A New Experience - The United Tribes International Powwow
We did something new as a family this weekend - we went to the United Tribes International Powwow. This year marks 44 years that the United Tribes Technical College here in Bismarck has hosted the huge event. Seventy tribes are represented at the event with over 1,500 dancers and drummers coming from all over the world to participate. The event draws over 20,000 spectators from Thursday through Sunday and the Bousfields were part of the crowd this year.
Over 1,500 dancers participate in the Powwow
It all started when Faith's class went to the event on a field trip. Unfortunately, it is hard to get a wheelchair to the arena where all the action takes place because there are no sidewalks and one has to push a chair through the grass which can be hard, especially when it is hot and humid outside with bees swarming everywhere. Her aid ending up not being able to get Faith to join her classmates at the arena. Faith was pretty upset about this and about her dad taking her home early. All she talked about was how she wanted to go back to the powwow.
I had no idea what to expect because I had never attended the event before. It cost $12 per person to get into the event but a very gracious man allowed Faith to get in for free. Then there was the matter of finding a parking spot - it's worse than the 4th of July parade in Mandan!
On our third time circling through, I began to pray that a spot would open up for us. Wouldn't you know it, as we crossed an intersection, a car was just pulling out close to the arena. God even answers parking prayers!
Rob managed to get Faith in her chair to the main arena - a place she couldn't get to the day before
I can see why Faith's aid had a hard time getting her chair over the terrain but Rob was able to push her chair towards the grandstands and we found a pretty good spot that enabled to see everything. We got there just in time for the drumming/singing contest which was very cool. You can click on my video below to check it out. They then divided the dancers up into different age groups and categories for the dancing contest. The costumes the dancers wore were so beautiful and intricately made.
It was an awe-inspiring experience being in the midst of so many Native Americans who are so proud of their heritage and who have a desire to keep their traditions. And we got to experience it all because Faith's field trip didn't pan out as she hoped. She was bound and determined that her chair was not going to keep her from missing out on the powwow and because of that, it was a great new experience for the three of us!
Today marks Faith's 8th day of school and we are all adjusting to a new schedule. Faith has made huge strides this past summer in sleeping better and having more energy so we decided to have her go to school from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 5 days a week. This is a change as last year she did not go Tuesday and Thursday afternoons due to how tired and worn out she would get. Faith's first day of 4th grade School starts at 8:30 a.m. but we asked if it would be okay for us to get her there at 9:00 instead. This allows us to more time to get her first feeding into her before she even gets to school. Her aides noticed last year that when we brought her to school without any food in her tummy, she was pretty sluggish and tired upon arrival. Sometimes, after getting her to school she wouldn't start getting her feeding until after 9:00 a.m. which meant, that because she gets a feeding every 3 hours, her last feeding of the day didn't end until 10:00 p.m. Another advantage to
Last Wednesday I had my yearly doctor exam and when she said I should get my tetanus shot updated, I didn't think twice about it. The nurse said my arm would be sore for a couple of days, gave me a handout and stuck the needle in my arm. The next day my arm was sore and although I found it a little harder to pick up and carry Faith, I was glad the pain wasn't going to last long. Boy was I wrong! But not only was my arm sore, my whole body was. I felt achy and extremely tired. According to a medical site on the Internet, these were mild side effects of the Tetanus shot. If these were only mild side effects, I would really hate to have them at a moderate or severe level. On Friday, two days after getting the shot I felt so tired that I took a four hour nap after getting Faith off to school. Then on Saturday I took a three hour nap up until 7 o'clock but still felt tired and was able to go back to sleep around 10. On Sunday, finally the fatigue started wearing off and I didn
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