a traditional hopi meal

We were honored to be the recipients of some authentic cooking while we were on the reservation.  Kay made us a delicious Hopi dinner full of traditional ingredients.

There was hominy soup -

that could have been made with mutton, but for us, she used beef.

Yummy rolls...

Then there were the blue corn flaky tortillas, which melted away in your mouth because they were so light and airy.

The tortilla recipe starts with indian corn which is grown everywhere- and not watered.  It's planted, and left on its own until the harvest.  Thus, it gets very dry.

The other secret to the flaky tortilla-like shell is in the preparation.  Once the cornmeal mixture has been prepared, it's cooked on a stone over an open fire.

And pig's brains are used to grease the stone.

Moving on....

Inside these corn husks, which are used solely for the wrapping and presentation in this recipe (a lot of work but with beautiful and appealing results) are wads of thick blue cornmeal that is almost like candy to the Hopi children.  They have a sweetness to them that's hard to describe, but apparently they don't last long at a local gathering. 

We were hungry, and it all was delicious.  Kay put a lot of love and time into preparing that for us during the day so that she could have it ready by dinnertime.

Dessert was 18 of us sitting around the tables, each taking a turn to tell a little about ourselves. Which turned into a lot about ourselves.

 It was a most wonderful evening.

new friends

I wanted to introduce you to some of the people we met while living at the church in Keams Canyon.   They are all near and dear to our hearts.

This is Edison.  He is married to Kay.

This is Kay. She made us a traditional Hopi dinner mid-week.

This is Gibson.  He's the caretaker of the property and is Kay's brother.

This is Emiline (along with Kay and her grandson Rick standing behind).  She's Gibson's wife and Edison's sister. 

Getting the picture? Brother and sister married another brother and sister.  And the four of them are the pillars of the church right now, along with Emiline and Edison's sister Virginia.

Who is David's grandmother.

Obviously, family is extremely important to the Hopi.  It is one yardstick they use to measure wealth.  That and crops.

This is the Piantedosi family who works with Chief missions.

Nick and Leslie, and their children Olivia and Matthew.

Their help and contribution were so valuable to our visit.

And there you have it- those that we rubbed shoulders with all week, dug trenches with, shared meals and had lots of conversation and laughter with.

We are all the better for knowing them!

we're back.....

We are home!  We landed in Philadelphia last night at 6 pm and most of us were up and out the door to work this morning, back to our day jobs.   I found that as I returned to my regular routine, I was very aware of what was most likely happening 2000 miles and three hours behind me.  I'm sure today all of the team was thinking of the week we just spent together and what we accomplished by God's grace and with His help.

Don - Excellent locksmith!

Marty - Next stop, NASA. He wore the suit. And beautified a bathroom.

Best pals- Matthew and Digger. (aka Will)  His nickname says it all.

Buddy hung with Steve while he ran electric...and every other time.

Scott can be proud of those pipes! That's a thing of beauty!

"What? You're not working? You're diggin' for rocks?? Come over here...I have something for you to do...."   Thanks for keeping us on task and on track Fran!

Me updating the blog daily (or more) from Gib and Emiline's house.

Jo tried her hand at taping and spackling - good job!  Although she was along to help me cook, once her talents were discovered I lost her to the construction crew.

Those are the individuals from our Davisville team.  In tomorrow's post I'll show you those we met and grew to love while we were there. They are forever in our hearts!

on second thought....

After thinking about it last night, I realized there are many more pictures to share and stories to tell from our trip.  And what better way to do it than through this blog!  So.... I will continue to update it after we get home. We'd love it if you'd stick around for a while!

We are pulling out at 8 am and heading to the Grand Canyon, which is about a three hour drive from here.  After the Grand Canyon, we will have about a five hour drive to the hotel for tonight.  Tired bodies are just fine to be sitting for a while today, taking in the sights through the van windows!

I'm so glad we had this time together...

This will be the final blog post for this trip as tomorrow at 8 am we leave what we've come to know as "home" for this past week and travel to the Grand Canyon for Saturday afternoon, staying in Phoenix overnight in preparation to fligh out at 11 am on Sunday.

Words cannot express what has taken shape in our lives and our hearts this past 6 days as we've worked with Gib, Emiline, Edison and Kay.  We've also gotten to know one another as individuals and as a team which is always so much fun. 

We've broadened our horizons, our worlds and our faith in ways that could have never happened if we hadn't come on this trip.  

