Vet Day

Hows it going everybody. Sorry I havent posted in awhile but not much has gone on in the past couple days to report about. I did absolutly nothing last weekend except rearrange my room. Now to report on my action packed week so far:
1. Completed 4 HW assignments.
2. Took test.
3. Hung single lousy strand of Chirstmas lights. (Holiday Lights...to be pc)
4. Blew out light bulb in room.
5. watched roomate eat half gallon of salsa in 24 hours.
6. found out rollerblading is the most efficient way to burn calories. I dont believe it.
7. continuing to battle the 3,000 lady bugs that have taken over the house. (worse than the fire ants)
8. Almost gave my roomates dog a massage after he chewed on one of my hats.
9. Updated my Quicken (EVERYONE SHOULD TELL MY MOTHER)
10. Ran 8 miles. (should have rollerbladed)

So I hope upon reading this list you feel better about your life. I am now going to eat lunch bc im very hungry...shouldnt have forgot to eat dinner last night.

Matt

Intersting fact: We have killed 5 bats in our apt this year.
Interestign Fact: Weapon of choice.....yellow broom.

Clarise

Well I am proud to report that my machete has been cleaned, rust removed and sharpened. I know this is very exciting to you all because it is to me. I will now be carrying it on me 24/7 365....except for when im in class. That could get dicey. I would also like to report that I was not notified yet if I have won the election so im just gonna go out on a limb and say I didnt win. Bummer. While I was going to institute the concealed carry of machetes and now this law has no shot I will still follow it anyways.

I figure I should mention a little about my schooling since that is now my main priority. The school is going good. The main thing this year is that I am a member of the NAHB construction competition team....Sounds exciting huh. I am the head of marketing and pretty much what I have been charged to do is to make a marketing plan of how I will draw potential customers to model homes in a small town in North Carolinas wine county. This is a pretty hard task seeing as that im a construction major and am not to prevelant in the marketing industry. If anone out there has any good marketing information I would be open to listening to any ideas.

The next aspect of school that is pretty non interesting is that I won a NIOSH scholarship this year which consisted of 1,800 bucks. I am pretty happy that I wond this and am glad I took the 30 minutes to fill out the app and write the letter. I think for that one moment I got paid more than Brett Favre. O well. Other than that life has been good and when somthting interesting comes up you better know I will fill you people in.

Matt

Interesting Fact: My Fantasy football team plays my brothers this week. (ill get crushed)
Interesting Fact 2: I hate Justin Beiber

Vote Natzke

LAdies and Gentleman. Thank you for meeting me here today. It has been awhile since I talked to your through this medium but I belive that there is a very important issue at hand. Today is the state elections and I encourage all of you to go out and vote. More importantly I encourage all of you to go out and vote for Matthew Natzke for State Treasurer. I think I can be a great asset to everyone in this great state of our by directly impacting our government funds. Here is some of the hot topics and platforms I will be inacting if I am gracious enough to take down the dreaded Dawn Marie Sass (still hasnt taken off her halloween costume......witch) and Kurt Schuller (This guy has nothing going for him except for the fact that he looks like Chris Farleys brother....im not sure thats good though).

The first issue that I promise I will tackle is allowing everyone in this state to carry concealed weapons. NO I SAID NO....guns. The only weapon you will be allowed to conceal and carry is that of a Machete. This has nothing directly to do with government funds but in a way it does. I will be allocating certain funds to purchase machetes for all Wisconsin citizens over the age of 7 (you just cant trust 6 year olds these days). I think this will cut down crime and raise enjoyment levels for all people of this great state.

Next I will be sending funds to the town of Green Bay. This is very important. As all of you know the Vikings are the worse team in the NFL and we need to keep it that way. We will directly fund the efforts of the Pack so we dont lose in a couple weeks. Next the Pack will use the money to sign Randy Moss. we will then proceed to sit him on the bench for the remainder of the season or until we have awritten contract that he will retire at the end of this year.

Last but not least. There is a great deal of hoopla in the state today about creating jobs. I think that creating jobs is a great idea. But why not go one further and NOT create any jobs. Many of you may be scrathing your heads... Yes no creating jobs with government money. Spending all this money seems to not create many jobs therefore I will just pay every unemployed citizen a salary of 30,000 a year and they dont even need to work for it. This being said they need to vote for me the next election.

Ok one more thing. I will keep this short and sweet. I will be allocating certain funds to buy John Clay a treadmill.

thanks for reading( hopefully ur at work)

GO VOTE: MATT NATZKE

Slogan: Who wants to work for money when I can give it away.

Last Post?

Well peeps. I would like to say thank you for following me the past couple months. ITs been hard to keep you too updated because of such an iffy internet connection in Tarpum Bay. I would like to thank you for following as best as you could. I would also like to shout out to my actual followers. All three of you. You three have meant the world to me and if there is anyway I can repay you please feel free to let me know.

I am currently sitting in the Philidelphia airport with 2 hours left of a 7 hour layover. This is almost as a 7 hour hangover. I have been excited to come back but also a little weary of leaving Tarpum Bay. I have had such great times there, but I know it will be better at home. There was only so much to do in Tarpum Bay. I mean right at this very moment...im sitting in the airport watching news about a man being burned to death in the world sauna championship. Welcome back to America I guess. Land of the free.

The last couple days were very cool in Eleuthera. We went out with lester a lot to pick fruit and have different local delecasies. (prolly didnt spell that right) We had a wilk salad and some good cracked conch. If you dont know what Wilks are....your on the internet. Ok scratch that. I tried to look them up and couldnt. They are sea snails otherwise known as the boogers of the sea. Well thats what I call them. It was all fun until our stomachs started to hurt....

I would also like to report that I am thinking of continuing the blog to let you all know a little more about my life as it continues. If you think this is a good idea...please post.

Thanks again and here are some pics of my trip.

Love

Matt

God Bless

Interesting Fact: Im very excited to see you all.

Interesting Fact: Tiger Woods sucks

God Bless America

Well peeps. The time here on my internship is running down. Today was my last official construction work day. It will be hard to go home after meeting some great people here but I am definetly looking forward to seeing you all. I was walking down the street today and one kid yelled my name from a moving car and then I recieved a hug from another. I mean, at this point im pretty much a local celebrity around here. I guess being one of 2 white guys in town has its advantages. So anyways. Done with the mushy stuff.

So like I have previously mentioned, today was my last work day. It was a tough one at that as well. I was down in the pit the whole day and the weather was taking its tole on me. Lets just say. I was hotter than lance bass at a ricky martin concert. We moved to forms up the previous day and poured the second stage of our wall today. The canadian group is great and they arent as big of hosers as I thought they would be initially. Having said that, if I hear one more thing about the Edmonton Oilers someones going to end up with a horse head in their bed....courtesy of Clarise of course. I have also decided that my machete needs to come home with me. I was thinking it may not be worth the hastle trying to get it in the country but having thought about it...I dont think anyone will care. I mean the thing is completely rusted and isnt even sharp enough to cut warm butter. I mean grandpa dick would have an absolute fit using this knife.

So I also hate to say it but I forgot my camera back at my place so the photos will be on hold another day. Going on the free day tomorrow I will have a chance to take some good pics anyways so it will prolly be twice as good.

