By N. Haveman

This is the title of a series of stories/ideas on what could be done in Gallup.  For the next few months (and maybe more, if we’re really creative) we are going to put forth some ideas we think would benefit our community.  The ideas we showcase will always be for the good of Gallup . . . at least what we think is good for Gallup.  Some of the ideas may be, as my grandpa says, “from way out in left field.”  And some ideas may be fairly easy to both conceptualize and complete.  We aren’t asking that all of these happen – just that we open a dialogue to continually move Gallup forward.

Let me start by saying that, yes, I know we need a dog park.  But I realized the other day that we also need all of our parks to be dog-friendly.  Sure, we can’t have packs of dogs running rampant at Ford Canyon, knocking kids over and digging through trash cans – but I do think everyone should feel welcome to bring their dogs to Ford Canyon, on a leash, to hang out with them.   But if we have our dogs with us at Ford Canyon more often, there is also going to be lots more dog poo gracing the green grass.  Here’s where the photo at left comes in.  These little stands are so handy.  I’ve felt the shame when my dog has pooped in full view of others and I haven’t had anything to pick it up with.  On the flip side, I’ve also been saved by being able to snag a bag from a Doggie Poop Bag Dispenser, too!

I also realize that putting these Doggie Poop Bag Dispensers at every park in Gallup isn’t going to solve the problem of dog poop being left for others to step in – but it’s going to help, of that I am certain.  In my optimistic opinion, I also think that having these bags and trash cans more accessible and in full view will help our parks to stay cleaner.  I think folks will start tossing their soda cans (please recycle, though!) and Hot Cheetos bags into the trash cans, too – I mean, I think we’ve all seen enough Hot Cheetos bags floating through our skies on windy days!  So please, head out and socialize with your dogs (ON A LEASH!) and make sure to (for the time being) bring a bag from home to pick up after them.  It’s really such a simple thing to do!

Let’s be honest, this isn’t really a CRAZY IDEA, but it’s one that can be accomplished quickly and with very little money.  Not only that, but it’s totally needed.  I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we have TONS OF DOGS in our town . . . let’s all help by picking up their doggie doo where others can see and (gasp!) smell it!

We are what we eat.  This phrase resonates somewhere in our consciousness, but seems to have no meaning when bellies rumble and hands reach for preservative-filled food products out of a box or bag.  In our country, there is an epidemic of obesity-related illnesses and diseases directly linked to the fact that we aren’t eating enough of what we should – fruits and vegetables – but are eating too much of everything else.

Joshua Kanter is serving this year in Gallup as a FoodCorps member.

Certainly, America’s children, who are three times more overweight or obese as their counterparts from just thirty years ago, need to hear and understand the message that a healthy diet is important.  Here are the statistics: 1 in 3 children born in the year 2000 are on track to develop Type II diabetes.  1 in 4 young adults are too overweight to qualify for military service.  Only 2% of children eat enough fruits and vegetables, according to USDA data.  Now it’s one thing to know the facts, but change requires action.  And change is what FoodCorps is all about.

FoodCorps is a national organization that addresses childhood obesity and food insecurity in underserved communities.  The first 50 FoodCorps Service Members were sent out to 10 states last August.  During this inaugural year, they are working in 41 different sites alongside local agencies and non-profits that are already familiar with their area’s needs and are already working to develop more just food systems for children.  FoodCorps envisions a generation of children that have an enduring relationship with healthy food, and will thereby learn better, live longer, and will be liberated from diet-related disease.

One of New Mexico’s six FoodCorps Service Members is based here in Gallup!  Joshua Kanter arrived at the start of the school year and has jumped into his responsibilities at two local schools with both feet.  He works locally with Connections, Inc. under Karl Lohmann who applied on behalf of McKinley County to become one of the first FoodCorps host sites.  Knowing that children in this area face challenges related to access to healthy food, Joshua is working to educate students on what healthy food is, helping them to engage with fresh fruits and vegetables in school gardens, and sourcing healthy food for access in school cafeterias.

Students maintain gardents at Chee Dodge and Juan de Oñate Elementary Schools.

Joshua is serving at Chee Dodge and Juan de Oñate Elementary Schools, each for two days a week.  Lohmann chose these sites for a FoodCorps presence because of the high positivity and support already in place.  Joshua works closely with Kevin Buggie at Chee Dodge and Steve Heil at Oñate.  Both of these teachers have been instrumental in beginning and helping to maintain gardens at their respective schools.

Within this framework of support, Joshua quickly fell in line with the great things that were already going on, but also found new ways to expose students to a more healthy lifestyle.  Beyond working in the garden at Chee Dodge, he has begun a fitness program that engages students in fun exercises to promote regular activity as part of living healthier.  At Oñate, a composting program is taking off, first by rewarding students for eating their portions of fruits and veggies at lunch, then by collecting leftover scraps for compost.  At both schools, Joshua has begun serving fruit and vegetable smoothies, as a healthy snack option alongside the popcorn and pickles that the schools sell to students as a fundraiser.  Ryna Tulley and Victor Iyua, Jr., who also work with Lohmann as part of YCC and the Boys and Girls Club, have been faithful assistants each week on smoothie days.  Together, the three experiment with various colors and flavors, using fresh ingredients like mangos, kiwis, blackberries, ginger, and kale to expose students to tasty, healthy treats made from real food.

Students peel garlic cloves.

