Today morning Warren Sailor came to the camp to take us to the Spokane tribe fire department. When we arrived there we were introduced to George, the coolest 67-year-old man that I have had the pleasure of meeting. I could tell George loved his job right away because he showed such determination when teaching us about the trees on the reservation. I have been a wildland firefighter and passing a pack test where you have to carry a forty-five-pound vest on you and completing a three miles speed walk under fourteen min is extremely difficult. To have pass such physically demanding test in my world that makes him a testament of time, proving that age is no excuse to keep fighting for one's dreams. He took us on several tours of various locations in the reservation in order for him to demonstrate to us how the tribe is managing their forest. What was most fascinating to me was how he opened up a pine cone from a pine tree in half and there were seeds inside of it. I always taught that the pine cones were the seeds of the trees, not that they carry even more seeds inside them. Which that takes me back to Warren, in where he gave us the best piece of advice in life. He stated that older people must learn to take orders from younger people in order for a successful work environment. Just because one is old it does not mean that they know everything. To me, that piece of advice will follow me forever because he is right. Especially on this trip were adults must work together with teenagers.
Later on the day, we meet two crew members of the fishery tribe that took us shock fishing. Brian Casey was the name of the leader of my group. In my opinion, I did not really like this activity because I taught we were gonna be catching huge fishes but it was only fishes of the size of my pinky finger. We were supposed to look for red trout but only end up getting day shade fishes. To make matters worse the creek was dried due to hot temperatures and as a result, there was no current passing through the creek to support large fishes. It was not that amusing fighting over one little fish with the nets. Then the worst part of this trip happens to me. I and my group were going upstream of the creek and we stumble upon a wasp nest. I was the first to get stung on my nose out of the whole group. At first, I thought they were just flies but when I saw Pablo getting bit, Brian yelled: “ok boys time to get out of here.” When he yield that out, everybody started to scream and panicking and I dropped my net because they were only attacking me and Pablo the most. What was most frustrating was that in order to get back to the trail we had to go downstream and there was a 4ft log blocking the way. As I ran I could feel the wasps stinging by back and hip, so I just jumped the log without thinking if I was even going to land that jump. I landed on my back and on top of some large boulders and the fall did not even hurt I was scared and just wanted to get away from the wasps. Jake up was on the other side of the log and he helped me get up. I then ran back through the trail but they were still chasing me, I could hear the humming. But as I was running I my shirt got stuck on hawthorn bush and it had spikes everywhere. As I tried to free myself I could feel them stinging me on the back of my head repeatedly. When I managed to get myself freed I just ran as fast as I could towards the trucks. When we got there they gave us medicine to counter the effects of the wasps. I counted nine stings on me from the wasps and it hurt even more when I was at camp. Overall, based on this experience things cannot get worse right?
Later that night at 8pm Warren came to the camp to take us to a pit house as his people call it. This was one of the most fascinating structures that I have ever seen in my life as this pit house was an underground home. When I saw the outside of the hose it straight up reminded me of something from the movie Lord of The Rings. The inside of the house was even more fascinating because it just felt so comfortable. I think Warren was right he stated that the pit house has a spiritual feeling of peace and tranquility. When I sat down it felt like church for me and I felt obligated to show my respects for the pit house. Warren took us there in order to alleviate the tensions within our group by talking about the bad things that weight on us on a personal level or emotional. Some of my group partners shared their personal problems with the group. Out of respect for Warren’s request what is said on the pit house stays on the pit house. So I will not go into detail, but I can say that I have never experienced such an intense moment. There were tears and moments of love, honestly, I would have never thought that Warren was going to do that for my group. It just really shows that Warren is a great man with a huge heart that cares about his land and his people but most of all he cares about the well-being of everyone. In today's days you hardly meet or come across good people like him, nowadays the majority of people only care for themselves. I feel really fortunate to keep meeting great people throughout this trip.
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