St. Michaels, AZ, Day 6: road tripping

We just arrived at the Albuquerque airport after a three hour drive from St. Michaels. It is 2:30 am Mountain Time, 4:30 am Eastern Time. Beth and her sister Taz drove us in two cars, dropped us off near a ticket counter, and are sleeping in a hotel tonight so they have enough sleep. Gonpo is curled up in a corner trying to sleep, but I'm not sure if anyone else is even going to bother.

We are very lucky that we made it to Albuquerque and that our flights don't seem to be delayed because just when we were pulling out of St. Michaels, a whiteout snowstorm touched down. Visibility was only a couple of feet and we could barely keep the back windshield clear for long enough to pull out of the parking lot safely. Fortunately, we either moved away from the storm or it generally subsided, so conditions were safer for most of the ride.

For our final dinner, we ate at a restaurant near the parish so that no one would have to cook or clean dishes. Right before our food came, Prim presented Beth with our thank-you gift: a Williams t-shirt with messages from all of us written on it. Beth spoke to us about how much the trip has meant to her, and I hope we were able to convey how grateful we are to her for giving us such an opportunity.

As predicted, most of today was spent traveling. Ellen, Jess, and I practice yoga with the guidance counselor and some kids for one last time. Three 4th grade girls showed up including the one who made us all cards and hugs us all whenever she sees us. She and I wound up staring at each others' faces whenever Ellen had us do the downward facing dog which resulted in some giggling. After we finished our session, our friend the guidance counselor gave us some snacks for our day and we gave her the card that we made for her. Since she liked all of our different languages so much, we were sure to write in each one on the front of the card.

If you haven't noticed by now, I haven't referred to any of the students or teachers by name (I don't think.) This is not because I don't remember their names, but because this is a public blog and I don't want to violate anyone's privacy. Just thought I'd mention that.

After yoga and some preliminary packing, Beth gave us a wonderful driving tour of the lands immediately to the west of St. Michaels. Lyndsay drove the second car in our caravan. Our main destination would be Canyon de Chelly, which, according to Beth, is "nothing, compared to the Grand Canyon." But we would find that it was definitely enough for us to get our canyon on. In any case, the drive to the canyon was as spectacular as the canyon itself. We watched the landscape flash from desert to forest to scruffy lowlands. While I wound up with some nice pictures, they really don't do justice to the overwhelmingly vast space that surrounded us. There were some areas that were completely flat for as far as we could see.

After a long stretch of flat driving, we tilted down a big hill and descended into an enormous valley. When I turned around, I realized that we had been driving the entire time on one of the mesas that we have been seeing all over the place.

We couldn't seem much after we entered the valley. The day was very windy - Lyndsay's car was getting whipped all over the road - and the air was saturated with dry dust. There were some spots where the conditions were little better than the whiteout that we would drive through later that day. We could smell the dust and hear it pounding against the car. Instead of endless views and enormous sky, we were shrouded in the rich brown cloud and could see little else.

Beth brought us to the Hubbell Trading Post, a national historic site, where she released us to shop and poke around. This was a really neat place which was, in addition to a tourist trap, a sheep and cattle ranch that was used by the Navajo and European-American settlers dating back to the 1880s. They sold some really nice rugs that were very expensive. I got a chance to walk around outdoors and take some pictures of the surrounding lands, sheep, and a llama! Somewhere in Navajo Nation Part 5.

And before I forget, all of my photos are now online! Fresh photos start halfway through Part 4.

On our way to another visitors' center, we visited Beth's dad at his office at the Navajo Technical College. He explained that his job is to help set up jobs for other Navajos. He introduced us to all of his staff and shared with us some his life philosophy. A very funny and sweet man. He explained to us that after we graduate from college, we should invent a system by which everyone communicates telepathically so that paperwork would be rendered unnecessary.

The Canyon de Chelly visitors' center had some really nice posters and books, none of which I bought. It also had an exhibit on the history of the peoples that have lived in the area. I was really interested to see the note at the beginning of the exhibit explaining that the entire thing would be redone in a few years. The museum acknowledged that ideas about history have changed since the 1960s when the exhibit was first set up and they have since recieved funding to create a more culturally sensitive narrative. I won't quote because I don't want to misquote, but I could definitely see that the descriptions were written in a style that does not correspond to current standards of historiography. Additionally, the note explained that some objects were no longer in the exhibit because they had originally been excavated from Navajo graves, a practice which is no longer considered acceptable.

All eleven of us squeezed into the van to eat lunch. Though there were picnic tables in sight, it was so dusty and we didn't want to be eating dust sandwiches. This was a hectic and cramped experience.

We finally arrived at the canyon. Kyle gave half of us a heart attack by jumping up on the ledge and standing there while 40 mph gales of wind whipped around us. After he got down, we all ogled the canyon for a while, taking pictures of each other and staring down at the bottom. It was still really dusty, and by now we all had sand in our teeth and hair. The low visibility created a mystical aura which I think we all came to appreciate as we hiked down. The pillars and cliffs towered over us, glimmering in the hazy atmosphere.

Ellen, Jess, Lyndsay, Prim, and Gonpo have fallen asleep. I hope to sleep on the plane...we'll see.

The end of our spring break is approaching and soon we will all return to Williamstown to complete the semester. I hope to return to St. Michaels some day and say visit the friends that I met this week. To Beth, Prim, Taida, Gonpo, Jia Jia, Ellen, Tomomi, Kyle, Jess, Lyndsay, and anyone at St. Michaels who might have gotten ahold of this link, thank you everything you have done to make this week so incredible.