Im out homies

Love

matt

Interesting Fact: recently we have found a huge sea cucumber population out in the bay. Pretty much it looks like a lot of people went number 2 in the water. This is twice as bad because the canadians are 5 times more excited to take an aqua dump.....God Bless America

Tropical storm colin is weak....very weak

Well its pouring again here in ole Tarpum Bay. It rained heavily last night and slowed our concrete project down because of sediment getting behind the forms. This means that hopefully, it dosent rain over by the site tonight so we have to deal with the same crap tomm morning. We have been getting some chopppy waves here again on the exma sound side. I think this is due to the tropical storm becuase the same thing happened when the last tropical storm went by us. This one has already broken appart however. The storms name was colin and like all things named colin it was pretty weak and embarrassing to watch. (Please post comments below making fun of colin).

We have been having a lot of fun here the past month and it is going to be hard to leave. I have met many great people here and done some wonderful things. I am very greatful for all the support you guys have given me and I look forward to talking about everything with you in the future. For the past month I have missed you all alot and felt like this place was all work and no fun. Recently I have seen the better of my ways and have relized how nice this place actually is. Tommorrow is my last official construction work day and we are doing a huge concrete pour. It will be sad to leave the site but hapy at the same time. Please tune in tommorrow for a lot of pictures of the site.

The canadians and I have still been going at it pretty hard in disscussion about whose country is better. They still seem to think its them but of course....I disagree. Canadians suck....but they are better than the french. They smell bad. But I mean if you count colin I guess we smell bad as well. Im telling you man foot fungus is a disease......

Lester the jester has taught me many cool things out on site and Im looking forward to showing you all the cool dances that I have learned. And by all i mean the 1. And no. I refuse to do it at the banquet all you Next Step readers.

ok guys. have fun tommorrow slash today.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: Im leaving you to go jump off the dock....hopefully I dont see a 4 foot wide stingray like last night.

Hockey Eh

IIIIIIIIII''mmmmmmmmm BAAAAAACCCCKKK

Sorry about the delay everybody. The internet cannot be trusted down here. I have found a spot to steal internet but as soon as I found that our interenet started up again. Its playing jokes on me. You have missed a bit since my last post so I will get right to it.

This week is the annual Tarpom Bay festival. If you didnt know that you are prolly living under a rock because it is being broadcasted on every station worldwide...well maybe not every station...but while I havent turned a TV on in about a month, judging by the turnout there had to be a spot done on BET. The festival is of the chain. I mean there are people dancing, drinking, gambling, singing, eating, shooting some bball outside of the school, theres a couple of guys their up to no good, trying to make some trouble in the neighborhood, there was one little fight and my mom got scared she said your moving with your aunty and uncle to belair....Ok well maybe the second half of that is from the fresh prince of belair theme song.. But otherwise everything that is going on is nice christian stuff right?!?!?! The festival is actually pretty cool for the town of Tarpum Bay. It brings lots of people into the community and is actually somthing the citizens have to do. The kids hang out at the bbal courts and have a great time.

The second major thing that I have not reported on yet is that we have our third and final group of our Eleuthera trips. They also happen to be from Canada....eh. I have been asking multiple questions from trying to figure out different myths from our friendly neighbors to the north....Canada...Americas Hat. My first question I threw at them is how many people in Canada actually wear canadian tuxedos? Most of them did not even know what the heck a canadian tuxedo is. I mean talk about not liking your country. Thats pathetic. For those of you that dont know what one is...your currently on the internet so look it up. If you are to lazy here is a link that will display many canadians rocking their best. thecanadiantuxedo.com. I know what you all thinking. why didnt us americans think of that first. Its alright. I dont think it looks that good plus we have the dickie anyways. The next question was do you really say EH after everything they say eh. They said that they usually dont eh. But sometimes it sneaks in there when they dont notice eh. They arent embarrased to say eh..eh.. Its not like they try and broadcast that they say it eh. So all in all, they say it sometimes eh. Third I asked what they thought of america. At this point I think they were all a little ticked about the questions I was asking them so they made fun of me about the US changing from french fries to freedom fries after they didnt back us in the war. So then I came back and said. Im sick aboot all you hoosers teasin me eh. Go back to americas hat and make me some bacon and wear your tuxedos at your stupid hockey game hoosers....then I said. Hockey sucks eh. That shut em up pretty good. Except little did they know I wore my badger hockey shirt the night before....Canadians are so gulible.

Well that about it for the night. Its like 435 degrees here and I need to go to bed. Its been awesome writing to you and have a good monday. Dont get caught reading this, your boss will be mad....unless they read it too. Which they prolly wouldnt like it...so keep your cursor on the minimize button and have a good day.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: My hair is turning blonde. I think its about time to get out of this country. If one more person says I look like Lance Bass someone is going to lose a finger.

Interesting Fact: A small girl on the trip told me that my name Matt is short for madam. Then she said I should wear a pink dress, blue wig, glass slippers and purple makeup. She then stated "If you shave your armpits you will look more like a girl". I told her to go move rocks because no one touches my armpit hair but me....

Ladies and Nerds.

This is a quick post. My internet doesnt work downstairs. I am up in the girls room before they get here stealing our neighbors internet. This means that I will not be able to write later due to the fact of no internet....unless I were to sneak in here...but sexual harrasement lawsuits arent cool. These will also be canadians so they will be smelly so I dont want to be in here. Thank you for your sweet sweet time during your not so busy workday ( bc ur reading this). Thanks and hopefully I can write later.....

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: there is no interesting fact....

hello

Welcome back everyone.

Not much has happened in the past couple days as much as trips go. I am happy to say however that my wonderful mother and girlfriend were down here visiting, thus, the reason I have not been writing. Dont worry all my fingers are still in tact. Today was a hard day of work. I tied rebar and worked on getting materials ready for the next crew. I was rewarded by a nice dinner though. My crew and I went out to eat on our weekly budget and got some good grub. I had a ribeye steak with fingerling potatoes and a desert of raspberry pound cake. It was great. Tommorrow will be much of the same work. Getting the site ready. I may bring clarise to the site with me tommorrow just to make sure all gets done. I feel I have a lot of athority with her in my midsts. To bad she does not scare away cockroaches from my bedside table.....Yea tell me about it. I know you dont think thats cool either.

Well its been fun.

Just like always,.....

Why stay up late and read this aweful blog when you can do it at work tomm.

For all my fellow next steppers that read this......we all know you have enough time to read this at work tomm. Dont think your fooling me.

Love

Matt

Interesting Question: Who is a better hero to society? Captain Underpants or Captain Sully Sullenberger. Discuss amoungst yourselves

NERD ALERT

Ladies and Germs:

I have not been writing for awhile. I lost the tip of my right index finger in a circular saw accident. Im sorry for the inconvenience but im sick of getting blood all over my computer. Its hard to clean under the keys so it was best to avoid the situation all together. My blood type is O so if there is any need for a donor you can consult my computer.

I am very upset I missed comic con this year. I always go to San Diego to hang out with other nerds. I tried to send drew (One of my BFFs) haha instead. I was upset when one nerd stabbed another this year. I mean come on. Those nerds have bad raps anyways. Why do they need to be attackin others because they sit to close to one another.

Night

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: I will start writing heavily again tomm.

Interesting Fact: Everything above has been made up....except for the nerd stabbing the other....what are nerds doing these days. Please yell nerd alert to warn others of nerds. Its for the common safety of society

Fire

Welcome to the fire.
Its only burning hotta.
I need to get some Wata.
Cutting weight like a wrestla.