And a hearty thanks to each and every one of you who have prayed for us and also who have checked in on us through this blog- it has been viewed almost 1000 times since I started it late last week.  I'm so thankful it's been a helpful tool for communicating with all of you who are interested in what we're up to out here!

Looking forward to returning home and telling our stories......

Beth for the Arizona team

finishing up

On our last day here at Keams Canyon, we are finishing up the projects we came to do. For instance.....

                          New floor, new plumbing, renovated kitchen sink

                                 New floor, new toilet, new tubsurround

    By tonight there will be light on the sign in front of the church for the first time ever!

  The tree was cut down to properly expose the sign and they were digging their way out there yesterday afternoon - this morning we picked up the lights and will be installing them today.

This is just a sampling of the many labor intensive projects that have been tackled and accomplished this week.  We will have many stories to tell once we get home!

God has been so good to us in this trip - from the weather, to the provisions, to what we have learned and what we've been able to teach.  We come home having been stretched and challenged, encouraged and refreshed.

Amazingly, it's soon time to say goodbye to the people we've worked with all week and quickly come to know.  We will miss it here- this place will always have a part of us attached to it.

It's been a great run.  It's been a phenomenal week.  It's been a tremendous experience.

Until we meet again....

everything but the kitchen sink

Today the new church kitchen drain pipe is going in.  More digging, more trenches, more laying of PVC pipe - that's been the theme of our week. 

The Hopi man to the right is Edison.  He and his wife Kay live down the road.  Kay prepared an authentic dinner for us last evening.  Edison has come over to work every day; he has an interesting story of returning to the Lord and the church after many years of being away.  His sister, Emiline, and her husband Gibson are the church caretakers who reside here.  Gibson also works with us daily- he is in the blue shirt and black baseball cap in the picture above.

Meanwhile, Fran continues to dig...

Old pipe out- time for the new. 

(we tried to get them to all participate in an Iwo Jima shot but they were too busy..)

All in a day's work here at Keams Canyon!

hopi kids

We found out some interesting things about Hopi children.

They believe in the tooth fairy and love birthday parties, just like our children do.
They go to school, play with their siblings, and love to laugh, just like our children do.

But...they eat this......

In that bag is a treat that the Hopi kids absolutely love.

It's gummy bears marinated in Koolaid. 

You know the kind - the tart, dry, you've just sucked on a lemon kind of Koolaid- straight out of the packet, unsweetened, with just enough water to make it stick.

They also put pickles in Koolaid too.

They also soak sunflower seeds in it.

and yes, you are seeing correctly - for the brave of heart, there's Koolaid soaked lemons too.

I tried the gummy bears.

No thank you!

local flavor

We loaded in the van at 3:30 pm yesterday with our guide, Leslie from CHIEF, and she took us on a tour of the mesas where a lot of the traditional Hopi live.  They are simply named First Mesa, Second Mesa, and Third Mesa, in order from east to west.  It's amazing that there are communities up on these high plateaus and the people there count a lot on tourism and selling their wares (pottery, carved wood) to make a little income.  We were not allowed to take pictures on top of the mesa (due to it being traditional sacred ground) but we got some great shots on the way up and down!

They saw us coming (somehow) and three men walked down the hill to try to sell us carvings and drawings.

And here's the hill -

Even tho we weren't allowed pictures on the top, Leslie knew one family well and asked permission.  Savannah was giggling as I showed her my phone and told her I would take her picture and then let her see it right afterwards. 

We were running out of daylight so it was time to come down and head home for a traditional Hopi meal being prepared for us by Kay.

On the drive home, we caught the moon coming up over the canyon.

Awesome!

a few successes

A beacon in the night that hasn't been in operation since 1985......

an empty hole to put Fran in because the pipe is OUT! and laying on the ground just above Will's head.

new trenches started....

and now we are calling it a day and going out to see some of the area and the local folks.  Then home to a traditional Hopi dinner prepared by one of the women of the church.

Until tomorrow...

 

the work progresses

Tuesday was a great workday - after three days of digging, the main drainpipe from under the house finally broke free- success!!!  Here's a bit of what all that looked like, plus some other construction going on....

Jo painting the "Government Green" closet....and the paint color she's using?  Navajo White.  Go figure.  I painted the adjoining room and ceiling, but at least it was white on white!

Marty Miller divided an outside carport area into two rooms....

Steve worked on the electric to get their cross lit again.  It looked amazing last night.

It was a full day.  Finally they wrapped it up and headed in for some dinner, tired, dusty yet content.

Another great day on the reservation!