Not only does Kanter bring passion and ingenuity to his role as a FoodCorps Service Member, he’s also got some great skills and tries to make an impact wherever he goes.  Exposed to gardening at a young age, he was involved with the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) at the University of Connecticut, where he attended college.  Then last year he served in Los Angeles with City Year, which is a program primarily focused on providing academic support to youth.  While there, he helped start a garden that the kids tended throughout the year and from which they were able to take home potted plants.  Joshua bikes almost everywhere he goes for lots of reasons: for the environment, to save money, to listen to music, to exercise, to meditate, and, perhaps, to get noticed.  “If someone sees me biking to school, in the cold, in the dark, with a smile, maybe it will make them wonder why I’m doing it.”

Joshua also bakes bread – really delicious, beautiful, healthy bread.  This bread has caught on in town and now there’s an email list and weekly orders for bread sales.  Every Friday you can find Joshua in the kitchen at The Community Pantry making baguettes, boules, bâtards, Jewish challah, and even gluten free varieties.  He loves doing it and invites others to get involved.  It’s just one more way that he’s helping to educate and provide healthy food options to this community.  But, this is the coolest part: 100% of the profits that Joshua collects from selling his bread go right back to the kids at his schools!  The money pays for the fruits and veggies that create the smoothies he makes each week.

So far, Joshua’s efforts have been met with appreciation, support, encouragement, and, maybe, some apprehension.  While his work is helping to improve access to and education about healthy foods, the process is a slow one.  Generations of poor food and fitness habits don’t change in just one year.  And while Joshua’s service in Gallup will end with the school year, McKinley County will have another FoodCorps Service Member next year to pick up where he left off and begin new initiatives.  The seeds are planted and with people to maintain the garden, there will be fruit to harvest!

For more information or to get involved with bread making, contact Joshua by phone (203-219-1222) or email (joshua.kanter@foodcorps.org).  To find out more about FoodCorps, visit foodcorps.org.

A crane towers above Zuni Christian Reformed Mission and the small plot of land it has leased from Zuni Tribe for the past 115 years.  For months, anticipation has been building as hammers pound and saws cut.  The foundation and framework now reveal clearly in three dimensions what has been prayed about and planned for years: the new building for Zuni Christian Mission School (ZCMS).

Zuni Christian Mission School's new building will be ready for next school year with twice the space!

Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself – at best it sometimes rhymes.”  Though surely, the echoes from past generations of mission staff and Zuni Christians create more than a simple poem with today’s efforts.  The Mission’s story began in 1897 when Andrew and Effa Vander Wagen ventured from the Netherlands, via Grand Rapids, Michigan, to serve the Zuni people.  They established a permanent mission in the heart of Zuni on behalf of the Christian Reformed Church.  What began as a pioneer work has matured into a ministry to the community through a church (Zuni Christian Reformed Church) and school (ZCMS) that are governed locally by boards of Zuni Christians.

While occupying the same 1.7-acre space of land for more than a century, the facilities have changed over the years.  The most dramatic change came in the form of a fire in 1971 that destroyed the main building used for the school, church, and staff housing.  Immediate rebuilding was intended to be temporary, but three portable classrooms and two modular homes are still used, over forty years later, as the primary facilities for the school and church.

The Mission has used its facilities creatively to meet the needs of the church, school and community; however, the reconstructed and temporary buildings have outlived their function.  Moreover, the parsonage, built around 1917, is in poor condition.  Church and school leaders have found that limited space, along with the cost of maintaining and repairing old structures, are restricting opportunities and potential educational and community programs.

The solution has come after years of praying, planning and fund raising, in the form of a three-phase building project, called Foundations of Faith – Faces of Promise.  Remembering the past and standing on its solid groundwork, Zuni Christian Reformed Mission looks ahead, with hope, to its continuing work and ministry.  Murphy Builders, Inc. has been hired for the project and is owned by Rick Murphy, great-grandson of Andrew and Effa Vander Wagen.  The past, again, resonates with the present.

Zuni Christian Reformed Mission's site plan including all three phases.

Phase I – the school – is well underway.  The new, two-story, 19,000 sq. ft. building will offer twice the space for educational programs and community events.  The construction will be energy and cost efficient.  Heating the entire structure will cost less than what is now spent to warm the portable classrooms!  The new building will include 8 classrooms, a library, common spaces to facilitate group projects, large windows to provide views of the village and breathtaking landscape, as well as the first elevator in Zuni!

Currently, the school has 62 students in kindergarten through 8^th grade.  The new school building will provide space for twice as many students, along with new opportunities for programming and community involvement.  Principal Kathy Bosscher is very excited about the possibilities.  She looks forward to engaging the community in dialogue about how the new facility can fulfill needs.  “That’s where relationships can be built!”

While the sounds of construction can be heard throughout Zuni, the anticipation of this project is experienced by many throughout the country who have supported the Mission through prayer, volunteer hours, and financial contributions over the years.  Administrative Officer, Alex Smith, explains that the whole project’s costs are estimated at $9.7 million, of which $3.7 million has already been raised – more than enough to pay for the new school building.  Over the next three years, the remainder of the fund raising and building phases will be completed, resulting in a new ministry center, new residences and community areas, in addition to the school, which will be ready for next school year.

Zuni Christian Reformed Mission is undertaking this project in addition to raising funds for their annual operations.  It has been a lesson in faith and abundant blessing, not unlike those experienced by Mission staff during every generation since 1897.  So while history may not repeat itself exactly, there is a sense of familiarity in building a school and church, in this space, upon a strong foundation.

In 35 years of practice . . . I have never lost one heart-attack patient.

