Two weeks ago, Kya and I were driving on a dirt road through the Pine Ridge Reservation and I hit a pothole, lost control of the truck, and rolled it off the road. We are both physically very fine and lucky and grateful; my left arm had to be stitched up and is healing beautifully, and that was the extent of our injuries (every time I say this it feels miraculous... I am the #1 seatbelt propagandist these days). We are posting this Gofundme with hopes of alleviating some of the financial loss of the crash.

What happened:

Having graduated college in May, we were in the middle of our cross-country move from PA to live with my parents in California. With the help of our friends, we packed all of our most important belongings into the back of Kya's truck, and were taking the scenic route (which was also saving us money on gas) due west. On September 8th, we were planning to camp just south of the Badlands and were driving north through the rez at 10 below the speed limit. I didn't see the pothole that caused us to lose traction and then control. We rolled one and a half times with the truck landing on the driver's side. The driver’s side door opened while we were rolling, and the broken glass cut my left arm, which resulted in twelve stitches.

Neither of us had serious whiplash or anything -- we were able to climb out of the truck and a very paternal man named Chester was already walking up and calling 911. The Pine Ridge Reservation is notoriously hard to get in or out of without a vehicle, and it took us a few days to figure out how to get the truck and all of our things back to Kya's dad's place in Colorado. Everybody on the reservation was so lovely and helpful and kind to us; we were very lucky in so many ways. As I write this, Kya is at his dad's place in Colorado and I am back at Black Mountain in California, and we’re trying to find a way to finish our move.

The financial damages:

The truck is totaled and despite many of our belongings being, sort of, comically fine (when cleaning up the site we kept finding breakables scattered in the field having been thrown from the truck, completely intact), the tote boxes and suitcases carrying our things are all cracked and beyond repair. We are planning to drive from California and drive back with our things, which doubles the distance we need to cover for the second half of our move. There was only liability insurance on the truck, which covered my stitches and the 20-mile tow into town, but will not cover any of the damages to the truck, despite being found “not at fault.”

The $11,000 "goal" represents an estimate for the amount that would get us to the financial position we were in before the crash., We've had some family support with a few immediate challenges, and are no longer stuck anywhere or in any kind of danger, but this remains a huge deal for us financially. The truck has been a huge boon for us and our Swarthmore people for the past few years, and I feel awful for having totaled it. Furthermore, since we are moving to a home that is a fair distance from town Kya will need a vehicle of his own in order to be employed.

Love to you all, if you want to ask me questions about any of this, discussing the crash and the ensuing logistical nightmare is no longer traumatic and I'd love to talk. Thank you for being in our lives and caring about our well-being, we're so grateful.

Much love,

Ayla

ps: if you want to venmo one of us to get around the 3% fee on this site you’re more than welcome: @aylacimen or @Kya-Butterfield.