I was working in the pit today and it was hot. The only way I stayed sane was by telling everyone I was hot. Then I would say....."Im also a little warm tempurature wise too. haha gets them every time. We got a lot of work done today and I attribute it all to my leadership. I stood there and watched all the work get done but I mean come on. If i didnt watch them, they would have slacked off and not done anything. My select crew of kids i picked worked well. I feel a little bad that we chose kids for a certain crew. I mean its like being the fat kid picked last on the dodgeball team. Just rediculous. If the big kid were to get picked first this time. He would have melted away 30 pounds down there...Missed the opprotunity I guess.

Spending time in the hood
Ive learned to rap pretty good.
If you could.
you already would.
if you wanna try you should.
I work alot with wood.
Not just plywood.
I dont deal with driftwood.
But am close to sainthood.

Thanks for reading. Thats all. Sorry very tired.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: Today a Tarpum Bay mans dog was barking. So I witnessed him pick up the dog. Carry him to the end of the dock, and throw him in the ocean. Toooooo funny.

yo

How yaaaalllll doing. We have had 2 groups from the carolinas and suddenenly I am catching myself almost saying yall. This sucks. The projects have been going awesome. After some time away from the systern pit we will be back in tommorrow. Which means I will have a crew down there and thats it. I have selected all the most physically fit members to go in the blazing heat chizel rock. I guess I am the supervisor because the say the perfection in my abs and wanted that same bodywork down in the pit....I can iunderstand that. But o well. Heres to another day of losing 10 pounds of water weight. It will be fun and there is nothing but great things to look forward to. Im happy to be showing off this beautiful area to my lovely mother and girlfriend starting this thursday and going until monday. Maybe then ill actually have time to take some pics and get a nice tan in. haha

On a more serious note... I would like to say that one thing that I have learned over this summer is not to judge people by what they look like and diffreernt stereotypes. I would encourage for you guys to do the same. For weeks I have dealt with groups that are strong christian organizations that claim to be right minded yet they come down here and judge people instead of helping or aiding them when they can. People have great conversations with locals then joke with others that they cant believe they werent asked for money. These people are rich in their own way. Other countries are not as rich as ours but they dont sit and whine about it. They live the way they like. These people value time with others and friendship which are values that our statesman should hold more dear as well. It hurts to make good friends and then see them cast aside by people that dont know them or their story. Donovan has a great restaurant and loves to talk with visitors but people belive he only wants buisness not friendships and good conversation. James asks to come to worship and be helped as a struggling christian and the groups youth pastor remarks about not being hit up for a buck. Its a cruel world that we live in but quite honestly...why does it have to be on our parts.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: That was prolly the only serious thing I have wrote on this blog. But I mean every word.

In the words of Tebow...>God Bless

Barefoot Bandito

Well just another day at Next Step. Soaking in all the flirting comments of a bunch of 15 year old girls. I try and fend them off but with this mug it can be to hard at times. Thus I have recieved the nickname of the Barefoot Bandito. Im not a criminal but it is a crime what I do....What is it I do you ask. Well I will tell you. I unknowingly steal the hearts of high schoolers from states around America. Do I want to. No. Does it happen accidentaly. Yes. This is A gift but a disease as well. Keep me in your prayers so I do not get mauled or attacked by gaggles of women. Thank you.

I have been getting close over the past couple months with the man that owns the restaurant next to our mission house. His name is Donovan and he likes to ryhme every single sentence with the one before. He also has dollar sodas and conch fritter baskets......... that may be the main reason but he is awesome none the less. He claims to be the mayor of Tarpum Bay. He prolly should be seeing as that he is the nicest and straight forward guy here. So what he sounds like he is always hammered. The guy is cool to be around. Everyone that sees him instantly likes him. He claims I have secret bottles of cologne that make all the girls want me. I dont. But I am telling him I do to try and swing a deal for some conch salad.

Found another prayng mantis today. It was a male tho so I wasnt afraid. The females you have to worry about. I feel like thats the same for all species tho. Also there was a very chipper girl that found some baby geckos today. She kept showing everyone on the site and thought it was the coolest thing is the world. So. Naturally I told her that baby geckos are like baby birds and if you touch them, none other of their species go near them therefore they die. Yea. Nobody is happy on my construction site. Thats the way I like it. Increased productivity when everyone is sad. hahha

Have a good day today/tomm

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: Today I went swimming with about 20 people...As soon as I got out...75% of them got stung by a school of jellyfish. Rookies. Then I told one kids to go pee on his to relieve the pain.....He did...I laughed.......Hard........Rookie

Ladies and Gentleman. This is a great day for me. I will officially name the machete....but before we get to that there is even bigger news than that. I have my first official follower.

Yes people this is very exciting. For many months now I have been skating through with all you half followers of the blog. This is official like a referee with a whistle. Bryan Lenz is my first follower andbecause of that I am eternally grateful. I would like all of you to write below at least 2 things that you like about Bryan. For those of you that dont know to much about him. I will give you a quick synopsis of Bryan.

1) His name is Bryan. Spelt with a y. But he prefers to go by the name hollywood.
2) He likes mimosa's. A little to much I think.
3) He is very fond of accessorizing. I believe bracelets are his main go-to in this department.
4) He currently works at Pacific. Which is a college in Cali
5) He is from Greenwood and is an ex qb.
6) He is still a fan of Brett Favre.
7) He is in a relationship with a female. (many think this is surprising...not the relationship..the female part of it.)
8) He likes long walks on the beach sipping mimosa's while accessorized near pacific thinking about if he could date Brett Favre.

This is about all there is to know about Bryan. Remeber all you half followers of this blog must write one thing you like about him. Participation is mandatory and maybe one day I will we can all be like Mr. Lenz. Thank you

This leads us to the official winner of the machete competiton. This was a very hard decision to make. All finalists are very special in their own way. There has been some behind the scenes bribage. But interesingly enough the winner did not participate in any of that. (This would eliminate dads answer of Iron Braun from the competition. However thank you once again for paying for my girlfriend to come down here and see me.) This only leaves three contestants left.

Drumroll please........

The winner of the name my machete competition is..............

Clarise.

Congrats to the winner who would be my Aunt Holly. The name you have chosen has been stuck in my head and has led to many movie quotes. I look forward to congradulating you in person. Everytime I see the machete I cannot help but say "Hello Clarise". For this you are the winner. Acceptance speach is allowed. Bragging is encouraged.

Thanks again for reading.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: Coke for the Bahamas is canned on the island of Nassau. Nassau has taken it upon themselves to decided that natural sugar tastes better than corn syrup. What does this mean you may ask. That all coke in the Bahamas is made with natural sugar.

This is my favorite show because it is my show.

Welcome one and all to the greatest show on surf.......as in surf the web.

I would like to be the first to welcome you to this wonderful show. Today we have the finalists for the sunken treasure of fun machete competition. We have had some extrodinary entrys and the finalist will be known for years to come. Before we start the voting we will get down to the rules. (RULE ONE) The first rule is that there are no rules. (RULE TWO) There will be 3 finalists and they will be voted on by the staff of NEXT STEP MINISTRIES. (I have chosen the 3 finalists). (RULE THREE) Rules suck. Now lets send it back to myslef for the first finalist of the night............Silence and drumroll please......

The First Finalist of the Sunken treasure of fun Machete Miracle Competition is...........


IRON BRAUN.......Congradulations to the submitter of this name you have won nothing yet but that could change.

Now for a little story about myself and my cahoots around the island today.

Today was the day off for the kids and it started by going to a huge ocean hole and going off the blob. For those of you that dont know what a water blob is...google is a hell of a friend. The kids went cliff jumping and then we headed out to Governors harbour to go to a beautiful beach. We ate at a bar named Tippys and it was good to have my first pizza in a couple months. After spending time on the beach we headed into town so the kids could go to a gift shop for goodies. At this time I went to a local beach to wade out into the water. We would like to interupt this regularly scheduled program for an announcement. SILENCE FOR OUR SECOND FINALIST....