That’s a pretty remarkable claim to make, but Dr. John Christopher, the famous master herbalist, said it with confidence.  “If they are still breathing, I [give] them a cup of cayenne tea (a teaspoon of cayenne in a cup of hot water), and within minutes they are up and around.”

Cayenne? The pepper? That’s right. Cayenne is one of the fastest-acting aids for the heart, because it feeds the heart immediately.

Here’s how it works: Cayenne helps maintain the “river of life,” also known as the bloodstream. A stagnated “river of life” leads to blockages, which lead to oxygen starvation, which leads to organ dysfunction, disease, and, in severe cases, heart attack. Cayenne pepper works like a drain opener that blasts through the blockages, delivering oxygenated blood into sick or dying organs faster than any other medicine or herb can.

But that’s not all; cayenne has more health benefits than any other single food or herb on earth.  Cayenne taken internally as a tea will stop bleeding – even from a severe cut or gunshot wound – in most cases by the time you can count to ten. Cayenne has a natural, powerful, equalizing effect on blood pressure. When it hits your bloodstream – which it does immediately – it adjusts your blood pressure from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. Thus, the high pressure at the wound site is alleviated and clotting can start at once.

Cayenne is truly a gift to humanity. Over 3,000 scientific studies listed in the National Library of Medicine support the use of cayenne in preventing and reversing many common health ailments.

So… What’s the Catch?

Not all cayenne peppers are the same! Each of the many varieties has a different use and level of heat. Heat (or “Scoville”) units are determined by the quantity of chemicals in the cayenne and its resins. The higher the level, the hotter the cayenne pepper – and the hotter the pepper, the stronger and more effective a healer it is.

Cayenne peppers range from 0 to 300,000 heat units. The spice-cabinet variety averages 5,000 heat units. Paprika has no heat and is rated 0 heat units. Jalapeño peppers are between 50,000 and 80,000 heat units; Serrano peppers are approximately 100,000 heat units. African Bird Peppers average 200,000 heat units and Mexican habañeros are between 250,000 and 300,000 heat units.

Ultra-hot cayenne tincture from 300,000 heat-unit organic habañero peppers will increase your blood flow almost instantly, bringing in new oxygen to your body’s vital organs, muscles, and tissues and carrying away toxic wastes from these same areas in its return flow.

Virtual “White Light”

Author and friend Dick Quinn had an out-of-body experience when he “died” from a massive heart attack but was then revived. With fully blocked arteries, he was given a choice: multiple-bypass surgery or death. Unfortunately, the surgery failed; several weeks later, Dick was still dying a slow, painful death.

This time, his doctors only gave him one choice: another bypass. He refused. His cracked ribs hadn’t yet healed from the first time, his pain was excruciating, and he didn’t see how a repeat of the same surgery could improve his condition.

Since Dick refused surgery and the drugs weren’t working, his doctors discharged him. Dick went home to die and for several weeks it looked like he would. His condition worsened daily, until it took every ounce of strength just to get to the bathroom. He could barely catch his breath. His skin was gray; his body was getting no oxygen. He was cold and miserable all the time.

One day while sitting in a park letting the sun warm him, he had either a divine or serendipitous experience: a woman abruptly walked over and told him to use cayenne pepper for his condition. After politely asking her to leave him alone as he was busy dying, Dick went home and forgot about her. A few weeks later, though, feeling worse than ever and rather desperate, he remembered the encounter and decided to try some cayenne. Since the worst it could do was kill him and he was already dying, he figured “What the heck.”

Dick emptied a couple of heart-medication capsules and refilled them with cayenne from his spice cabinet. The results were miraculous! Not only did he fully recover, he self-published his story in Left for Dead, which is still available on Amazon.com and in most health food stores. Dick was 42 when he had his heart attack; at 58, he could be found on a worldwide, 300-day-a-year lecture circuit, sharing the life-saving benefits of cayenne.

Cayenne is better than a cup of coffee for energy, mental clarity, and being kind to the body, because it doesn’t wipe out your adrenal glands with harmful stimulants. The list of positive effects cayenne has on the body seems endless, especially when you realize that most health problems start with a lack of circulation triggered by clogging foods, medications, lack of exercise, depression, and all the other stressors of modern life.

Incision Be Gone!

Beth had emergency surgery for adhesions that were strangulating her colon after an earlier surgical procedure. Hospitalized for two weeks, her 16-inch “stem-to-stern” incision became dangerously infected just as she was about to be discharged. Two more weeks of hospitalization only worsened Beth’s condition. After week four, Beth signed an against-medical-advice release, agreed to retain the services of a home nurse, and went home. I went with her to work my cayenne magic on her incision.

The nurse came, checked the dressing, and left instructions that it be changed twice a day. She warned Beth to expect a long healing process.

I poured four ounces of 300,000 heat-unit habañero tincture right into the wound, then took Beth’s hand and waited for the screams. 300,000 heat-units is so hot that one drop will make your eyes bug out if it hits your tongue.  Beth was silent.

She felt no pain, she said. An hour later, however, the incision was “on fire.” Another hour passed, and the fire and pain were gone.

When the nurse returned the next morning to check on the infection, she was shocked! Overnight, the oozing had stopped and the incision had started closing. The infection was disappearing in less than 24 hours.

Cauterization in a Jar

Inga showed up with a gushing index finger after accidentally cutting off its tip with a miter saw five hours earlier. Although bleeding non-stop, she had been turned away by the local hospital, as she had no insurance.  Inga was extremely pale and dizzy when she arrived. I stuck her finger into a jar of powdered cayenne made from African Bird peppers (approx. 200,000 heat units). At first the pain was pretty intense, but no worse than it had been the previous few hours.

