Last Day
Today is our last day in Santa Fe. We are spending our time saying our thank you's and goodbye's to the friends we have made here especially the Governors of both Tesuque and Cochiti. This trip has been an unbelievable learning experience for all of us and I personally will never forget it. I hope to one day come back to Santa Fe but I realize it will be quite difficult to top this trip!
Camping at Chaco Canyon
The last few days have been extremely busy...
On Thursday night our study group went camping at Chaco Canyon. It took about six hours to get there, but the trip was well worth it. Our view on the drive there was outstanding. Because we were on the border of New Mexico and Colorado, I saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time. It seems like when you are traveling in this part of the country the terrain can go from being desert, to prairie, to mountains, to mesas, to canyons in a matter of minutes. The drive also went by pretty quickly due to the DVD players and CD players in the vans. Gotta love technology...
Chaco Canyon was probably the most unbelievable thing that I have seen yet on this trip. When we got to the site around 6:00 pm on Thursday, the sun was setting and the sky was a brilliant pink and orange. We pitched our tents, cooked some hotdogs and went out the site where a group of Pueblo people had built their community about 1,000 years ago.
What remains of these ancient Puebloan communities is the foundation and only a few standing walls, but it is absolutely breathtaking. The name "Pueblo" actually comes from the Spanish who invaded the area about 500 years ago. The word in the Spanish language means community, and they gave this name to these people because of the way that they lived: in very close quarters to one another. Pueblo communities of the past and modern day are set up in a circular formation with a plaza in the center. Pueblo Bonito, one of the largest Chaco Canyon Pueblos, at one point housed over 1,000 people. The circular design of the community was constructed by using timber for support beams and by carefully stacking perfectly chiseled rocks. The rooms were obviously created for very small people--it was definitely a challenge for the basketball players to walk through many of the ancient doorways. Every room of the community was connected, and a single room that was about 10' by 7' could house an entire family. In the center of the Pueblo Bonito Plaza there are two large kivas. Kivas are below-ground, circular ceremonial sites and they are still used today in modern-day pueblos but they are very private. The most amazing aspect of the Chaco Canyons Pueblos are that they align with the sun and moon patterns perfectly. It makes me mad that people always focus on Stonehenge as being the most amazing ancient structure when these Pueblo communities are equally if not even more brilliant. I am even shocked at how many people who actually
live in New Mexico are not aware of the magnificence of this site. Because we do not have any pictures of Chaco Canyon posted yet, I found this website that you can look at to see just how beautiful it is:
http://www.jqjacobs.net/southwest/chaco.htmlAfter a long night of sitting by the fire, the group seemed pretty groggy on Friday morning. When I woke up, I was pleasantly surprised with how dry the tent was. When I go camping in New Hampshire, I always wake up covered in a layer of morning dew. Everything is cold and damp, and it is perhaps the most disgusting feeling you can ever imagine. In the Southwest, it is the exact opposite... You are warm and dry when the sun rises.
For a good part of the day, we hiked up a giant mesa on a five-mile trail. This was no ordinary hike. We were literally climbing up steep rocks and maneuvering through narrow 40' boulders at 7,000 feet altitude. The boulders that we climbed were beautiful--they actually looked like enormous chunky chocolate chips... Made me kind of hungry. ;) On top of the mesa, there was another ancient Pueblo community. Our "guide"/friend Professor Suina, who is a member of the Cochiti Pueblo, paid his homages at each of the ruins sites by taking a pinch of corn meal, spitting on it, then blowing it into the wind as an offering to his ancestors' spirits.
On the way home, we stopped in Cuba for dinner--- Cuba, New Mexico that is. The dinner was awesome... we ordered so much food because as good as the camping food was, eating a hot, restaurant meal sounded even better. In the end, our eyes ended up being bigger than our stomachs. Some people ordered a meal with three sides!
Back to work...
Today everyone resumed their original jobs on the Pueblos. Devon and James Silas joined me and Cait in the language nest at Cochiti and also enjoyed a lesson in Keras (their language). -- they are sooo cute! After Cochiti, we all went up to Tuseque to work out and play basketball. So... nothing that eventful happened today but the excitement will come later this week when we go overnight camping at Chaco Canyon. More pics to come!
Monday May 30
Today we began our day at the Jemez Pueblo where we were able to observe ceremonial dances and eat traditional dishes. Street vendors sold jewelery and other items as we walked throughout the main plaza. Many of us as students had a hard time coming to terms with the traditional practices being shadowed by economic development and were somewhat shocked by it. Dancing and singing was being practiced in the center while money was being exchanged on the outskirts of the plaza. We remained in place until around 3 oclock when we headed for home. We took the scenic route through the mountains and stopped many times along the way to observe the rivers, craters, and volcanic ash. Eric jumped off a small cliff into the Soda Dam waters and the rest of us waded in the shallow end picking up rocks. We continued our path through Bandalier and the other National Monuments, paying attention to the beautiful landscapes that lied before us. While driving, I could tell that somthing was wrong with the car as it began to shake. Somwhere along the way we developed a flat tire and were stuck on the roadside for about an hour. Fortunately Santa Fe is not at all like New York City and many cars stopped behind us to make sure we were alright. Soon enough we were able to get back on the road and continued home.
Tesuque Bball Camp...
The basketball camp at Tesuque Pueblo yesterday was not as big of a success as we had all hoped it would be. Only about four kids showed up, but it turned out to be a fun morning because all of the counselors (the athletes in our study group) got a chance to scrimmage and play around with each other. The campers who did show up did receive some Colgate gear: water bottles, folders, pens, etc.