Drumroll please.............

The second finalist is..............Clarise..... This name has led to many quotes and has been stuck in my head all week. Congrats to the submitter for winning nothing.....as of yet.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming....

As I headed into the water I felt and uneasy silence around me. Foolishly I headed deeper into the water now nowing of the danger. I turned around about a hundred yards out and what did I see. A 3 foot diameter circle about 15 ft away from me. The stingray in question seemed like a very docile animal but is always hard to tell what any animal of the wild will do next. At this time I decided to do what few would....I tried to herd the animal up on shore. I decided to do what Steve Erwin couldnt and tame the beast. In the name of Steve I headed toward him and drove him towards shore.....as we were about to reach the shore the animal did all he could to escape...which was swim faster than I could walk and ....well he got away. The thrill of the hunt was electric. If only I hade my machete I would have a nice doormat for our intern digs here. Speaking of which......


The THIRD AND FINAL name of the name of the competition is.............

THE HAMBURGLAR.... for the sheer fact that I laughed very hard when I read it...

Go ahead and pray for your winners and comments and bribes will be accepted. Thank you for your time.

gnite all

love

Matt

Interesting Moment: WAIT A MINUTE......there is another name comming out on stage. Could this really be a real HARRY POTTER GOBLET OF FIRE MOMENT. I think it is. The fourth and final name is.......THE BAREFOOT BANDCHETE. Thank you very much for the response and good luck to you all. Have a great Night and tune in tommorrow for the results.

Remember the lines are only open if you can reach me on my cell phone. Having said that. The lines are not open and tune in tommorrow for the winner.

Free Time

How you all doing.

So I dont know if you have been following up on news, but... During my free time I have decided to hunt and apprehen the barefoot bandit. Yes it was me that caught him. While police are getting most of the credit I am the silent hero. Where his getaway boat slowed is where I saw the stingray. I mean come on brown water equals bogging down motor which leads to apprehention. OK OK all kidding aside the Barefoot Bandit was captured about an hour north of where I am right now. He was on a boat between Eleutheras main island and the city of Spanish Wells which is connected by road...it is located on an island. Pretty exciting stuff. Maybe someday they will make a movie about him and I can be in it.

The site was great today for work. We continued to work in the pit. There was zero clouds today which made it very hot. The temp outside is about 90 and the temp in the pit is about 110 to 120. I went in there with a thin pillow of fat on my body and came out needing a needle and thread because I was ripped. It was so hot donald trumps hair would have falled off. It was so hot Micheal Jacksons nose would have melted. It was so hot if dads truck was in the pit we would have to where astronaut gear to get anywhere near the thing. I love working out when its hot which is probably a good thing seeing as that im in the bahamers.

The survey is great. It is coming to a close however and if you have an entry that has not been submitted please do so now. We will chose the best and have a vote. Seeing as that there are about 2 people that comment on this thing if you recieve one vote your name will prolly be the winner. Tommorrow we will post the top three and procede from there.

gnite yall. Why read this at night when you can do so at work. Damn thats so catchy

love

Matt

Interesting Fact: My streak of swimming in the ocean is up to 10 days.

Interesting Fact: Ill prolly get at least 2 motherly comments making sure I drink more water because of this blog entry.

Quick

Ok real quick everyone. It is tuesday morning and im about to go to the site. Im sorry I have not wrote in awhile but its been a little tricky finding time to write when we have moved houses and the 40 trippers have got here at the same time. I will fo sure write tonight as I have not forgot my computer this time and am looking forward to talking at all of you.

UPDATE: The Survey for the Machete name is moving along but there are only a couple entries. Aunt Holly is killing it so far. The rest of you are sadly lacking. Im thinking I may get her engraved with her new name as well.

Thanks for briefely reading. Have a great day at work because I know I will.

Love

Matt

Colossus of Clout...The Colossus of Clout. (if you dont understand watch Sandlot)

Warning: Good Blog post below. Extreme happiness upon reading is normal.

Today was a good day. It started off very well with a wonderful breakfast in a hammock on my second level porch. The weather was not to warm today which made it even more pleasant to be outside all day. STOP. Fastforward to the end. Today ended very well with a wonderful nighttime session in the hammock taking pictures of a beautiful sunset. STOP. Rewind...PLAY

The breakfast was good and is a pretty typical breakfast down here seeing is that a gallon of milk if 7 dollars. Cereal is about the same price but the milk is so expensive it is rediculous. What is iven worse is that the milk tastes like water what has about 2 tablespoons of whole milk in it. I mean I think you can see clear through it. If you poored it in a glass half full. Then poured water in the other half. Im pretty sure the water would sink to the bottom and the milk would stay seperate at the top. Good Grief Charlie Brown.

After I ate we headed out to the sites for more prep. We laid some tile in the cabins so that when the kids laid their tile it wouldnt start out all wonky. This way they can go off of what we have already perfectly laid. We also got all of our materials on site today for concrete forms, as well as thinset for the tiles.

The Touch The World kids are still working here and they were hard at work again today on the site. By hard at work I mean they were looking for hermit crabs and asking their supervisors if they could use the machete...probably to cut the hermit crabs in half. BUT SUDDENLY...out of the middle of nowhere. A girl had found a Prang Mantis (I have NOOOO idea on the correct spelling). Now alot of people think this is cool. But I.. MYSELF... know never to mess with a Prang Mantis. Here is a little background (specifically gentlemen). Before a female mantis can do the hippity dippity with a male mantis the female needs to cut off the head of the male so that he becomes fertile. Dont ask me how I know. But its the truth. Now...just think. Myself being a very attractive young man. I was a little leary of a Prang Mantis being anywhere near me for the sake of keeping my noggin on its perch. So I sprang into action. Kicked the kids over that were trying to get the machete. Stole the knife myself from the counsler and sliced the mantis in half while accidentally cutting off the tip of the girls fingure. Just because they cant use the machete to cut hermit crabs doesnt mean I cant use it to kill Prang Mantis.

Ok well that isnt exactly true. I have to admit that I did not kill the mantis. But I sure didnt go anywhere near it. I mean come on. The rest of the story is true. That thing prolly had the hots for me.

Upon reaching the mission house after work. I had another construction meeting in my office. Thus making it the 6th day in a row that I have been in the ocean. Dinner was wonderful and the night was very relaxing. It has been a great day and I hope yours is as well.

night/morning(Your Fired)

love

Matt

Interesting Fact: As of the day July 10th. I Matt Natzke have been dating the same beautiful women named Katie for exactly 4 years. I am extremely happy and couldnt wish for anything more except that she were with me.

Survey: I need a damn name for my Machete. I mean who doesnt name weapons they find in the ocean?

-Sponge Bob Machete Pants

-Jack Bauer

-Mad Machete Max the Murauder

-LunchBox

-Colossus of Crab Clout

Suggestions are excepted. And will probably be used.