The cayenne cauterized the wound and stopped the bleeding. We wrapped it with more cayenne powder clinging to the open wound.  This letter is from Inga:

I just wanted to drop you a note to thank you for healing my index finger on my left hand. As you might recall, on August 19, 1998 at 3:00pm I came to your office with an emergency. I had accidentally touched the blade of the miter saw while it was in operation. It only took this split second contact with the saw blade to cut out the flesh on my index finger almost to the bone, leaving nothing left to be stitched.

You cleansed my profusely bleeding finger, then proceeded to pack it into cayenne pepper, covering the entire wound. I was rather skeptical of this procedure, but it worked! The bleeding stopped and the pain literally had vanished by dinner time, without “painkillers!”

The next day you instructed me to cleanse the wound and apply calendula ointment and tea tree oil twice a day. In wonderment I observed my finger heal rapidly from hour to hour. It was miraculous!

Anyway, to make a long story short, after several weeks my finger was healed without any infection. I still have a minimal “dent” where the flesh was sawed out, but I have full use of my finger, no nerve damage etc.

Your quick certainty on how to treat such an injury effectively was quite impressive and confidence inspiring.

THANK YOU FOR A MIRACLE!

Warmest Regards,

Inga B. Kroxxxxx

Just An Everyday Miracle

Cayenne truly is a miracle herb that can save your life. Adding it to your other daily herbs and supplements enhances their effectiveness, as cayenne is synergistic in its action. Ginkgo biloba, for example, is well known for helping with memory and other mental functions, but has been effective in only about 20% of the most serious cases. If your memory is slipping away, 20% is not acceptable. Add cayenne to the ginkgo biloba, however, and that effectiveness increases to 95%. As in all disease, memory loss is a side effect from a blockage of blood to the affected area. No blood flow, no healing.

Does your nose drip and your face break into a sweat when you dive into hot salsa and chips?  Cayenne is warming your body, stimulating the release of mucus from the respiratory passages, all while clearing your sinuses.  So the next time you think you have to run for an antacid to help you digest your meal, try a shot of cayenne instead, to help you stimulate your digestion and absorb your nutrients.

Millions of Americans whip their heart with nitroglycerine or digitalis or other drugs, forcing it to beat rapidly to keep it going. Most heart attacks, though, are due to the heart being malnourished: it hasn’t had a decent meal for so long it’s practically starved. Cayenne fed to the tongue directly in a warm liquid base such as water instantly opens and expands the very cells of the circulatory system, which instinctively distributes the cayenne where it is now needed: in this case, the heart.

Keep a bottle of either tinctured or powdered cayenne in your car, your bathroom cabinet, your kitchen, and in your purse or pocket. It may someday save a life – maybe even your own!

Dr. Bera Dordoni, N.D. is author of the highly acclaimed book I Have a Choice?!, the Grammy®-nominated CD Voice for a Choice!, nutritional counselor, organic gardener and naturopathic doctor who has over two decades of experience counseling clients with ailments ranging from allergies to cancer to numerous life-threatening diseases, and incorporates the laws of attraction to help her clients achieve vibrancy from the lifestyle changes that benefit them most. She is in the midst of building a wellness retreat center in the Ramah area and looks forward to welcoming guests this spring.  To learn more visit www.bastis.org or call 505-783-9001.

Now, many of you may be asking, What exactly is a charter school anyway?  Well, in a nutshell it is a public school that is started independently from the traditional public school system.  These new schools have a charter or mission that often has a new education model different from traditional public schools.  These charter schools are funded the same as all public schools, from taxpayer dollars and no tuition is charged.  Enrollment to these schools is open to the public, but when requests for enrollment exceed classroom space, a lottery system is used to randomly select students.

Uplift Community School was chartered by families, community members and teachers, and they have chosen to model the school on Expeditionary Learning.  What’s that exactly?  It’s the idea that kids can learn from direct experience, exploration and, well . . . expeditions!  An example would be a class learning about food that would take trips to local gardens, grocery stores, or food pantries to learn about the growing, distribution, and socio-economic impacts of our local sustenance.

While learning by expedition may seem a little soft in a world of test scores and standards, don’t worry, all charter schools are required to meet all testing standards that the public schools do or their charter won’t be renewed and they will close.  So there is still plenty of traditional language arts, math, and science but it will be integrated into the expeditionary model.

To learn more about Expeditionary Learning, and Uplift Community School there is a meeting with Expeditionary Learning School Designer David Den Hartog on Saturday, February 18 at the Octavia Fellin Public Library-Children’s Branch from 9:30am to 1:30pm.  Families will have the opportunity to engage in a learning expedition.  Enrollment Request Forms will be available at this meeting.

Currently, Uplift Community School is working rapidly to secure a location/facility for its operations as well as seeking a director/principal. The Uplift Community School board currently consists of:
Linda Kaye, Chair
Ann Doucette, Vice Chair
Jennifer Brown, Secretary
Anneke Lundberg
Kimberly Ross-Toledo

For more information, questions, or input please contact Interim Executive Secretary, Jenny Van Drunen at (505) 862-1865 or coordinator@upliftschool.org.

The following resources are also available:
Uplift Community School:  www.upliftschool.org
Expeditionary Learning Schools:  www.elschools.org
New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools:  www.nmccs.org
New Mexico Department of Education Charter School Division: www.ped.state.nm.us/charter/

Angela conducted weekly baby weighings and vaccinations while educating young mothers.

I am a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who is currently teaching 9^th grade English at Gallup High School.  This is the story of my journey to this place.

