Maddie: Wednesday

Today we started out with the usual morning routine and ending with a de-briefing for the day. After our devotion time we headed out to kids club, a place for children on the reservation to spend a part of their day having fun and being looked after, sort of like a day care. I was a part of the group in charge of crafts, so we set up tables in the art room for painting and drawing. We also brought out some letter beads so the kids could make necklaces with their names on them. I had some one on one time with a younger kid, Norman, who showed me the best way to paint a rainbow (this involved a shade that was a mixture of brown, blue, and grey). We had a lot of fun meeting and playing with the kids but eventually it was time to leave. After saying goodbye we headed back to the school to have a moments rest and eat dinner (it was taco night!) After dinner, the whole group all piled back into our cars to go to a traditional pow-wow. There we sat in a huge circle along with a bunch of other town members and tourists. The dancing was incredible! It was unlike anything I had ever seen and I learned so much about the culture just from simply watching. At one point the leader asked us to join in dance and I am proud to say that there was a large amount of San Francisco representation in the dance circle. After the performance we had the chance to talk to some of the dancers and even take selfies with them! They were all so amazing and nice, and we even met a Shoshone pageant queen (who was only 15!) Today was definitely one of my favorite days from the trip and I will never forget the dancers and how kind and welcoming they were. I am so grateful that we had the chance to see such a spectacular show case of their culture.