Day Cinco

Yesterday was pretty lame to start off with. And by lame I mean it was pretty damn boring. We didnt do much. I woke up and had breakfast. Then we went out to the work site to get some prep done for our projects. This was actually pretty important because without the prep we would be at a standstill come monday morning. Right now there is a group of kids out here from Touch The World. They all camp out for a week and learn basic construction techniques and then go on mission trips for 10 days. So right now we have them using all their new techniques to clear brush from a hillside. They work for about an hour and are completely whiped out. After working we came home for lunch. This is when my day started to pick up. We came back and ate at which time I decided that Jeff and I need to have a construction meeting in my office and ill grab the office supplies. Now when I say construction meeting I mean that we go into a different room where no one can find us so we will not be put to work. This is great becuase liz our site assistant who tries to put us to work does not know that we currently have all our projects done. Now when I say that we will be in "My Office" I mean that we are going to sneak out the back door and meet each other about 200 yards out front of the mission house which happens to be about 150 yards out into the middle of the ocean. Now when I say "Office Supplies" that means that I will go down to camp and grab the Kayak so we can go out to the island and check and see whats around. When we got out to the island we found a lot of conch shells where people dump them into the ocean to after they have the meat out of them. After we were done looking around for abotu 10 minutes we decided to come back....but just as we were about to head back I saw somthing gleaming out of the corner of my eye. what could this be....ah yes...it was an old rusty machete. Now I dont know how many of you have ever been in water and found a 2 foot long knife but believe me it is one of the coolest things in this world. I mean come on. Think about it. I got that machete which was a huge highlight of my trip and that has led to me hitting pretty much all inatimate objects with it....Which has led to about all the other highlights of my trip. I mean I was being circled by a small crab as I was exiting the water...I didnt know what to do because his scare tactics were working on me. I was so confused...but then I remembered... AH YES.. I am currently holding a 2 foot long knife. After that the crab was no longer. I know he prolly could have stayed alive but he started it. For all you readers out there I would suggest maybe filling up your tub with water tonight and placing you largest knife in the tub. Whoever walks past will undoubtly have one of the best days of their lives all because of you.

Thanks for reading.

Dont get fired for reading however....

Watch out your boss is right behind you.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: Here is a picture of me. This is proof that I am still alive.

Interesting Fact: Sunscreen is your friend.

Day 4

WHAT UP PARTY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you are all doing good this evening/morning....probably morning. Today was a very interesting day and I can not wait to talk to you about it. Sooooo here we go.

Last night there was a married couple that came in to lead a mission trip that is going to be here for the next 10 days. We spent last night doing questions and answers with them and they sound like they will be a handful to deal with. This morning we sat around for about 3 hours waiting for the happy couple to show up and finally they did. They also wasted more of our time later in the day. We wasted about 4 hours today on them so they could figure out all the small things that they couldnt listen to us for a 5 minutes to figure out everything. Like Pine Ridge, they may be looking for a Mr. Natzke butt whooping. Overall this week has been going really well and we are looking forward to having the kids arrive on Sunday.

Some of the projects we will be undertaking this month are tiling 6 cabins (384 sf ea), painting the porches, and pouring concrete box for a huge rain water systern for the Camp Bahamas complex. These projects should be awesome for our experience and the kids overall.

One thing I have to say is if you do not like seafood you would be nutso if you lived down here for more than 2 weeks....Sorry Katie. Today I had a tuna sandwhich and conch chowder. The night before that we had fish fry and tuna for lunch. Its nuts down here. I feel like im a shark or somthing. If I have to put anymore fish inside me I may go change my middle name to Fish Tank.

So I also went in the drink today. And by drink I mean the ocean which is the fourth day straight. This time was a little different however......and by that I mean we went swimming with a overweight black Bahamain kid named Micheal and his 4 friends. What you may not know is that Micheal decided to go swimming today with beefstick and string cheese. This was very interesting because I couldnt believe and body wanted more salt with a beef stick but apparently slat water is a good match. What made the situation even more interesting is that we were being attacked by about 20 gulls. Micheal didnt seem to care but he was barely above water...I was dodging poop like I was dodging tomatos at a Adam Lambet concert. Good Grief. Also Micheal likes to go swimming fully clothed but I think a lot of people do that around here. Although the interesting fact was that Micheal swam with his socks on. I hate wearing wet sock let alone swimming in them. (Lebron just joined the heat) Plus to make his mom probably even more furious his white socks were almost black. As his close friends say...Micheal Your Socks Look Like A Nightmare.

So thats about it for the day. Hope you all enjoyed everything.

Love

Matt.

Interesting Fact: Yesterday we saw a Sting Ray while swimming. He was about 4 feet wide...He didnt come near me however. I think he was scared of the brown water....

Eleuthera 2

Hello people. It is nice to write to you again. Today is my second whole day in Tarpurn Bay and it is pretty sweet. The gorgeous view from the balcony does not get any worse and the weather is beautiful. It has been slightly overcast but the sun shines frequently and the locals love the weather...so I do too. I went swimming again today twice and the water is so warm its awesome. Im trying to keep a steady streak of swimming everyday. Since being here I have played a total of 24 games of connect four. I thought I was pretty good but I am currently 11 and 13. Most times against the camper kids here at the camp bahamas I have won. There is one kid though I am seeking revenge on. He has never told me his name but he goes by The King. Now while King James aka Lebron James rules the bball court...The King here claims to rule the connect Four grid. Besides the King I prefer to call him by many other names. Such As...Loud Lips, Chester of the Chips, God of the Grid, Four Dot Damn Im Hot, Mumble Rumble and Carl. When he challagned me I was a little weary because I did not want to fall to the king and be disgraced in front of his court, however I took the challange and trouced him the first game. Quickly after that I had dominated him the second game. The third I was a littel war torn but continued on. The King However thought otherwise. Deep into the game he beat me and without any respect he said "Four in a row..You cant beat me"...then walked away. I sat there thinking wow... Hes the man...but his memory must suck because I beat him 2 times before that. I believe it was just a scare tactic and a way to throw me off my game in the future. Untill then I will wait in the weeds...or in shallow water at low tide for him to reamerge near the battle grounds of the connect four tables to challange The King.

Thanks for reading this at work. I feel like you like me more than your job...but if you lose it im not paying your salary.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: I saw 3 girls playin Jenga today...I know what im doing tommorrow...

Travel, Eleuthera

Welcome one and all to the Mission Trip Internship Blog. I have been away for quit some time due to intense work travel and the overall depressions of the pine ridge area. I am currently in the city of Tarpurn Bay which is located in the southern quarter of the island of Eleuthera in the Bahama Islands. To keep you all very interested I will start out with the boring information and end with the exciting stuff about the Tarpurn Bay to keep you all on here. So here goes the boring stuff.

Ttravel was very good on our way back to the sconnie nation. We left Pine Ridge about 345 in the afternoon and returned home at about 5. With the hour change in time zone we made it in about a half a day which was great time. The ride was very interesting to say the least. Steph was driving with me which always makes me a little leary because she tends to hit the rumble strip over and over again. When I noticed her driving was doing well I decided to get in a good nap so I would be well rested for my driving stint in the near future. About a half an hour into the ride Steph...like clockwork......hit the rumble strip with full force of the F-150. The noise made me purk up pretty rapidly which was cause for kind of an awkward moment. I tried to diffuse a little of the tension by doing the first thing that came to my head....Yelling RUMBLE STRIP about as loud as I could and going back to bed. While I was lying there with my eyes closed I thought to myself that I probabaly made the situation 8 times worse. Whatever happened though..we were still on our way out of Pine Ridge. That was about the only interesting thing about the trip. That and when I said godbye to Lenny he hugged me so hard that I nearly passed out. It was pretty intense.