Throughout my life my career aspirations have fluctuated from wanting to be a waitress in elementary school, becoming a writer in middle school, to studying to be a pediatrician in college.  How is it that 10 years later I am a happy high school English teacher?

I finally ended up graduating from college as an English major. As with many others, I found myself in a situation of having to decide what I would do post-college.  There are not that many options for an English Literature major: a librarian or a writer?  When I heard a Peace Corps representative speaking at my school about his experience and the rewarding opportunities of the Peace Corps, I was sold. I immediately called home and informed my parents that I was going to join the Peace Corps.

I applied to the Peace Corps as soon as I graduated.  It was a very long process; I believe it to be a test of commitment.  After filling out the applications, essays, going to a couple of interviews, I was finally accepted.  Then, the medical and dental screening process came with frustration: this medical test was abnormal, this was incomplete, this is normal but the whole procedure has to be completely redone.  Talking to other Peace Corps volunteers I found that this was the norm. Finally, after 18 months, I started getting invitations to serve in different countries. I missed a couple of invitations because my paperwork had not been processed in time or in the case of Turkmenistan (it borders Iraq) I turned it down. Finally, I accepted the invitation to Senegal, West Africa.

Girl with a poster showing a mosquito.

Senegal is the western most country in Africa.  The country is about 95% Muslim (4% Catholic and 1% animism).  The official language is French, but that is just used by the officials.  There are other regional languages that the locals speak: Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka, Seereer, and Bombera. There are two seasons; the rainy season lasts from December to February and gets as cold as 61 degrees.  The hot season is the rest of year; temperatures ranging 81 degrees to 130 degrees (quite often my parents told me the newspaper listed Matam, my site, as the hottest place on earth).

Based on my health background (I started college as a biology major), I received an assignment as a health educator.  Upon entering the country I started an intensive eight-week training. The program included 121 hours of language instruction, 70 hours of technical health instruction, 39 hours of cross-cultural learning instruction, and 18 hours of personal medical and safety and security instructions. Technical health instruction included the different diseases threatening the people of Senegal such as dysentery, malaria, and AIDS.  Then, we were instructed on how to prevent the diseases and teach others. I was told most of my work would be informal chats with people about staying healthy.

My site turned out to be a larger city with a population of about 20,000 (roughly the size of Gallup).  I soon realized that informal discussions were not making much of a dent in the community.  So, I facilitated several HIV/AIDS classes for the English students at the middle school. During that time I informally trained teachers on the subject as well. Through this I experienced the classroom setting at the middle school.  The school was made up of vacant cement rooms.  Each classroom had one chalkboard and a number of tables and benches.  Classrooms were packed;l they never had enough seats or tables for students and some had to stand.  Nor was there any chalk to use on the chalkboards.  No air conditioning, so if it got too hot school was cancelled.  No electricity, so when it got dark school was cancelled.  The school day started at 8am and the students broke for lunch from 12 to 4 (the hottest part of the day), before returning to school in the evening until 6.

Angela with the group of girls she met with weekly while serving in Senegal.

Another project I undertook was aiding the heath post center.  I conducted weekly baby weighing and vaccinations as well as educating mothers on their child’s nutrition. I saw so many young mothers come in, girls who had to drop out of school to start a family.  This inspired me to focus on educating adolescent girls.  I collaborated with a teacher to organize a girls group at the middle school.  During the school year a group of 15 girls, ages 13-18, met weekly.  At these meetings I conducted lessons on health topics such as malaria, nutrition, first aid, and selected activities on STDs.  Malaria is a huge problem in Senegal. Fun activities we did were using the local neem plant to make lotion to ward off mosquitoes, or using beads to decorate and personalize bed nets.  We also played games practicing saying no to sexual advances.  We even watched the TV show Veronica Mars to demonstrate a strong female and show them high school life in America.

After the first year of my service half the group moved up to the high school.  I followed these girls and continued our activities, while adding more girls to the middle school group.  These girls were determined not to follow the footsteps of girls dropping out of school to become wives.  They knew what they wanted: to be nurses, teachers, secretaries, etc. I encouraged them to achieve these goals.

Along with my work at the health post and the school I co-led a bi-monthly radio show.  This included a live program, which required translation of original health materials in English into the local language of Pulaar and interviews, skits, lessons, and advertisements.  I led a World AIDS Day event.  A number of establishments worked together to provide a day of informative presentations and discussions on HIV/AIDS.  This is normally a taboo subject in Senegal.  The event required grant writing, securing a venue, hiring a DJ, and arranging advertising (which included a national radio commercial).  It was a great success.

In the summers I traveled to the capital city of Dakar to work with 5 other Peace Corps Volunteers to conduct a week-long English camp at a high school.  The week was composed of English lessons and practice, cross culture exchange, and fun games and activities.  For example, the students loved learning the lyrics to The Black-Eyed Peas “Where is the Love,” which generated discussions about American culture.

After two years, my service came to an end and I had to begin thinking about the “real world.”  I reflected on my service and found that I loved the joys and challenges of working with adolescents and wanted to become a teacher. WNMU Gallup intrigued me for many reasons.  I found out about the program through Peace Corps Fellows and the more I learned, the more interested I became.  Both the Navajo and rural setting appealed to me.  I am a quarter Navajo, but since my mother was adopted I was not exposed to the culture as much as I would like to have been.

