It's been a long while since I last posted. I've been wanting to post a few photos, such as a recent one of our house in Reno after the snow storm. But somehow I kept getting errors when I tried to upload photos on MT. Oh well.
I was gong through my bookmarks and postings here to see if there is anything useful for our friends Fleur and Terry who are about to embark on a 6 month trip!! So I started reading through some of our first postings from the planning phase of our RTW trip and it brought back some good memories :) This time of year 2 years ago we were in Nicaragua. Those were some good times, I miss traveling. But I think there might be a three to six month stay somewhere in Asia or Latin America this summer, if some interesting international public health organization wants to take advantage of cheap graduate student labour!
I am going to do a posting so I can pretend I am still traveling. Well, I guess I can count Reno, although i am not doing anything other than surfing the web and working on little projects while Charlie is at work.
I am going to work on a new website to better document our travels soon, that's one of my projects.
Ben is a friend of my mom's, who lives in the Navajo nation, close to the New Mexico border in Arizona. He was in Santa Fe yesterday, (where I currently am) and came over to talk to us. Ben has been all over the world, by a funny co-incidence he was in Cusco Peru in June 2000, meaning Karen and I were there at the same time. Too bad we didn't run into him. He went to the solstice ceremony at Saxewoman that I was too embarrassed to admit we slept through.
The Navajo's, who are the descendents of several Apache tribes, have one of the best-preserved native cultures in North America. Unlike the Pueblo tribes around Santa Fe, they never mix the Catholic ceremonies with the traditional ones, and draw strict bloodlines. Ben got water to his Hogan a few years ago, before that he lived in a more traditional manner. He herds sheep, is the Director of Education at the Dine college, graduated from Saint Johns college in Santa Fe, and has traveled more widely than I have. He questioned me on Thanksgiving, asking what it meant to me. He said Navajo's don't understand it, because eating with the family like that is a weekly if not daily occurrence, and there are no ceremonies associated with Thanksgiving. (what about beer and football??). I stuck to my position that it is as close to a tradition as we have in American culture, and it was good enough. Families go out of their way to get together, no matter where they are.
When I told him I was going to Guatemala, he asked why? What was I trying to accomplish, who was I visiting. He's been there, with a group of Native American’s, and the visited certain tribes. He said I would stand out a lot, but I think I convinced him that our main motive is not to necessarily become best friends with all native peoples, but really to have a good and maybe educational time, to see the world from an un-American perspective. Ben said I should have clear purpose, spiritually, for the purpose of my trip. I felt a little frivolous, but what can you do. He invited me to the Navajo nation, and I've already planned out an at least 1 week mini vacation from working on the ranch for and Karen and I (and any of you stragglers who make it to NM!). It will involve the northwest part of New Mexico, Canyon de Chelly (pronounced che), and probably loop back around through Taos and El Valle. It’s quite an invitation, as Canyon de Chelly is purportedly exceedingly beautiful, and not open to the public. He said we can camp on his land. I invited him to Pecos.
Santa Fe is beautiful as usual, but I have to leave today, back to Reno for another week of work. Only one week to go, and I'll be in Guatemala!
It's beautiful out today, definitely one of those days that remind me why i love it here. I am admiring the view out the window from the computer nook as I type, the wonderful view of GG Park, GG Bridge and the Marin headlands that made us fell in love with our apartment. We've had countless prospective tenants come by to look at the place and it kinda made me sad to imagine someone else taking over our home, I hope they would enjoy it as much as we had. There are a lot of wonderful aparments and flats in San Francisco, I am sure we would love our next home just as much. I am looking forward to living simply and experiencing the unfamilar.
Spent an afternoon with Chrissy who had just returned from a 4 month adventure from New Zealand and Australia and we reminisced about our travel experiences; about how you learn to appreciate what you have and that you can really live simply on 1 pair of pants, 3 shirts and one pair of shoes for months on end; how it changes your perspective on things and meet different types people whom you won't meet otherwise.
And there you go, no more worrying, just looking forward to next month.