The trip down to Eleuthera was very long and tiresome. It went bus to Chicago, flight to North Carolina, Flight to Ft Lauderdale, Flight to Nassau. Which is where we slept for the night. We then awoke and went to church in Nassau Sunday morning. If you have never gone to a church in the Caribbean let me tell you somthing. Its long, energetic, and....veeeeerrrrryyyy long. I actually had a very good time though. The service lasted for 2.5 hours but held my attention the whole time. We got up in the middle of service to introduce ourselves with all the others that did the same for their forst time being at that church. Butttttt sitting there, 12 white poeple, all crammed in a row with a room of all blacks, im sure everyone else in the church was wondering who the heck was the frosting in the middle of the ethnic oreo. We then left on a boat and got to Eleuthera at about 7 then took a bus ride via twinkie (school) bus to the Camp Bahamas. So since yesterday we went to bed and checked out the worksites this morning. It looks like our crews will be mainly doing tile work and clearing brush to make new cabins. This will be great work and its only 50 ft from the ocean. On the otherside of the bay area is where Mariah Carey has a house where she recently got married. We went swimming in the ocean as well and aet meals. This pretty much concludes what I did today...however I will give you a little more sustinance than that. Swimming was awesome. The water is incredibly warm and there is nothing but sand and Conch shells under your feet. We walked probably about .3 miles out and the water was up to my chest. We found cool shells and had an overall awesome time. Eating was also cool. We checked out some local cuisine and by that I mean he had some Conch Salad. The salad was pretty good but the conch meat was a little interesting. It had great taste but about the consistancy of really well done chicken and rubber. It was mixed up withgreen pepper, tomato, hot peppers, onions, lime, and lemon. It was very good. The only other thing that I have to mention so far about the island is that I have a new enemy. They havent affected me yet but thay are weakening the moral of my fellow employees. The Locals call them ankle bitters. I have no Idea the real name but they are regardless nastly little devils. This is going to be a war I will most likely not win. The ankle bitters a little nat like animals that sit on the ground and when you walk by they jump up on your ankle and bit you. The bit feels like my dreaded rival the fire ants bite but there is no way you can see this coming. This foe will be tough but I will fight with honor.

Thank you all for reading and the posts will continue very regularly from here on out. Please keep reading and whatever you do.....do NOT read this at home please do it at work. Stay classy my friends and remember....WHY READ THIS BLOG AT NIGHT WHEN YOU CAN DO IT AT WORK TOMMORROW.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: I think the ankle biters are Chiggers. O GOOD GRIEF. There is no way i'll win this battle unless I act quickly...which I will...dont you worry about that.

Interesting Fact: Intelligant people have more Zinc and Copper in their hair....I cant believe I got through airport security Saturday.......

Floyd

Sorry I have not blogged in awhile but it has been pretty crazy since the kids arrived. There is about 100 people more from just our crew. It was been quite the job to go around to sites and make sure all the crews are doing what they a sopposed to be doing. The sites I am currently overseeing are 2 decks, a ramp, and a siding job. The siding job I initially tried to slow down because it would not take them 4 days to side 2 12 x 28 sides of the house but they decided to trim all the windows wrong and put the started strip on backwards. We are currenlty on track and the job will finish right on time. I have come to learn that it is very hard to tell people how to construct things then leave. They usually forget what to do 15 minutes after I leave or they figure it out....then construct it......then take it appart because I come back and they did it competely wrong. We have this built into our scedule though so it is completely fine but just hard to work around. It definetly makes for a lot of running around. Other than the constant running im having an absolute blast. Dont worry Mom im good.

Floyd the neighbor that lives on curtis' land is quite the jesus lover around here. His friend has stage 4 cancer and he wanted us to pray with him. He got extremely fired up ran inside the church and started preaching to the kids. It was currently windy and floyd said that satan was in the clouds and we should all rebuke him. Currently I have been rebuking our crappy chicken dinners to get all the fat out of them. Im hoping this works.

Tonight we had a pretty bad storm again. I dont know if there was a tornado north of us but it missed us regardless if their was. We all packed in the basement and had worship down there.....well, i sat in the kitchen and ate apples the whole time. All in all im having a great time and I hope you are all as well.

Goodnight/Goodmorning, hope your getting a lot done at work while your not reading this blog.

Love

Mtn

Interesting Fact: weve gained a couple extra dogs here. One is named Sadie and the other Daisy.

Interesting Fact: Today I kept a chicken wing in my shirt pocket for about 15 periodically pulling it out and eating it....anything to make these kids happy......Sorry Katie i know your embarrassed...but not really.

:)

Why Read this now when you can wait till Monday at work?

I would like to start out by telling all my fellow readers a statement:

AAAAAhemm

Thank you for reading and today I stepped on a nail. Thank you and good night.



















OK im still here. I did step on a nail and it went about a quarter of an inch into my foot. Do not worry I am up to date on Tetnis shots or however you spell it and it was galvanized and barely hurt. I would like to say that the ant bite hurt more but I cannot do this because I cant give much credit to my mortal enemy. I did attack again today right before dinner. Cut foot and all i stirred up the clolony and reeked havoc. I have not yet found the queen but I will soon......dont worry.

Today was fun. It was spent getting supplies gathered for particular jobs. I am the leader on site 3 which happens to be a siding job. I will also be a co leader on our biggest job which is a deck teardown and rebuild. These jobs should be very exciting and I am looking forward to starting them monday.

The last part of today is my favorite. We are about to go eat at Subway and i spent the last hour and a half playing baseball with tellen, jeremy, and ed. We bought a foamish baseball bat and ball combo with our materials money have been having homerun derbys ever since. Fur Ball usually plays centerfield but is crappy at getting balls.

Well thats about all tonight. A football was stolen today and my tape measure. For how grateful the native sopposedly are they have pretty sticky fingers. Im kinda getting sick of all their crap.

Thanks for reading

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: Yesterday I was told a bed time story. It involved a lumberjack, cotton candy, and reeses peanut butter cups.

Animals

So how has everybody been? Im guessing pretty good. If you are wondering i am doing very good as well. Pretty much the last couple days I have been getting all our prep work done and rifling through my stash of Crystal Light that was given to me by my wonderful grandparents. Thank you very much. My favorite is the fruit punch but the lemonade is a close second. Its a pretty close race so far though. As far as third place...there is none because I only have 2 flavors.

For those of you that may know me, you probably know that once I start watching a show I must watch it until the very end. For those of your that a curious as to why I would be saying this, let me educate you. I have begun to watch the show Dexter and it is awesome. BOOM (That sound was me dropping a knowledge bomb on you) Its the mix between a crime show and Boondock Saints the movie. I am almost done with season 1 and ready and willing to watch the next 3.

Very recently I have seen a lot of different wildlife around here than I am used to is the sconnie nation. Today I had a very interesting encounter with a 5 foot Bull Snake. While we were workin on some Bill of Materials we were tipped off to a snake in our vent. We went out around back to find the parcel tounge stuck between the screen and the window. We summond Curtis from his lair upstair finally after calling him what seemed like 13 times. (this was prolly due to the fact that he was adjusting his hearing aid like he always does. I dont think its his aid though, my guess is the amazon forest of ear hair that he has bulging around it.) He came down and insisted that the snake be killed. He then answered what must of been a very important phone call because he proceeded to talk for 5 minutes while jabbing a 5 foot snake with a shovel. I never know whats gonna happen next in this town. I also have not posted this picture from my trip to Mount Rushmore. I am not quite sure what it is so for now im gonna call it the ugliest animal I have ever seen. He looks like the mixture of a Wooly Mamouth, and Doc from Back to the Future. We have also been terrorizing the girls with the head of our snake, giant 5 inch toads and 3 inch crickets. I kinda feel like im in big world right now. (Thats a Mario reference for those of you that dont know..which is prolly everyone but josh).

