St Patricks Crew Online

Sunday July 6, 2008

Travel Day

The CREW teens and adults left St. Patrick's at 9:10am. We had a wonderful bus driver, Ed Pfeffer, from Peoria Charter Coach to guide our way. We took a rest stop near Morton, IL for lunch and a dinner stop in Council Bluffs, NE. We arrived in Winnebago, NE around 8:30pm. We unpacked the bus and settled into our accomodations at the St. Augustine Mission Catholic Grade School. St. Augustine's Mission was founded personally by St. Catherine Drexel. Father Joe Hogan caught up to us in Winnebago shortly after we arrived. One of Fr. Joe's close friends, Father Tom Bauwens, pastor at St. Francis Church in Humphrey, NE, brought some of his youth and chaperone's to join us on this mission trip.

Monday July 7, 2008

Work Day

Today was an educational day for us. After breakfast, Father Tom spoke to us about the Winnebago Native Americans and his time as pastor for 6 years at St. Augustine's. Around 10am, Father Tom introduced us to Sarah Snake. Sarah was our mentor, guide and liason to the Winnebago Natives. She wears many hats, one of which is the Youth Minister at St. Augustine's. She also works as HR for Ho Chunk Inc. Sarah took the next few hours to educate us about life on a reservation, the history of the Winnebago Tribe, the 12 clans within the tribe (she is a member of the snake clan), her family history and taught us our first Ho Chunk word (me-me-k: that is phonetic, not correctly spelled in Ho Chunk: it means butterfly). After lunch, we weeded the playground and the community garden on the St. Augustine's grounds. We also cleaned up their rather large wood pile too. Before dinner that evening, Sarah took us on a tour of the Winnebago village on our tour bus. Sarah is a font of information and was very patient with all of our questions and our curiousity. That evening after dinner Father Joe said mass for us, while the Praise Band played their wonderful music.

Tuesday July 8, 2008

Work Day - The Real Work Begins

Today after breakfast we broke up into 4 work crews. A chaperone and a set of teenage ladies went to help Fr. Robert on the Omaha Reservation (just south of the Winnebago Reservation) to reorganize their food pantry. A second and much larger work crew went to the home of Iris and Barkley, in the village in Winnebago, to begin scrapping and painting their home. A third crew stayed at St. Augustine's to build a fire shelter behind the church. Native funerals last for 4 days and a fire burns for the deceased for those 4 days. They currently only had a small fire circle. This crew's task was to build a fire enclosure made of cedar (cedar is a sacred wood for the Natives). And a fourth crew of all males were given the task of going out to Lonnie's home to help cut down willow brances and build a new sweat lodge. Lonnie is a holy man/medicine man in the Native culture. He is a deeply prayerful and wise man. After our work for the day we headed back to St. Augustine's for dinner and a mass said by Father Tom this time. Here we learned two other Ho Chunk words: Pee-na-gi-gi (again phonetically): which means Thank You in Winnebago and Weeb-blah-hah: which means Thank You in Omaha.

Wednesday July 9, 2008

Work Day - Finishing Projects

Today we worked on finishing up our various projects. One work crew went back to Iris and Barkley's to finish replacing some rotted out wood around the base of the house, along with applying a second coat of paint. Another work crew went to Sarah's house (which is across the alley from Iris' home) to clean up her lawn, mow and do some weeding. A third crew stayed back at St. Augustine's to finish the fire enclosure and the fourth crew returned to Lonnie's home to build a new set of steps up to his front porch. They also spent some time chopping wood for the sweat as well. This evening after our work days, we all gathered at St. Augustine's to head back out to Lonnie's home to participate in a sweat lodge. While the sweat lodge looks like a small hut, you can think of it as a very intense sauna. The first sweat was for all the men that wanted to participate. At any point in time you could ask to leave the sweat by saying "All My Relations". Bucky, Lonnie's son-in-law, placed white hot rocks in the dug out pit in the sweat lodge. After closing the door, Lonnie and Bucky chanted/sang prayers after pouring water on the rocks. After the first set of prayers, the door was opened to signify the end of the "first door". Then the door was closed again and the process repeated. After the "second door" the men exited the sweat lodge and the women took their turn for 2 doors. After everyone was finished we all returned to St. Augustine's for dinner and then a shower!!! One teen commented that while he was dripping with sweat during the sweat lodge experience, that it felt distinctly different than when he sweated the same way during a basketball game. The sweat lodge was a "clean sweat" he said. A sweat lodge serves the purpose of cleansing, purifying and praying to the Creator God. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, that before the sweat, we all made "prayer ties", where we placed a small amount of tobacco (tobacco is sacred to the Native's) in a colored square of cloth and tied them shut with a special prayer intention. The prayer ties were placed inside of the sweat lodge during the sweat. They will be burned at the next full moon, which will be Friday July 18th).

Thursday July 10, 2008

Work Day - Wrapping up Loose Ends

On Thursday we wrapped up all of our loose ends on our work projects. A small crew returned to Iris and Barkley's house to finish some carpentry. They also cleaned out a neighbor's gutters who leant us a ladder for our job. Another crew went to finish chipping the wood pile at St. Augustine's. And a third crew went down to the Senior Center to bag up laundry detergent and then walk through the neighborhood handing it out. Finally a fourth crew returned to Lonnie's to put the finishing touches on his new stairs, to chop more wood and mow his lawn. After lunch at St. Augustine's we hopped on the bus to go across the street (I know that sounds silly, but it is an extremely busy highway) to visit All Native - the Winnebago Native American gift shop. They also have a statue garden depicting the 12 clans of the Winnebago Tribe. Each clan has specific duties to the tribe. In the late afternoon the teens spent time working on their affirmation cards for one another. Some of the male teens and male chaperone's were also able to help set up the tee pee for the Devotional Service we were to have that evening. After dinner, at 7:30p we all gathered at the tee pee for an amazing Devotional Prayer Service. Lonnie, his son Lamar, his son-in-law Bucky and a friend Greg Bass, lead us through sung Native Prayers. The service lasted about 2 1/2 hours. It was a truly spiritual and enlightening experience.

Friday July 11, 2008

Fun Day

Today we got up and got out!! The teens did a wonderful job cleaning up after themselves and we were able to leave St. Augustine's by 8:30am. We arrived at Adventureland in Altoona, IA around 11:40am. The teens had the next 6 hours to have some free and fun time. Adventureland is an extremely family friendly park. They had a log ride and a White Water Rampage like ride, along with a couple of wooden roller coasters and a few other assorted rides. They had a lot of arcade and carnival like games too. There is also a small circus attached to Adventureland. Some of us caught the 3pm show and saw quick change artists, amazing frisbee catching dogs, jugglers, a trapeeze artist, and a human cannonball. At 6:45pm we began our final trek home. We arrived at St. Patrick's at 12:30am. Unloaded and headed home to our comfy beds!!