Classes, Patches, and sports, that's what greeted Hungteetsepoppi Lodge at this summer's National Order of the Arrow Conference in Ames, Iowa at Iowa State University. Our group of 10 youth and 4 adults had a blast right away, having attended the Trade-o-ree before Conference, where we were the service lodge. Since we were the service lodge we were able to stay at the nearby Holiday Inn for no charge, but we had to fit all our youth into one room, which was quite a spectacle to watch. At the Trade-o-ree our guys were able to wheel and deal and come to the University ready with a bunch of patches to continue to trade. They were eager to get to the end of the day when the patch trading was unleashed. First, however, they had to take classes in the morning, ranging from things like "Teepee Life and Etiquette" to scuba diving.

We learned many valuable things from these classes and everyone is hoping to use our knowledge to better the lodge. One of the things we are hoping to accomplish is to make dance regalia for our newly formed dance team. After the classes we had lunch in the cafeteria, where they served excellent food. Each meal was complex and delicious. After lunch it was time for a quick change at the dorm rooms we stayed in and then off to the gym for our sports competitions. We signed up for all the sporting events, which were basketball, volleyball, ultimate Frisbee, and flag football, and kickball. Due to conflicts of time we limited it to just basketball, ultimate Frisbee, and kickball. We made it to the quarter finals in all the events, but the final competitions were all at the same time, so again we limited it to just basketball. We passed the quarterfinals, we passed the semifinals, and we made it to the championship game. However, in a three-point loss we came away with second, but this was still a huge surprise and accomplishment for us. Now there was some down time, we had dinner, and then it was show time.