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January 28 - Compassion
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Mountains tower over the little town of Browning, however unlike the size of the town, the faith of the people in Browning is stronger than that of any people I have ever seen. After an extremely eventful day consisting of tutoring the students, and venturing through the beautiful glacier national park, we returned to the now extremely familiar De La Salle Blackfeet School. As we entered the classroom for the little flowers (4th and 5th graders), we were met by an extremely kind and caring face. Our speaker for the day was a Blackfeet grandmother who is extremely rooted and connected in the tribe. The grandmother recounted tales of success and working through sadness. The main point being that no matter what, God is there and always has a plan for you. Through death, terrible news like terminal cancer, and issue like mental issues within family, God has a reason for it. One of the most impactful things that she said was “with the Blackfeet we don’t measure wealth through material possessions instead we measure wealth through charitable acts.” This speaker so far has been the most interesting and impactful for me. -Evan
After quite the tiring and adventurous day across the reservation and Glacier National Park, we heard an impactful and, for me, almost an epiphanic speech by a Blackfoot woman. We then rushed home to prepare a delicious and nourishing meal of spaghetti and meatballs (can’t forget the memorial Diet Coke for Mr. Parisi’s unfortunate departure back to Baltimore). We began our evening prayer/reflections while eating and got into some deep and critical discussions of topics such as what it means to be a good neighbor and what compassion we have seen so far during our experiences. What I would like to focus on is compassion, and while we can obviously talk about the teachers’ or our own compassion for the students, I remembered a specific event that happened in class today from student to student. Marco and I were busy working with students during their ELA period, and it was hard to get to every kid, as there were 12 of them yet only two of us. One kid asked me for help on finding a specific word in the dictionary and I said I would get to them as soon as I could as I was working with another student at the time. However, the next time I looked over to finally help the kid with their work, another classmate pulled up a chair and was already working with them. This other classmate, who was always getting their work done right away and on task, didn’t have to do this. It wasn’t their job to help their classmate, yet they still did. As we discussed in our reflection, being compassionate is being proactive, rather than reactive, or in other words, serving others without being asked to. Seeing compassion in these children is really motivating, as it wants me to be even more compassionate and give that same care back to them. As we wrapped up our reflection, I finished my birthday card for one of my kids in my class for their birthday party tomorrow, and we unexpectedly hopped in the cars with Mr. McCormick and Ms. Fasy. We ended up driving to the mission church right down the road and had a beautiful examen to end the night. Overall, seeing the faith, the compassion, and the positive demeanors of these people who have gone through so much in their lives allows me to see God in everyone and everything. It is clear that his love is compassion is evident in the culture and people when really getting to know and connect with them, and I can’t wait to continue to deepen these connections throughout the rest of the week. -Braeden
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After quite the tiring and adventurous day across the reservation and Glacier National Park, we heard an impactful and, for me, almost an epiphanic speech by a Blackfoot woman. We then rushed home to prepare a delicious and nourishing meal of spaghetti and meatballs (can’t forget the memorial Diet Coke for Mr. Parisi’s unfortunate departure back to Baltimore). We began our evening prayer/reflections while eating and got into some deep and critical discussions of topics such as what it means to be a good neighbor and what compassion we have seen so far during our experiences. What I would like to focus on is compassion, and while we can obviously talk about the teachers’ or our own compassion for the students, I remembered a specific event that happened in class today from student to student. Marco and I were busy working with students during their ELA period, and it was hard to get to every kid, as there were 12 of them yet only two of us. One kid asked me for help on finding a specific word in the dictionary and I said I would get to them as soon as I could as I was working with another student at the time. However, the next time I looked over to finally help the kid with their work, another classmate pulled up a chair and was already working with them. This other classmate, who was always getting their work done right away and on task, didn’t have to do this. It wasn’t their job to help their classmate, yet they still did. As we discussed in our reflection, being compassionate is being proactive, rather than reactive, or in other words, serving others without being asked to. Seeing compassion in these children is really motivating, as it wants me to be even more compassionate and give that same care back to them. As we wrapped up our reflection, I finished my birthday card for one of my kids in my class for their birthday party tomorrow, and we unexpectedly hopped in the cars with Mr. McCormick and Ms. Fasy. We ended up driving to the mission church right down the road and had a beautiful examen to end the night. Overall, seeing the faith, the compassion, and the positive demeanors of these people who have gone through so much in their lives allows me to see God in everyone and everything. It is clear that his love is compassion is evident in the culture and people when really getting to know and connect with them, and I can’t wait to continue to deepen these connections throughout the rest of the week. -Braeden
