poltr1 | TW-3 for October 12-14, 2007....

Fri 10/12: Packed. Worked until 3 pm. Then I left for the Red Bird Center, a multicultural healing center just outside Cambridge, Ohio. (Two weeks ago, I was here staffing a New Warrior Training Adventure.) Saturday was one of the Center's semi-annual volunteer days, when volunteers and friends of the Center come by and do some much-needed repairs and other work the Center requires.

I arrived at about 7:30, entered the main lodge building, was greeted warmly by the Center's director, Shianne Eagleheart, and had dinner and conversation with a few other guests and staff of the center. I spent the rest of the evening and night in one of the guest cabins. It was unheated, and I didn't get much sleep, but I managed to stay warm in my sweats, sleeping bag, and fleece blanket. I got up at 11:00pm to tend to the ceremonial fire.

Sat 10/13: Got up to a breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, bagels, and coffee (Cafe Bustelo). Several of my New Warrior brother arrived to help out today. Then we received our duties for the day. Several of us were going to use our laptop computers to build a spreadsheet of nationwide points of contact, which would be used to publicize Shianne's program "The Wounded Bear", a modern-day medicine story. While I've not yet heard the story personally, I'm favorably impressed by its many success stories and testimonials.

We broke for lunch and then gathered outside, around the ceremonial fire, and did a check-in. (Essentially, Who am I? Where am I from? What am I feeling right now?) After check-in, we went back to work. A few of the people on the data entry team shifted their focus to grant writing. Bottom line: The Center is in need of funding in order to continue its mission. So far, it has done so without any state or federal grant money -- to date, the Center's activities have been privately funded. We broke for dinner at around 5:00pm.

I would have stayed another night for the sweat lodge on early Sunday morning, but I needed to be back in town. After dinner, I packed up my computer and left for Dayton. I arrived home around 10:00pm.

Sun 10/14: Had breakfast at Bob Evans with members of the USS Bismarck, and then headed en masse to the Ohio Renaissance Festival, where we worked. I left at 1pm so I could spend my weekly "father-daughter time" with M. We ended up at the Magic Castle, a local arcade. After I dropped M off at her mother's place, I went to Beef O'Brady's and had a burger. I then came home and called my parents.