During my Peace Corps experience I worked in a rural school.  It’s amazing to see students come to a room without electricity, not enough desks for everyone and no books or supplies.  I met a girl at the school who was there every day and her mother told me she got up every morning at 5am in order to do her studies and complete the household chores before school.  I have heard similar stories of students here. I am amazed at the students who overcome difficulties just to make it to school. These students make the effort and sacrifice to learn. Students here in Gallup, as well as in Senegal, need teachers to support and encourage them.  I love working with students and learning from them, their knowledge and community values, while at the same time passing on my experience and education.

By Larry Larason

Despite the end-of-the-world predictions last year, we’ve made it to 2012.  Now, forget about the Mayan calendar; it doesn’t mean anything either.  The world has been here for 4.5 billion years; why would it end now?  You have until next December 21^st to think about that.  We’ve seen more believable doomsday predictions in the news lately that the Southwest is on the way to becoming a dust bowl.

Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas on April 18, 1935.

Some of the concern was triggered by an on-going drought.  And there were stunning videos of dust storms posted on the Internet.  One of the storms hit Phoenix on July 5; it was about 60 miles wide.  Another occurred at Lubbock, Texas on October 17 that was 8000 feet high, caused by a cold front moving down the Panhandle with winds of 60 miles per hour.  Many videos of these storms are still viewable.  Go to Google and search for “haboob” to find them.  That’s right, haboob.  We have a new word in our language.  In English it means dust storm, although in Arabic it means strong wind.  Meteorologists have used the term for some time, but it’s just beginning to show up in the news.  Some people prejudiced against Muslims have objected to the word, in fact, any word from Arabic, but we have many words in English that came from that language, including “algebra,” “chemistry,” “alcohol,” “cotton,” “garble,” and “zero.”  In any case, we needed a word to describe ephemeral, local dust storms, as opposed to regional ones.  Haboob does not easily roll off an English speaker’s tongue, but it seems to be getting accepted.  One posting on the Internet read, “So fun to say!  LOL.”

Even in good times people in the Southwest worry about their water supply – as they should, given our growing population.  But then when we have a drought they act all surprised.  It’s not like we haven’t had droughts before.  It’s normal here, but people’s memories are short and they think the good times will go on forever.  Let’s look at some history.

It may have been droughts in the 12^th and 13^th centuries that drove the ancient Puebloans to abandon most of the Colorado Plateau.  Another “mega-drought” occurred from 1566-69.  It is called a mega-drought because tree rings show that it was pretty much continent wide and stretched from Mexico to Canada.  Although it caused problems for the early settlers in Virginia, Mexico and the Southwest may have been the hardest hit.  In Mexico the mega-drought was coincident with outbreak of an as-yet-unidentified hemorrhagic fever that killed up to 15 million people in Mexico’s highlands.

There were smaller droughts, not as well documented, between then and the late 1800s.  Ranching in southern Arizona began with Hispanic settlement and increased when the US Army began setting up forts and buying beeves to supply soldiers and Indian reservations.  The 1880s were the boom years for cattle.  Ranchers in those days must not have trusted banks; they kept their wealth on the hoof.  With the abundant precipitation during that decade it seemed to make sense to increase the size of herds.  Eastern, and even foreign, investors put up money for ranching all across the West.  In Arizona, from about 38,000 head in 1870, herds increased to nearly a million and a half by the 1890s.

In those days weather records in the West had little time-depth, and climatology was poorly understood.  When drought came it struck hard.  While all the Four Corner states were affected by the drought beginning in 1891 and ’92, Arizona was possibly the hardest hit.  It is estimated that 50 to 75 percent of the cattle in southern Arizona died from thirst and hunger.  Drought alternated with El Niño conditions through the 1890s.  Heavy rains during the wet years increased erosion of denuded rangeland and abandoned farmsteads.  Because there was so little vegetation to hold the water, it cut deep gullies as it ran off instead of soaking in.  Wind during the dry years blew soil away.  One cattleman who responded to a survey in 1901 lamented, “Vegetation does not thrive as it once did, not because of drought, but because the seed is gone, the roots are gone, and the soil is gone.  This is all the direct result of overstocking . . . ”

The soil loss was directly related to cattle.  They deplete the grass and trample the soil crust.  These crusts are formed by cyanobacteria, microfungi, lichens, and mosses.  The organisms are tiny but the effect is huge.  In parts of the Southwest this microbiota may be as much as 70 percent of the life on the ground.  They are active during the wet times and dormant during dry periods.  While active they secrete chemicals that bind the soil particles into a crust, which holds the soil in place when the wind blows.  Cattle, hikers, and ATVs all break down the crust and allow the sand and silt to be moved by wind.  Studies of lake deposits in Colorado have found that dust increased by a factor of eight when livestock were brought to the Four Corners in the 1850s

Now let’s skip ahead to the 1930s when the term “Dust Bowl” came into use.  The seven-year drought that occurred then affected mainly the high plains of five states.  The “bowl” was centered on the Panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma.  In this case the dust was liberated by the plowing of the plains to raise wheat.  The Ogallala aquifer had not yet been tapped; the wheat was raised by dry farming, dependent on rain.   When the rain failed, bare fields were left exposed to the wind, and the silt went airborne.  The native grasses that had been plowed under were well adapted to their habitat and would have held the soil even when dry.  The haboobs we have seen this year were minor compared to some of the storms of the dust bowl.  On April 14, 1935, a day remembered as “Black Sunday,” the greatest of the storms was caused by a cold front barreling out of Canada.  With high winds it picked up dust from the Dakotas, then more as it streamed south across Nebraska and Kansas.  Woody Guthrie, the dust bowl troubadour, was living in Pampa, Texas then.  Holed up with others in a room so full of dust that the light bulb put out only about as much light as the tip of a lit cigarette, Guthrie came up with the chorus of one of his best known songs: “So long, it’s been good to know you.”  Surviving the dust bowl was made even harder by the Great Depression.  The human cost of this double whammy is well documented in Timothy Egan’s book The Worst Hard Time [2006].

