Nemo

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 41 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Itinerant Summer Camp Counselor on Indian Reservations

Do you know what the poorest county in the US is? Neither do I, but at the time, it was Todd County, SD, where the Pine Ridge Reservation meets the Rosebud Reservation. This is raw desert. This is nobody's ancestral lands because nobody would or could live here long-term. This is just where a big section of the Lakota people got shoved.

We would go into a town, and set up our weeklong free program for the local kids. We stayed with locals, or slept on the floor of churches in sleeping bags. We had to bring in all of our own supplies and most of our own food, partly because there was nowhere to buy anything but also because if we ate what the locals had to serve us we got malnourished and depressed –we learned this the hard way, and almost crashed the program two weeks in from burnout, we were so miserable. We would do our best to give the kids some fun, some education, and a good lunch but ultimately they just wandered in and out as they would and other than enforcing "no fighting" in the program areas we were powerless to do anything more.

I live on the West Side of Chicago now, a block away from a permanent homeless camp. I've been homeless myself, briefly, before I got my life turned around. I'm no stranger to urban poverty. But as bad as it is, I would take it over rural poverty any day. At least in the city you can get up and walk away. Resources are underfunded but they're there. Out in the desert, on the rez... all you have is the community, and the community is broke.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

in addition to campaigning

FTFY

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Chicago, forever and always. Go Maroons!

[–] [email protected] 81 points 5 days ago (2 children)

The good guys are the humanitarian aid workers risking their lives bringing food and medical care into the region.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

I'll be going straight to work, honestly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (5 children)

No, I'll still be commenting, just like after the last ten elections where I also voted for third party candidates.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

C) Undersea habitat domes!

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago

Sure. Life's hard enough.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Diwali is the festival of lights, right? Seems like a great pairing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Specifically the sweet chili paste they make, yeah. I didn't know there were others.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

why not yoghurt? or mai ploy? or a roux?

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