Today was our day off so a group of us went to brunch at "Atomic Cafe," an all-day breakfast restaurant down in the plaza. The dining experience--not so good. It took over an hour for a few cold omelets... The restaurant itself was aesthetically pleasing (the decor was really modern and funky), but the food and service were bad enough that I have no desire to return to the cafe during my stay in Santa Fe.
This afternoon I went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum located just two blocks from our ranch. Ever since I took an art history class at Colgate ("American Art") I have been a huge fan of her work. O'Keeffe is known for her magnified flower paintings, and she created most of her pieces in New Mexico. In the beginning of the 20th century she became fed up with the face-paced city life so she moved to the Southwest achieve a sense of peace. Georgia actually stayed at the Ghost Ranch in Abiqui, which is the sister complex to the ranch that we are staying in in Santa Fe. The exhibit was awesome and it also featured some original pieces by Andy Warhol.
The last few days have actually been somewhat cloudy and we have seen some scattered showers. The cumulonimbus clouds here are truly majestic in their size and shape. They have produced some small lightening storms, but most of the activity has been high up on the mountains. The weather here can sure be strange...Lately it seems as though the sky has been divided into two. One half of the sky is usually a dark and intense gray, and the other is vibrantly blue and sunny. I think this partition stands out due to the outstanding visibility factor and because the area is so open that you can see the sky above land that is miles and miles away.
Ojo Caliente... the Hot Springs!
Okay so Friday, our class visited Taos, a pueblo that is one of the most traditionally kept pueblos out of the 19 communities in New Mexico. Taos doesn't have any electricity inside its plaza or plumbing. Its one of the top places that welcomes tourists inside its walls, gives tours and sells jewelry right inside its homes. Julia Roberts has a ranch at Taos and people are allowed to shoot at record big Elk for 10,000 dollars ... just to give you a sense of how welcoming the community is. On our way their we stopped at one of the calmer parts of the Rio Grande and saw one of the biggest gorges I've ever seen. After Taos, we went to Ojo Caliente... THE HOT SPRINGS! It was amazing. The water heat was natural and the landscape was unbelievable. There was an Iron pool, an Arsenic pool, a mud bath, general pool, massages and wraps were also offered. Our entire class did the mud bath and I'll try to get a picture from someone else's camera ... it was a sight; we all looked like
Encino Man. I'm still working on the pictures but believe me they don't do it justice.
Basketball Camp at Cochite
Today we had our first basketball camp at the Cochite Pueblo. The day began at 9:00 am with a group of approximately 30 seventh-grade students. Upon arrival I was in awe of the talent of the students as a whole. I would recommend that coaches should start recruiting in New Mexico ASAP:) These kids were so full of energy and had so much potential.
The first hour we spent doing station work and teaching the kids different skills to help improve their game. Ballard and Eric covered the defensive station, Mel and James focused on ball handling, and Caitlin and I tried to teach the fundamentals of shooting. At 10:00 the next group of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders took to the court. We repeated pretty much the same drills for the second hour and played a few fun games at the end. The younger children had a more difficult time comprehending the drills but were still excited to be learning new things. We then had a lunch break until 1:00 when the younger group reconvened to play a "Tournament of Champions." At this point we broke them into teams and organized full court scrimages for the rest of the time we had with them. Balls were flying everywhere as the coaches struggled to substitute children in and out of the respective games. Finally, at 2:00, the seventh graders came back into the gym. The more talented boys immediately challenged Mel, three seventh grade girls, and I to a half court scrimage. Two of these girls were very gifted and pretty much carried our team. Needless to say, we beat up on some seventh grade boys with a score of 32-20. When the day was done we took some pictures of the entire camp, handed out toy prizes, and headed back to Santa Fe.
When we got home, Devon realized that she had received a voicemail from her boyfriend Jon Foss who had been sent home today due an extreme back injury. I was in the shower, having been drenched with sweat, when Ballard came slamming on my door. Jon had passed out in the airplane right before his flight and had been sent to the Alberquerque hospital. The three of us sped down the highway to find out if he was okay. Thankfully, the doctors let us know that it was nothing serious and was probably caused by the fact that he has not been sleeping well, or eating large amounts of food while recovering from his back injury in the bedroom of our Ghost Ranch apartment. All in all this was a very long eventful day that didn't really end until 9:00. I am just happy that Jon is alright and that the children of Cochite enjoyed themselves.
Down at Cochiti
Unlike Devon and Curtin, Caitlin Gillard and I from the basketball team are down at the pueblo of Cochiti, which is south of Santa Fe. Today was my first official day of work and I am working alongside Caitlin at the Language Nest. The Language Nest is a place for children ages 6 months to 3 years, an establishment organized to prevent language loss of the younger generations by submerging them in an environment where nothing but their native language, Keras, is spoken. This also means that Cait and I are learning their language and shamefully enough, 2 year olds know more than we do... a humbling experience to say the least. Yesterday, we were part of the citywide trash pic- up day. We worked alongside the people of Cochiti and other volunteers, participating in the "
toss no mas" campaign (in 98 degree heat): an effort to clean up the roads and lands of New Mexico. I'll keep this short, but so far this has been an unforgettable time. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The woman who we work with at the Language Nest, Sherice, is so nice and offers so much information to us. And not to mention, the children are the cutest I've seen. Tomorrow we are organizing a camp at Cochiti, the next day we will be going to the Hot Springs at Ol Caliente, and a pow-wow on Monday... so there should be many more eventful blogs to come. But I'll try again to put pictures up... sorry for the delay. Its beautiful out here!