From 1947-1957 a deeper drought than the current one extended from New Mexico to Nebraska and other western states; Texas was especially hard hit.

If you follow the news, you know our current situation: New Mexico has been lucky to get some snow this winter, but it may not be enough to break the drought.  The Four Corners is the least affected part of the state.

I’d like to recommend another book: William deBuys’s, A Great Aridness [2011].  The writer is an environmental activist living in northern New Mexico, so when I bought this I was afraid that it might be a shrill doomsday screed, but instead it is a series of reasoned case studies in the Southwest.  The author covers topics such as Colorado River water, the Rodeo-Chedeski and Cerro Grande fires of 2002, real estate development around Tucson, and others, all in the light of increasing temperatures and declining water.  In this book he paints a picture of our region without picking on villains other than the changing climate.

This quick overview points out that droughts in the Southwest are not unusual.  What’s normal in our region is that good times will be followed by bad times.  The bad times may become longer in the future as the world warms.  We may run out of water to satisfy our burgeoning population.  Wildfires may become more common.  Our expectations and lifestyles may have to change.

By Kris Pikaart

For those of you who follow this column (who are you, by the way?), you know that the literature that we choose comes from all around the globe – India, Mexico, Ethiopia, and some from the US.  I thought I’d throw a celebrated British writer into the mix.  Zadie Smith is a young contemporary writer who wrote White Teeth in 2000, for which she won several prestigious prizes.

I recently read her second novel, On Beauty.  It’s not my usual sort of favorite novel – being a bit academic and theoretical.  The title suggests a philosophical essay on one of the great intangible facets of human life.  One of the fundamental differences between humans and other species is the ability to appreciate and be moved by beauty.  Many believe that although our lives are, of course, upheld by the fundamental tangible things of this world – like work, money, food, shelter – that we are also wired to desire and need that totally immeasurable draught that, for lack of another word, we call beauty.  This comical novel plays around with just that idea.

On Beauty is set in a small fictitious college town in the Boston suburbs called Wellington.  The life of the world of academia – especially in the humanities – is as much a character in this novel as any of the people.  Department meetings, the jockeying to achieve tenure, the alignments of students to professors, classroom scenes, and that peculiar insular vocabulary of the university create the constant backdrop of this tale.

Smith doesn’t so much have a main character as a main family.  The Belseys are a smart, biracial family with three nearly grown kids.  Howard is a professor of Art History.  Older, he has carved out a strange little niche in the art history world, in which he is relatively alone, save a few odd devotees.  At the heart of his academic career is the thesis that there was nothing particularly genius about Rembrandt, but that he was simply a good marketer who painted what his clients wanted.  He is a sarcastic critic of all things religious and emotional.  His wife, Kiki, a large African American woman, rather than an academic, is a nurse by training who is now the administrator of the local hospital.  Kiki and Howard have, for many decades, had “the most successful marriage that they know of.”   Although all of their friend’s marriages are to fellow academicians, Howard and Kiki have long felt met and matched in ways that no one from outside their marriage can see.  Kiki is practical where Howard theoretical.  They laugh together and live life rather large.  Their kids each carve their own spot in the world:  Jerome is serious and in backlash to his father, very religious.  Zora is smart, mouthy, and thoroughly enamored by the politics of academia.  The youngest, Levi, finds meaning in his African-American identity – joining a rap group and becoming engaged in the politics of a group of Haitian immigrants.

On the surface of it, the story is about the slow unraveling of Howard and Kiki’s 30-some-year marriage and the effect of the dissolution on their children.  At the beginning of the story, we learn that Howard has confessed to having a brief affair, for which Kiki has decided to forgive and forget – until she learns that it was with their best friend Claire, a celebrated poet colleague of Howard’s.   One more discretion and many emotional missteps later, Kiki has virtually no choice but to leave the bereft Howard.  The kids align with the warring parents in classic and almost comical ways.  But the story is hopeful in a funny way.  At the end of the book, Smith leaves us with just a wistful little hint that the depths of love and a life made up of each other might just be able to endure the worst of a man’s behavior.

Back to the idea of beauty.  Howard has disposed of the idea of any sort of intrinsic beauty – it is all the rubbish of academics and religious nuts.  He believes that the idea of beauty is nothing but a cultural myth.  Things are only beautiful insofar as we assign value to them.  However, we see a slow unraveling of that notion as he loses more and more of what matters to him.  In a twist of plot far too complicated to go into here, the Belsey family ends up at a funeral in London of the wife of Howard’s academic enemy – a woman that Kiki has found a secret friend in.  Howard grouses about being in the simple old church and about the music.  And yet, when the Cambridge choir stands up to sing Mozart’s Ave Verum, he finds himself in an unpredictable predicament – moved by the music he has often and loudly critiqued.

