Indian Tacos

Our last evening on the reservation involved one last feast. This time we had been promised Indian Tacos. In case you haven't guessed, Indian tacos have the same ingredients as other tacos, but the ingredients are the topping on a generous piece of fry bread....and the fry bread was in the largest pieces and the most tasty yet.  (Thank you Hilda and Jesse!)Paul and I had spent all afternoon preparing strawberry shortcake to share. We also had june berry pudding and the coconut cream pie! 

The dinner had been scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Indian time, but of course we didn't eat until 7:00 p.m. Meanwhile, at 5:00 p.m., the food pantry was reopened and a few more people came to receive food boxes. Also a team of interviewers came out to meet with some of the recipients of the food. By the time the interviewers arrived it was mostly Red Fox family members to be interviewed, which they were. The many children played in the field and on the slide and swings. Paul was drawn into a game of kickball, survived in one piece!

So the dinner was finally served. We stuffed ourselves again. Then we moved to the sanctuary for a short prayer/ recognition service. We were thanked numerous times and prayed over as many as well. Then we were presented with a number Indian craft items to remember our stay at Bdecan. We found it very difficult to say farewell to our friends and hoping that we can return in the future.  We were told that in the Dakota language there is no word for "good-bye." The parting expression is "I'll see you again." We shall deeply miss those we've come to know and continue to be grateful for our time with them.

We leave behind a twice mowed church yard, a cleaned-up play ground, two new closets (one as yet without a door.) and a newly moved coat rack......and some terrific sisters and brothers in Christ. We bring with us many momentos from our time on the reservation, some wonderful memories, and at least one wood tick that decided to tag along with us!

We headed out across the prairie early this morning. We found ourselves just outside of Bismark by lunch time.  We also stopped there at a car wash, and said farewell to the mud and bugs we had picked up during the last two weeks. We moved on to just outside of Modera on the Western part of North Dakota. It is warm here today. We are taking a break at the Cowboy Hotel, and just enjoyed washing ourselves off by shower for the first time in two weeks. It doesn't get much better then that!