And the Winner of the Spring Art Show 2009 is...

Tuesday through Thursday were good days. Everyone, including the staff, had a little spring fever. We had fun and the kids worked hard.

Thursday, March 26

Today was a very interesting day. It started out fairly normal. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing steadily. The school children all gathered at the church for opening session. Then, each teacher and student departed to the school and their classrooms. Mr. Bill is leaving for Kentucky today. I think it is supposed to be a surprise that he is leaving so early, but he should be there by the time I post this on-line, so I am not spoiling anything, I hope. He left about 10AM. I had a Navajo lady and her husband show up to help clean the church today! It was wonderful to have their help and they do an exceptional job! Just before lunch, the wind started picking up some. The sand was blowing outside my window to the south. A steady stream of sand and top soil from Flagstaff and beyond sailed through the air past Leupp Road and on to parts unknown. Mr. Bill had asked me to go into town and pick up some dry wall, but I have to confess that I did not go. I was afraid it would have gotten blown out of the back of the truck!

I went down to the school about 1:30 PM to help my art students get their final work done before the art show tomorrow morning. This is where it gets interesting. During art class, a massive dust storm hits, this time blowing from the Northeast. We are blanketed with a red layer of sand, so much so that I could not see the trailer from the school. The dust began coming in the doors and windows of the art room, we could see the dust floating in the air inside and smell the smell that I have come to recognize as the dust. Our class moved to another classroom on the other side of the building to escape the dust as much as possible. This dust storm lasts for at least half an hour. Next, I see some raindrops fall. We look out the front of the school during a fairly clear moment and see that the white vans are spattered with a few raindrops and that wherever the rain drops hit, the sand stuck to the side of the vehicle. It is amusing to see. Next, I hear the younger kids in their classrooms exclaiming and we go to look outside again. Now it is snowing, along with the dust. Swirling, blowing snow and is hopefully settling the dust a little.

A parent arrives to pick up their child. She has just come from I-40 and said that there were four accidents on the interstate and that the traffic is very backed up. Miss Springer decides to drive the Ford truck instead of her van because the van is much harder to drive in the wind, which is still blowing quite ferociously. We decide that a trip into town would be a nice distraction, so we grab our library books to return and a snack and head out to town ourselves. As we approach the interstate, we see not four, but six accidents, one of which is a small vehicle that is turned upside down, with parts of the vehicle, including seats, lying in the middle of the interstate. Some of the other accidents involve semi trucks. These are all lined up right next to our exit on I-40. As we get on the interstate, we realize that it is apparently closed. It is eerie, seeing no other traffic for miles on this straight interstate. Jerry is driving slowly and carefully. We arrive into town without incident. We head to the post office and discover that the downtown area, including the post office, has no electricity. Next, we go to the library and spend some time there, reading books, playing with puzzles and picking out books to borrow. After this, we decide to have dinner in town. As we leave the restaurant, we begin to notice that the landscape looks like the version of nuclear winter depicted in that 1980s movie “The Day After”. There is a blanket of fine dust floating in the air. The dust is blocking out the sun. It looks a lot like a documentary we watched on the History Channel about the Dust Bowl years. When we are finished eating, we find that I-40 is still closed. Luckily, we just recently discovered that Route 2, while bumpy, will take us back to near the mission. We head back down the wash board road, joined by several cars on this trip. Jerry has a LITTLE too much fun driving on these off road-roads. We arrive safely back home to discover that the sand has blown inside our bedroom window, onto our bed and Josie’s (our dog) bed. I clean up the floor, change the sheets and prepare for another day, awaiting what this next day brings!

Firday

Friday brought the lovely Art show! All of the school children had entries into the show and Miss Springer had purchased a lovely gift for the Grand Champion, a satchel filled with art supplies! The children each got one vote for the best artist, as did the staff and the parents. There were water color paintings, chalk drawings, colored pencil drawings, crayon drawings, clay figurines, charcoal drawings and butterflies using crepe paper. They were all so lovely that I had a hard time deciding who deserved my vote! However, few people were surprised when Merritza won the Grand Prize! She worked very hard and did a great job!

School got out after lunchtime today for Spring Break!

Saturday

We (the Diehl family)packed a picnic lunch and lots of water and headed to Walnut Canyon, which is about 45 minutes from the mission. We spent the day here hiking down into the canyon and seeing the ruins/remains of the cliff dwellings of the Sinagua people. We had some very nice weather for our trip we took some great pictures and we all had a WONDERFUL time!

Sunday

Jerry preached today at church. He joked that he was taking our home church motto a little too seriously. The motto is “Bring them in, Build them up, Send them out”. Well, he drove the bus to pick up the church people, taught Sunday School, preached the message, and then drove the bus to take the people back home. I missed his sermon, so I can’t comment on it, although I am positive he did a wonderful job. One of the young ladies who rides the church bus was sick and I took her home right after Sunday School was over and I didn’t get back until after the church service was over. Jerry was pretty tired that afternoon. I went to town to get supplies and then later packed our things for our further adventures in the week.