The village that we hosted the camp at was right next to Tuba City, which is in the Navajo reservation. For a change of pace, one of the other counselors took me "across the line" to try some Navajo food. I bought a breakfast burrito from a nice old lady, which turned out to be as big as she was. And to make matters worse, a Navajo breakfast burrito is apparently nothing more than corned beef and potatoes, wrapped in a huge piece of fry bread. It sat a little heavy. But, boy, was it tasty!
The village that we ran through was Moencopi. It is a pretty traditional Hopi village nestled in a beautiful canyon.
I know, right?! My head was sideways for the entire run. I almost forgot about the burrito...between burps.
(P.S. That's not my photo. It's one that I downloaded from Hopi.org. The website's innocuous name seems to be hiding the fact that it's hosted by a Christian ministry that is trying to convert the Hopi. I don't like that. Let's hope that they Forgive me for stealing their photo.)
We spent the rest of the morning doing kiddie aerobics. (Kiddie, my ass, by the way; I'm exhausted!)
This next photo's worth clicking on. She's pretty adorable.
If you look closely at that last one, you might spot someone who is a bit too big for those scooters.
After lunch, we tried our hand at some craft projects. Who needs macaroni necklaces when you have buckskin paintings?
And I don't was to brag, or anything, but I think that I'm catching on pretty quickly!
By two or three o'clock, all of the kids (read: counselors) were starting to get pretty exhausted. Good thing we scheduled a couple of community health workers to come in and do some diabetes education. Diabetes is a serious problem in a lot of communities, but it seems to be hitting the Native American ones especially hard. The health workers hosted an engaging conversation, and played some CDC-produced educational videos.
The videos were geared towards a Native American audience, and were a little over-the-top with their cultural competency (the main character's name is Rain That Dances), but it was still very nice to see health materials that reflect the people that they're intended for. And the message of "sometimes foods" vs. "everyday foods" was spot-on for the age group.
We wrapped up the day by taking the kids to visit the bookmobile for some story time.
All in all, it was great program, and I was thrilled to be a part of it. Besides, it provided me with what is sure to be the best souvenir of the trip.
-M
