Chinle, Durango, & Randomness

There's a couple different things that I want to talk about in today's post, but they don't go together.....therefore I'm putting subject headers to break the different subjects apart. Oh, Happy April Fool's btw...anyone get pranked or know of someone else that got pranked? If you did, you need to leave a comment and let me and anyone else that reads them know what happened.

Chinle
Thursday morning my happy-go-lucky-free-as-a-bird-crazy-4th graders from Vail departed for home at the same time that my newest group of students arrived. This bunch of campers was a complete 180 from the Vail children. My inquisitive, eager, hyper 10 years olds were replaced by shy, quiet, semi-disinterested 13 year olds (6th grade). The Chinle students were from the Navajo reservation in Chinle, Arizona. These students were incredibly quite and it was like trying to pull teeth to get them to participate in a group discussion, although, in small groups or by themselves they tended to answer questions and form ideas almost as often as the Vail kids. I learned that it's their culture to be quite and reserved until they know you, which took a good 24 hours and they were only here for a day and a half. So the first day, which also happened to be the first time that I was allowed to co-teach (was with a new educator, Lew), it was hard to make the lessons flow without the awkward pauses and the wanting to offer candy just to get some audience participation. Now I know what it's like when a comedic goes on stage and tells a joke only to have everyone stare at them blankly. I got that a lot on Thursday. This serves to teach me what areas of teaching I still need to work on some...how to keep a lesson going when no one interacts...it's a lot harder than it seems.
Friday was a little bit better. The Navajo kids finally started to perk up and become amiable during the morning when we were teaching then about Pueblo lifestyles. There's a task station where the kids get to play ancient games, on of them being the "String Game" (basically you have a piece of string that is tied into a large circle and than you use it to make animals, shapes, Cats Cradle, etc.). Apparently this tradition was passed onto or developed independently in the Navajo culture because most of the kids and even the bus driver knew a bunch of string games and they were having fun laughing at me cause they tried to teach them to be and I couldn't get them until the 20th time or so. So there's a hint for anyone that needs to get kids to like you more and open up...make a full out of yourself...tends to work well. The rest of the day went pretty well since it manly consisted of playing ancient games outdoors (there was a little teaching involved). At 3pm, my newest students left (and I was just starting to enjoy them too) and the weekend began.

Chili Olé and Party
Jim, the main cook at Crow Canyon is apparently notorious in this area for his fare, especially his Southwestern fare. He was hosting a dinner last night as a fundraiser for Crow Canyon's scholarship fund for local youth to come to programs here. The dinner consisted of gourmet food,hallucinatorilyy bright decorations (bright tissue paper flowers and red chili pepper lights, among other things), free booze, and apparently an hour and a half long lecture on the art of roasting peppers that was interspersed with not so subtle hints that the inebriated guests were hungry for the main course. The fee for this extravagant affair was $50, unless of course you are awheedlingg Intern that manages to get in good with the cook and the other kitchen staff ;~) I managed to snag a few of the great appetizers and a margarita, but I had to leave before the main course. The kitchen staff were going to save me some, but apparently they ran out before all the guest even got some....guess they over booked.

I left in order to go to party that was being help by one of the friends of Crow Canyon, San Fee, who's redoing the webpage here (and hopefully I'll get to work with him a little to that I can learn a little bit more about webpaging) and is applying to be the Director of Education. Sam was having a little shindig so that he could make chemical pies (out of a box) and so that people could say goodbye to Colleen (the lab intern that's last day was Friday...not the one that quit). So I mingled a bit, ate some badchocolated creme pie, and then called it a night.

Durango






Today I traveled back to Durango to check of the Pow Wow that was taking place at Fort Lewis College. The college, by the way, is quite nice...it's really pretty because it has the wooden buildings with trees everywhere and giant mountains as a backdrop. The weather was crazy too, starting as rain in Cortez, becoming snow on my trek to Durango, and ending in sunshine (that eventually turned cloudy and rainy again later in the day), which made the campus look even better. I love how rain darkens everything and makes the colors richers. Anyways back to the Pow Wow. I arrived a little past noon which means that I caught the tail end of the opening ceremonies (usually they start at noon). I stayed for a few hours watching the dancing and trying to sketch the different costumes. I snagged a little fry bread with honey too (umm umm good, yummy in my tummy).

After the Pow Wow I went into Downtown to find me a coffee shop (if anyone remembers my post from last week...Durango is about the closest place that has any around here). I managed to find one with a nice dark corner that I could hid myself away in and spent the latter half of the afternoon reading and enjoying my chai )oh how I missed thee).

So that's been my last few days folks. Hope this entry isn't so long that you fell asleep somewhere in the middle of reading it.