Rattlesnake, Tumbleweed, Dust Storm.

Tuesday October 7th, 2008

This was a busy week! We had school every day as usual. I was busy getting things prepared for the board meeting. On Tuesday, we took school pictures and class pictures. For those of you who are familiar with the campus, we took the school pictures outside, by fence on the horse corral. It was a beautiful, cloudless day. Jerry took the pictures with our film camera and Miss Dawn took pictures with the digital camera, just in case. We took individual shots, then all of the kids in one family, then the individual classes and their teachers, then the staff all together. I hope to post some of these soon. We also had music with the Sprinkles on that day AND library with Ms. Anne. It was a busy day for the kids. The kids all got very rambunctious when their routine was messed up like that. It was a rough, loud ride home of the school bus that day.

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Roberts parents and his middle brother arrived for a surprise visit. And I do mean surprise! No one knew they were coming. They arrived at about 2:30PM, when the guys were outside teaching P.E. They are a lovely and loving family. I must confess, I was glad for Daron, but seeing his family here, also made me more home sick. I wished that my family and Jerry’s family might be the ones visiting here some day. Wednesday evening, Mr. Rich and Mr. Mark from Miamisburg Christian Church in Ohio arrived to visit with the school children prior to the board meeting. We had been expecting them. They were both very kind and I enjoyed getting to know them. They stayed at the church building in the Sunday school room with the couch. They both have an obvious love for Red Sands and the Navajo people.

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

This morning, I ran into town to the bank and the post office. While driving from the mission to the interstate, I saw my first TUMBLEWEED. I don’t know why I was so excited (and still am excited) to see tumbleweed. Maybe it is because I love western movies and I have seen many scenes where the tumbleweed rolled across the dirt road and it was exciting to see one in person. It was initially a small one. The tumbleweed was a little piece of brush that had dried up, turned white and been broken free from its fragile hold in the sandy soil by the wind. It rolled right across the road, just like in the movies. I have since seen several more tumbleweeds cross the road. Some are green, some are brown and some are white.

After lunch, the school children have P.E. One of the kids came inside the school and said there was a snake. Jerry, thinking it was a joke, went outside to check. Sure enough, there was a rattlesnake just outside the school door. It was curled up under a rock, so I don’t think it was being aggressive at the time, but Jerry got to kill his first rattlesnake that day. All the men who were on the premises at the time, Daron, Rich, Mark, Daron’s Dad and brother were there to witness the killing. Jerry said it was probably an unfair battle, having seven men again one little rattlesnake, but the snake needed to be disposed of and Jerry was the man to do it.


Saturday, October 11, 2008

At 3AM, I am awakened from sleep by the sound of the wind. The wind hits the trailer and I can hear the roof roll and something that is loose on the outside slams open and shut. I can never quite see what it making the noise when I look outside. A wind/dust storm at night is not unusual, so I prepare to wait it out. An hour later, Abby and Kelcy are awakened by the ferocity of the storm. I send Abby to our bed with Jerry and I take Kelcy back to her room and lie down with her, again figuring to wait out the storm and hoping to return to sleep. Unfortunately, it is hope that does not play out. The storm continues. I take Kelcy back to our room, hoping she will sleep in there. She keeps asking “What is trying to get in here?” and “Why is our house shaking?” Then she starte telling me there are bugs in my hair? I am not sure about that one, but I assume it is a manifestation of her fear of the storm. By now, we can feel and see the wind shaking and moving the house. Abby keeps saying, “I’m not afraid anymore”, probably trying to convince both me and Jerry and herself that it was true. I must confess, I was getting a little nervous. I know that this trailer has stood for 30 years, but I wonder if the roof is capable of withstanding the battering it is taking. Time moves on: 5AM, 6AM, 7AM. By this time, Kelcy and I are in the living room. I was hoping the wind would not be so loud out here and I began making dessert for the board meeting today. Abby finally goes back to sleep about 7AM. Kelcy never goes back to sleep. When it is light outside, I can see the dust. It is like fog, only not just close to the ground. It swallows up the landscape and envelopes everything around us. It insidiously makes its way inside our house through any opening. At the windows, the front door, an electric outlet, sand piles up in our house. The wind is blowing from 30-40 miles per hour, with reported gusts up to 70 miles per hour. We have to leave the house to go to the board meeting. We have to plan to load up the car. We look like Western bandits, with handkerchiefs over our mouths and noses and our sunglasses on to keep the sand out of our mouths and nose and eyes. We wait for a brief break in the sandblasting force of the wind and make a break for the truck. The wind makes it difficult to get the door to the house shut, as it is blowing directly into the door. We wrap the girls’ heads in towels to protect them and carry them out to the truck. When we get to the church up the hill, the process is repeated. The storm lasted for roughly fifteen hours, from 3AM to 6PM that day. The end result is that the roof on the new staff house and the old school building has been destroyed beyond repair, there is insulation from the house all over our fence and yard. The ground no longer has that soft layer of sand, it was all blown away. What remains is the small rocks on top of the bedrock. I am told that the length and intensity of this storm is unusual, even here. I sincerely hope that is true!

The board meeting went well. Both the board members and the staff met from 9AM till Noon and then we had lunch. Afterward, Keith came down to the trailer and we got to talk to him about everything going on at home and how we were all doing here. It was nice to get a chance to see and talk to him. We did miss Ms. Aleta. I know that she wasn’t able to attend the meeting this time and I just want her to know how much she was missed. Ms. Aleta always brings life and sparkle to a room!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

I was wondering if the storm would affect attendance. It was down today, we only had 21. I did have four of my regular class members present, so that was nice. One of the Navajo ladies, Miss Sonja, led the singing today for the first time, while Miss Anne played the piano. It brought a big smile to my face to see her up there leading us. We also got to sing “Jesus Love Me” in Navajo. That was really neat. Mr. Keith preached the sermon on Jonah and his experience. The message being it took being swallowed by a fish to get Jonah to be obedient, but “what’s it going to take to get your attention?” It was great! Afterward, we went out to eat at Denny’s with Mr. Keith and the Roberts family. It was nice to not be cooking and cleaning up for the meal. Abby and Kelcy were very well behaved, so it was an enjoyable meal all around. After lunch, we drove over to the Little Painted Desert that I described before. Abby called it a big slide. She was not even a little afraid to get near the edge and she wanted to slide down the smooth rock to the bottom. She was running around the edges of the canyon and making me terribly nervous. I think it looks like a large cemented skateboard park. It has natural ramps and curves like that. I did take some pictures of the LPD to share.