He did not even get the opportunity to check the booklet in his hand; never discovered that this was Mozart’s Ave Verum, and this choir, Cambridge singers.  No time to remind himself that he hated Mozart . . . The song had him . . . Howard gripped the arms of his chair and tried to regulate his breathing in case this was an asthmatic episode or a dehydration incident, both of which he had experienced before.   But this was different; he was tasting salt, watery salt. A lot of it, and feeling it in the cambers of his nose; it ran in rivulets down his neck and pooled in the dainty triangular well at the base of his throat.  It was coming from his eyes . . . At this point in the proceedings, it was Howard’s more usual practice to doodle lightly with a pencil along the edge of the funeral programme while recalling the true, unpleasant relationship between the dead man in the box and the fellow presently offering a glowing eulogy, or to wonder whether the dead man’s widow will acknowledge the dead man’s mistress sitting in the third row . . . He was quite sure he was making embarrassing noises.  He was powerless to stop them.  His thoughts fled from him and rushed down their dark holes.  Zora’s gravestone.  Levis’s Jerome’s.  Everybody’s.  His own.  Kiki’s.  Kiki’s.  Kiki’s.  Kiki’s.

So confounded by his outpouring of sorrow, he cannot stay and sob, so he sneaks out of the funeral to find his elderly father to try once and for all to make peace with the old man.  And last, in the midst of his final lecture (in a last ditch effort to save a dying teaching career) on the myth of the beauty narrative, he finds himself utterly (and most unusually) at a loss for words.  He is moved by the photos of the art being projected on the wall, and even more so by the beautiful round face of his estranged wife who, in a magnificent move, has come to support him.  Smith hints that all has fallen away for him – the entire language of the academy, the cloying to get and stay on top of an argument, the theoretical talk.  And all there is is a face, his love for the particularities of that face, and a heart moved by the undeniable beauty of it.

Although it clearly covers some sad subjects, this is a comic novel, based on E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End.  It’s an interesting and funny glimpse into a biracial family (a reality which Zadie Smith is well aware of, being of Jamaican and English descent).  Throughout, there is clever, funny critique of academia.  Smith herself had a rather devastating and brief tenure at Harvard as a visiting professor.  It was fun to dip my toes into the world of academia – the politics, the passions, the classes, the syllabi, the rituals – a world that seems far away right now.  The loveliest sections were those set in London – the scenery was so carefully rendered that I could almost picture walking through the old streets, the grassy parks, the crumbling Anglican church.

In the end, this novel is full of love – crooked, broken, hobbled love though it be.  No showroom can contain it, no essay can explain it, but beauty, Smith suggests, comes in the form of gritty real life, from the crashing of the love of other mortals.  Smith hints that at the end of the day, it is what we have to hold in our hands and to carry to our graves.

For the Kiddos

By Daya Choudhrie, age 9

My very favorite book is called Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One. It was written by Judy Blume in 2007 and is illustrated by James Stevenson.   I have read it more than six times.

It is about a girl named Abigail and her brother and what they learned about their lives.  Abigail (The Great One) is in 3^rd grade and she likes the color pink and princesses.  Jacob (Jake, or The Pain) is in 1^st grade and likes making his big sister mad.   They fight a lot, but you can tell that they really love each other.

I like this book because a different character tells their story in each chapter.  I also like it because it teaches you that life is not always so easy.  I think that anyone who likes really funny stories that also still teach you lessons would like to read this book.   It is a good book for both girls and boys.

By Be Sargent
Photos by Erin Farver

Me and forty-eight third graders in front of the Work of Mind mural.

Judith Lannan, a teacher at Juan de Oñate Elementary, called me and asked if I would give a tour of the murals to the third grade.  I said, “Fantastic!”  So they came with their teachers, Judith, Peter Ippel and Erin Farver.

I told them about green jobs, aquifers, photovoltaics, recycling, the farmers’ market and even toxins in the environment.

Then Ms. Lannan said, “OK, one more question.”  Actually I hadn’t let them get a word in edgewise.  A student stepped forward and asked “Who did these?”  Well, then I had to explain about scaffolding.

The third grade of Juan de Oñate was completing a social studies unit focused on common good in our community and how people have shaped New Mexico history.

This experiential unit included projects at the Ford Canyon Senior Center and Ellis Tanner Trading as well as the visit to the Work in Beauty murals.

Students conducted interviews at the Senior Center and created timelines and poems for the seniors.  At Ellis Tanner Trading the students chose a Navajo hero from the Circle of Light mural to research.  Students then wrote paragraphs and created their own murals for a school art gallery opening demonstrating how these heroes made a difference in New Mexico history.

Finally, the students visited the Work in Beauty murals to hear about how people are currently working for the common good and shaping New Mexico’s history right now, and they returned to the senior center to deliver their timelines and poems as a holiday gift for the seniors they interviewed.

Here are some of the wonderful things they wrote:

About the Work of Mind Mural

"The most coolest thing on the mural was the car that runs on sunlight." -Josiah Begay

About the Work of Heart Mural:

“The most interesting thing about the murals is talking about jobs that help the environment.  Work of hearts means helping the community and environment and community without payment, and some people grow veggies and sell them.”  -Mallory Montano

“The most interesting thing is seeing bottles be recycled and helping people take care of the earth.  And I see it just perfectly painted on a little bumpy wall.  I even see Haley’s grandma in the cornfields.”  -Anastasia Frazier

"The work of heart is about how people are volunteering to help the earth." -Ariah Hausner

“My great grandma is painted on this mural.  She is collecting corn stalks to grind corn and make medicine.  Great Grandma wanted to help the earth be a better place to live.”  -Haley Gomez

About the Work of Strength Mural

“This mural is about how people are making solar panels for electricity to be able to see in the night.  The interesting part is that people are working together.”  -Miracle Martinez

“Kids in high school are working hard to build a solar system hogan so the sun makes heat, water and electricity.  I’d like to do that when I’m in high school.”  -Gabby Ashley