Dante's Inferno

I currently live in a very rural area, to say the least. If I choose to buy groceries at the local grocery store (which basically has staple foods and a few magazines)I will play a huge amount more--almost double for some products. And so, those who are able, make the regular journey to the nearest city--Rapid City--for supplies.

It is difficult to express my intense hatred for this Rapid City. I have now christened the place "Dante's Inferno" which of course references the literary work that describes the various layers of hell.

So what is so deplorable about the city? To be honest, nothing in particular. It is nothing you can see with your eyes, but feel with your heart. It pains me most in Wal-Mart. In that store there are hundreds of people hovering around the poverty line, desperately trying to make ends meet. Children have toy lust--pleading with their parents to buy them the hot Hannah Montana shirt or a new Bratz doll. Husbands, lovers, fathers walk dejectedly behind their women, resignation written all over their faces. The women laboriously push their overflowing charts, mentally calculating what they can and cannot buy, a task they have done too many times before. The white city folk treat the Lakota and other minorities with shabbily veiled hostility. Nowhere is the American Dream so clearly seen as it truly is--the American Nightmare.

On a happier note...

I did venture to Rapid City with some friends yesterday. Necessity compelled me to restock my painfully bare cubbards. Futhermore, I had to stock up for a sleep-over my class is having on Saturday.

I went with a fellow teacher who has been really good to me. I have written about her before. She is believer and we go to church togheter and pray together at school. Her husband is a powerful man of God. They have been so refreshing. In addition to her, I also went with one of my students and her mom--the same family that was facing the possibily of having to home school because the board didn't want to bus their family. (I am happy to report that the board to decided to keep bussing them--thank you for praying!). Anyway, because they don't that works, I picked them up at their house and R.S. drove us to Rapid. (J's house is only 18 miles away, but I doubt I have seen a worse road in the USA). She had not been to Rapid since July, so she was overjoyed to go.

The three of us adults and J's two babies, one of whom is in my class, had a wonderful time. We found a thrift sale that was 50% off! I bought probably 50 books. I was really stoked and praising God. Speaking of praising God, we talked about Jesus so much. It was so wonderful to fellowship with two women who are SO different than me, but so similar. Jesus is the unifying factor and that is powerful.

I guess my trip with my friends is proof that the Light can always cast out darkness--even somewhere as dark as Dante's Inferno.

B