One adventure that I had forgot to read about is my first real try with coffee. As you can imagine or probably know, coffee if handled improperly, can not be a good thing. So anyways there I am early in the morning thirsty for some energy and somthing warm. I eyed up the coffee from across the room and moved in for the kill. All of a sudden I had downed a glass with a touch of french vanilla creamer. I had to move in for seconds so I struck fast. By this time I was pretty energized and having a good day. My crew and I moved out to do an estimate at which time we got the truck stuck in mud. So after sitting in a downpour for an hour I came back wet and very cold. Upon entering the kitchen after our fiasco I downed another cup. This one had more creamer and about 2 tablespoons of hot cocoa mix....AAAaAAAnd so did my fourth cup. After this amount of coffee I decided I should be done for the day. Little did I know that in about 4 hours I would be feeling like a wave of tiredness( <---is this a word) and solem moods crashed down upon me with all its fury. At this point I thought about another glass but I decided to have a Crystal Light packet...Which has currently brought me to my current addiction.

Thanks for reading. I just about pooped now and ready to go to bed. Goodnight all my faithfull followers. ACTUALLY...from the sounds of it... you guys read this at work soooooo. Good morning and have a good day.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: I saw a pile of horse poop today and contemplated picking it up because im having Canine Butler withdrawls

Interesting Fact: I HAVE JUST IMPLEMENTED A NEW TAG LINE FOR MY BLOG AND IT IS LOCATED BELOW

WHY STAY UP lATE AND READ MY BLOG WHEN YOU CAN DO IT AT WORK.

Tuesday

WARNING: PINE RIDGE RESIDENTS THE UNKNOWN OBJECT THAT YOU ARE SEEING IS KNOWN AS THE SUN. DO NOT BE AFRAID. IT WILL NOT HURT YOU, IT ONLY WILL BURN YOU IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME...WHICH YOU PROBABLY WILL BE BECAUSE YOUR LOOKING AT THE SUN...WHICH WE HAVE NOT SEEN IN 6 DAYS. THANK YOU.

So if you didnt understand the previous warning message I am happy to tell you that today was sunny all day and we had a high of 82 degrees. Tommorrow is forecasted to thunderstorm all day but lets not get to carried away here. Today is beautiful no matter what tommorrow brings. There was one mishap that happened today however. If you have been following my past posts you would know that the war between Matt Natzke and the Fire Ants was heavily in my favor at a casualty ratio of 0 to 1543843. Well today the ants struck and they struck hard. While watching them kill a cricket (Which is like 3 inches big..They have HUGE Crickets over here) and eat a french fry (Which was provided by myself) a roge ant treked his way up my boot and took a snack break right on my ankle. It stung pretty good and this act of treason upon my peace treaty of fries led to an annihilation of a couple hundred more ants. For those of you keeping track this moved the death ratio to 1544239 Ants to .000001 Matt Natzke.

Today I was out all day taking measurements for jobs and getting information from families for bios we like to type up for the students when they arrive. I did get a little burnt today (because it was sunny) but do not fear mother I did wear sun tan lotion. ( I was the only 1) We are making very good process on projects and should be in good shape for when the students arrive sunday.

Yesterday was also eventful by the fact that we got our Ford F150 stuck in the mud going to a jobsite. The soil out here is none like anything I have seen in wisconsin. The soil here is very silty and contains a lot of clay. The locals call it Gumbo. It is very hard to drive in but regardless it took us abour 1 hour in a constant downpour to get our truck out. We were finally successful upon getting a tow by a nearby resident.

I dont know if you know this but its sunny today.

Other than that not much is new. Final preperations are getting put in place and please keep hoping and praying everything goes somewhat smoothly.

Thanks again sorry for no recent posts but I have been a little busy here around camp.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: The dog we call jack is actually named Fur Ball. Hes the compounds group dog around here. I havnt quite decided whether to call him Furball, Jack or I was thinking about just calling him leanord.

Interesting Fact: Upon telling a women named Luciel what we were doing to her house. She grabbed my face and told me she loved me. Then she said she wanted me to meat her good looking daughters.....HAha Sorry Katie.

Free Day

This will probably be short because I am pretty tired and we didnt do much today. Today was more taxing than work days maybe because I was a bit tired going into it or maybe because of all the travel. Today was our free day and for our free day we went to Hot Springs to swim in the Hot Springs. Upon getting there we decided that 44 was to cold to go swimming so we headed up to go see Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument. I thought that Rushmore was pretty cool but it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. When Crazy Horse is finished it will be amazing. About 3 times the size of Rushmore and a lot more intricate Crazy Horse will be a sight to see.

I would also like to post that I completely neglected my interesting fact yesterday so today you will get a double dose.

Interesting Fact 1: Today it rained all over South Dakota making it a solid streak of everyday weve been here. If I find one native doing a rain dance im takin him out Jack Bauer style.

Interesting Fact 2: A Snail can sleep for 3 years.

(Warning: If you have a friend that is a snail and he says wake me up in 15 minutes DO NOT forget to wake him up)

Love

Matt

Rain

ok ladies and germs. Curtis our main contact said it hardly rains in South Dakota.....it has rained everyday weve been here including the little gem of a storm we had 2 nights ago. There was lightning every second and we had 60 mphwinds. On top of that one of our trailor windows blew in and water was everywhere. Now our trailor smells like mold but it could be that thats where all the guys are sleeping. There is somthing unsettling about laying in a bed, in a trailor, that is made with aluminum paneling when you see lightning every second. The other great aspect of the storm is that Curtis is deaf in one ear so we didnt even know if he woke up to find out if a tornado was coming. He did and we were all right. Its hard to be by Curtis because if you say his name he just looks around until he finds a face where he thinks the noise came from.

Today I found a stash of Nutter Butters. They were Stephs.. I cant eat any.

The past days we have been networking around town and have found some good jobs to do while the students are here. Thats about all I have to say about that.

Its getting easier to go to the bathroom here. We dont have locks on the restrooms and there is no door on the stalls. Therefore if your going to the restroom you have to pray the hail mary that no one enters the restroom. Its a bit awkward but im pretty much use to it now. I dont know how itll work when there is 96 kids here tho.

Today I started and finished throwing up drywall and will be hopefully letting the worship people paint it on sunday. Tommorrow is our free day and I think were headed up to Hot Springs to go swiming in hot springs.... Should be fun even though it will prolly be cloudy. When I was in training week I was told that it never rains on Next Step. Upon getting to South Dakota I was told by Curtis it never rains in Pine Ridge. Which makes perfect sense as to why it has rained everyday that weve been here. REDICULOUS.

I was told by my gf to put up more pictures and while i dont have any good ones ill throw some up because I like to make her happy so I will descide them. I dont know which order they load so I will describe then in no particular order. The boy is named Legand and his middle name is Tell and I have no clue what his last name is but here he is at the age of 6 defying gravity. Showing off for the ladies or eing an idiot here he is in all his glory. (Not Pictured is the blue power ranger that he always carries in his pocket) The next are 2 pictures from the butte we climbed. (Dont worry mom they werent high) I also call them Butts instead of buttes because it adds a little more excitment to my day. (excitment is hard to come by round here). The one with the van in the drive between 2 trailors a picture I took i thoguht looked cool. Legends (aka Tellen) trailor is the one on the right of this picture. The last two are the basecamp for our summer. The long white building is the chapel and the small tan building to the right of that is where i will be stayin come sunday. I like to call it the mansion because its so small. The big blue building is where we eat and where the kids will stay. I call it big blue. Last is a picture of a dog that I think is half wolf. I call him Wolfy. He does not like carrots but does not seem to mind potato wedges. Thats pretty much it, all the resst are housing trailors and machine shops. So thats pretty much it. Not to exciting but South Dakota really isnt. except for the badlands we went through last night. Pretty sweet look it up.

