We woke up to about a centimeter of snow this morning.
Connor headed to breakfast
It was gone by lunchtime, but a lot of people here seemed pretty excited about it. Snow is not unknown here, but I guess it’s not terribly common either. I think the kids in our group learned a little more about the Desert Southwest – yes, it does snow here.
We ate breakfast and then got right to work on the bikes and window screens. At 11:00, it was time to teach the Adventurer Awards. I rounded up the kids who were going to teach Elephants and Owls, and we made it there right when we were supposed to. Except one kid was straggling, and I had to leave the classroom to track him down. When we got back, I found out that we could not teach the Owl Award. Owls are a taboo among the Navajo!
Natasha preparing to teach the Owls Award
That caused a bit of a scramble. I called Chris to see if she and Jane could get here quickly. She scrambled. Then I stepped out so I could go to the dorm and retrieve the insignia, and saw Shaun. He was in the queue to teach Sharks, and he was right there. The clock was ticking, and we only had an hour to teach the awards. I asked him to jump in, and he did. First he fetched his laptop from his room (right across the street from the classroom) and he began the slideshow/lecture portion. I called Chris back to tell her to resume her previous operations. It was good Shaun showed up when he did, because Chris and Jane were about to go to the girls’ dorm to fetch their materials and it would have been at least another 10 minutes.
But the scrambling was still not over. I had to track down Shaun’s craft supplies as well as his daughter who was also teaching. That took a little bit of time, and they didn’t get their supplies until 11:30. They didn’t manage to finish the crafts, but I’m sure they will soon.
At least Elephants went OK, except that Emma tried to pull up a video of elephants on her phone – and the first one to come up featured two elephants mating). Oops!
Then we had lunch. After we ate, we had a surprise for the kids. They have horses here, and arrangements were made for our kids to ride one of them at 1:30. So before we left the cafeteria,we told the kids we’d announce a surprise in 15 minutes. That 15 minutes was filled with incorrect guesses. At 1:15 we called them together, and Melissa told them, “At 1:30 we are going down to the barn.” Squeals of delight. Then I chimed in, “To clean out the stalls!” Groans! Every single one of them thought I was serious. Melissa let them in on my cruel little joke, and the squeals of delight returned. We headed down to the barn.
Beth riding on "Nano."
Two of the girls had never ridden a horse before.
Saralyn's first horse ride
Look at that smile!
Emmanuelina's forst horse ride
Emmanuelina had never even touched a horse until yesterday. She enjoyed her ride very much. Technically, she’s not one of the kids since she’s 20 years old. She is serving as the counselor of the Companion group this year, and is just a delightful beam of sunshine.
Even I took a turn.
Note the tether - I am not an experienced horseman
Horseback riding lasted about an hour, and then we got back to work. We finished making all the needed window screens, and we will install them tomorrow.
Melissa splining a screen
Warran and his crew have pretty much finished all the bikes now too. They were not able to fix this one (and one other). I think they could probably score some bucks if they sold this one on E-Bay.
1950's Model
Warran was then given a new task – periodic maintenance of some of HIS’s vehicles. Connor pitched in.
Checking the tire pressure
Tomorrow we will install the screens, and Jared the maintenance chief will find us another assignment.
With our work done for the day, we headed to the cafeteria for supper. I might add that I have enjoyed every single meal I have been served here. The kitchen staff is top-shelf.
One of the Navajo kids came up to us at supper time and asked if they would get to learn about owls. We told him we were sorry, but we couldn’t. If one of those kids went home with a patch featuring an owl, it almost certainly would have resulted in a beating. We asked him about the taboo, and he told us that it was related to “skin-walkers.”
I looked it up on Wikipedia.
Skin-walking is a form of shape-shifting (like werewolves), and people who are thought to practice it are considered the ultimate in evil humanity. I guess it’s their equivalent of Hitler. You can read about it at Wikipedia and know as much about it as I do.
And now… shower and bed. Tomorrow is another big day.
Jomegat's Weblog 
February 28, 2012 at 11:38 pm
I’d say those big smiles made the whole trip worthwhile! It will never be forgotten.
February 28, 2012 at 11:45 pm
Saralyn and Emmanuelina have bonded on this trip, with Emmanuelina calling Saralyn, “Saraleeeenaaaaa!” She has a very sing-song voice, and when she says that, everyone laughs.
February 29, 2012 at 9:04 am
What a great opportunity for kids who probably wouldn’t have had it otherwise. I’m glad to see them having so much fun, and even making the work fun.
The info. on skin walkers is interesting stuff. I never knew native American lore had so much in common with the old European folk tales.
February 29, 2012 at 9:18 am
If we weren’t getting so much done, I would feel absolutely guilt-ridden about the amount of fun we’ve had. We’ve talked about renaming the place “Holbrook Indian School and Resort.”
March 1, 2012 at 9:36 am
Busy day full of fun and Improvisation. I’m about to head off to find more info on skin-walkers.
March 2, 2012 at 4:21 pm
I was glad we still had something to substitute for the owl segment. The teacher told me that she learned of the owl taboo when she tried to get them to study owl pellets. They also have issues with touching dead animals (and humans), so they cannot go on archaeological digs (even though they have ample opportunities to do so).
March 3, 2012 at 8:41 pm
Interesting.