Day One of Travel

I am most excited to be able to learn about a culture different than my own. I think that it is going to be exciting to get to see many different aspects of their life by going to different things like their mental health facility and being able to tour the children’s hospital. I feel that being able to be in their community and learn about their resources and how they manage things will truly help me to learn about their culture, several viewpoints I cannot get from reading a book or through research. When learning about the area and the environmental influences on children I have learned that they have been through a lot. They are dealing with poverty and possible drug/alcohol abuse. This is not true for all children, but these are problems that are more prevalent in this community. I also feel that they are overcoming the trauma that they have learned about from their families that they are trying to process. My thoughts on the Native American people is that they are a very private tight nit community. They have many trust issues with people outside of their culture because of what they have been through, throughout their history. I think that a complication that I am going to have to set aside is assuming that everyone that we met does not want us there. I feel that this is something that I need to be able to set aside because this can create a wall between me and my learning and understanding of this culture, and it is something that is not true for everyone.