Thanks again for reading

Love

Matt

Day Drei

For those of you that dont know...Drei is german for 3.

Waaaaaaasssssssaaaaap

Ok so the third day is come and nearly gone and today was exauhsting. The main things we did today is go around to sites and look at projects, go to Gordon NE (Colin Fouts grandparents hometown) and check out the nearest place for materials, and then bust out concrete for shower drains. The ladder sucked big time but it was a great workout which I enjoy. It was also great that my crew members kept fading in and out of the project due to exhaustion. Other than that nothing has happened today. Us construction guys will sit down with Ed(Construction guru) and go over what projects we want and the list of materials.

The following pictures are 3 that I have taken so far more are to come. The first is the view from where I am working and were I will be staying when the kids are around. Pretty cool. The next is a very romatic picture of a sunset that I took over our trailor. For those of you that know the romance of trailors this should be pretty cool. The thrid is a picture of about a third of the fireant colony that i decided to fight. Half wound up on my shoes but there was no bites. I wonthe fight. Matt 0 casualties. Ants 1543843.

So far the week is going good. We have been working real hard but that should allow us to have a prety mellow week next week which will allow us to go to the resivoir and swim and maybe Mount Rushmore.

Last but not least I saw the Wounded Knee Massacre sight today when we were out looking at potential projects. It was pretty intense to see mass graves. For those of you that dont know wounded knee was a battle after Custers last stand in Sturgis. The infantry that didnt die set up many gattling guns on a hill and killed about 300 natives. sad. Women, Warriors, and Children.

It has been writing today sorry it wasnt my best effort but tommorrow will be better.

Love ya'll enjoy the pics.

Matt

Interesting Fact: Tallen name is actually Legand Tell (tell being his middle name, idk his last) and the dog is not named Jake it is Jack ( No ticks popped today it was sad)

Day Dos

Alrighty people today was boring and interesting at the same time. Today we went out with our main contact Curtis and looked at some projects we could do. So far Curtis wants us to help people that dont need help or are his friends it seems like. This is not ok. Curtis is looking very hard for a Mr. Natzke butt whoopin and hes about to find one. After that my next task was to go over to the neighbors yard and cut her long grass so her kids could play in the front yard without being bitten by rattlesnakes in the long grass. I was very happy to accept this task because of the fact that it would be awesome to hit a rattlesnake with a riding lawnmower. Upon approaching the house I was yelled at by a women inside. She thought I was someone else and was happy for my assistance. I was happy to talk to her boyfriend because SHE was about 4 pills down on the day of Hydrocodon or whatever it is. Anyways she was impossible to comprehened and even worse after I got the mower and began to work. After that and putting in 5 windows I introduced to 2 neighbor kids called Lenny and Tallen. Lenny likes to go on people computers and watch music videos with gummy bears in it, Lady Gaga, Toy Story 3 clips and some weird Micheal Jackson stuff. Currently as Im typing this Tallen rubbed his Cheeto fingers on my back and chased Lenny around the room. Tommorrow will be better with finding projects as Ed or construction guru is heard and well freelance a little for needed help. I miss you all but its time to go. Jake is what we named our stray and he poped another tick today. All is good.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: Lenny is currently hugging me..Kinda weird...at least he doesnt have Cheeto fingers

First Day of Pine Ridge and Travel and Training Week

First I would like to say thank you to everyone for reading my blog. This is going to be very convinient for be because I will not have to send out emails and make phone calls on a daily basis. If you would like to contact me I have cell reception (Funny how im the only one with verizon and i'm the only one with reception...guess verizons map is bigger...AT&T you suck) but posting on this blog will also work on a daily basis. Thanks again and I look forward to keeping you all updated about my current situations....On to the fun stuff.
Training week was very fun. Enough said.
Ok for real it was fun and I had a great time getting to learn about my fellow group members. It was a lot of practicing worship which was a very long and time consuming process. It is all for the greater good however which makes it all worth it. Various construction meetings kept us busy and we had good food all week. The final night we all had communion (Body and Blood of Christ) and each had a chance to pray within our groups. Everyone was very thoughtful with their closing prayers and I asked god why some of his body was still stuck in my teeth.
This is a story of 10 people......who live in a trailor....in Pine Ridge....ok its not exciting. Today the 7th of June is the first complete day of our Pine Ridge, South Dakota trip. Yesterday my 9 other group members and myself moved into a trailor that houses 11 people. The trailor is nice and allows us a lot of comfort that what is normal here in Pine Ridge. Our main contact out here is named Curtis and he is hooking us up with all jobs and location for student worship and housing. Yesterday we traveled from Madison to Pine Ridge and it took us about 13 hours which actually seemed like a somewhat of a short drive...except for the time one driver constantly hit the rumble strip. Anyways upon our arrival we were met by our trailor neighbor named Floyd. Hes a Lacota and told us the story of the land. He is in no way related to Floyd Landis however, his pants may have been as tigt as biking shorts. Curtis then told us about Pine Ridge and the people that live here. Its a long story but I will try and tell you as much info as I can. Pine Ridge has been the sight of many conflicts between the US government and the Lacota Indians. If you dont know the res (reservation as they call it) is located 80 miles south of Rapid City, 7 miles west of Wounded Knee (sight of Chief Big Foots epic battle) and just south of the Badlands. Long ago when the whites were fighting the natives Crazy horse would kill whites and run ride to the badlands through a gully which was the only entrance. For this reason the whites were never able to catch Crazy Horse. He later surrendered because of the fact that it was becoming winter and his men had no food to live off of. Later in prison he was killed via stab wound. Whites say he was trying to escape. Natives say he was murdered. Next week is the crazy horse ride in which natives ride 60 miles horseback from the prison he was killed to the fair grounds in Pine Ridge. Ok ..so.. getting to the present. Pine Ridge is a very poor town of around 3000. A couple facts just to get the point accross is that the high school grad rate is 25%, The unemployment rate is 75%, Most kids have one child before the age of 17, and 80% of the people here have a addiction and serious problems with alcohol and drugs which makes itself quit evident through the many people passed out or lying beside the road and outside of bars. Curtis told us that the reason for the children before 17 is that the men of the city have lost their warrior spirit. They say this is due to the white man and different things. The fathers of houses abuse and assault their kids therefore they run away and find "love" with male teens. They then get pregnant and the vicious cycle starts again. Another interesting fact is that all people of Pine Ridge are classified as prisoners of war. This is because there was almost a civil war between the people here and the US government. The people of PR were then held by US military inside the confounds of the res. Upon seeign the town it is apparent our help is needed for these people and we are all willing to do anything within our safe grasp to do so.
Today we spent all day getting the location ready for the kids. This mean I was located on a zero radius cub cadet lawn mower all day. Riding lawnmowers like that are to cool for words. We moved various objects and got the pews back in the chapel for worship upon the kids arrival. It was a very succesful day and I look forward to many more. In closing I would like to say I miss you all and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

God Bless,

Matt

Interesting Fact: There is a dog here that has about 12 ticks on him... Half are the size of nickels