Day One

There is no word for “depression” in Lakota- the expression is “My heart is on the ground.”

There is no word for “Goodbye” in Lakota- the expression is “Later, again.”

A gentleman named Gabby came and had morning "devotion" and breakfast with us. We ate oatmeal and drank coffee. I noticed that the milk was past date but didn’t say anything, maybe they already knew that. We talked for a while about his daughter, Paige, who is fifteen and likes to ride horses. I told him that I never wanted to learn to ride so badly in my life, and he told me that he had a nephew about fifteen miles from here with horses, some of whom are gentle enough for me to ride if I want to learn. I hope I get to do that. Pastor Rupp read 2^nd Corinthians 11:22 aloud for us. The version she read from her devotional was beautiful. I haven’t read Biblical based scripture in a long time. She has such a willful voice. I wasn’t sure what to do when my eyes welled up with tears, so I turned and washed the dishes. I could hear Gabby talking about a friend of his who he ran into down at Bats (the local gas station). He was saying that his friend hadn’t had a drink in about a week and a half and that he looked really down, his eyes were sunken and his spirit seemed low. Gabby invited him to join us today for breakfast, but the man is never up that early. His cell phone went off about then and it was an old western tune. I really liked that. I asked what the Lakota word for God was, and Gabby told me it was “Wakantanka”-Godhead or "Ateunyanpi"- Our Father. Those are only the most commonly used terms, there are many other ways to refer to God in Lakota. He explained to me that speaking Lakota is like painting with words because the words themselves express both emotion and logic. Things are thought of in phrases and expressions rather than fragments of sentences. I really liked that, it seems more natural. I asked if most people here understand Lakota and Gabby seemed kind of ashamed to tell me no. Then, he started telling me stories of assimilation and how his mother was never allowed to speak Lakota in school. The three of us spent the next few minutes exchanging the few Lakota words we knew, and it turns out Gabby knows much more than he thinks, but he would never tell you that. His eyes are very honest. He also has a great laugh. Right then, I couldn’t help but notice the tattoo on the front of his forearm. It was weathered and illegible. I couldn’t tell if it was a prison tattoo or something else. I didn’t ask. Then, we started talking about which pastors are the right ones to ask to bless meals and which ones will preach from Genesis-Revelations before we get to eat. Haha. After that, Gabby left to take Paige to school and then to take his son, Wiley, fishing. Once breakfast was over, Karen packed lunch for some people who were gonna be in the hospital all day today.

PS- there are mountain lions here, Gabby said he saw one awhile back down by White River, where he goes fishing. A man also saw one underneath his car this past winter. I would melt into a million pieces if I got to see one. I asked Gabby how big they were and all he said was “Well, much larger than a pussycat.”