that I spent in Warm Springs. They said they kind of remembered me. Again they were so curious about what in the world we, Sacred Road and the teams, were doing.
It is amazing to me that I was able to start a relationship in Warm Springs with some girls I never thought I would see again and then to pick it up again a year later up here in Yakama. I pray that the girls will stick around and want to be involved with youth group.
