So today was amazing. We went to church at Twin Pines, which is one of the sites we will be staying and working in July. Josh had informed us that the service starts at 10:30 but if you get there at 10:30 or even at 11 there may possibly be one or two people there at best. Sure enough, we got there at about 10:45 and there was one car at the church. Josh said that people would probably show up later, so we took a walk past the outhouses...and through the brush to the nearest mesa. There is no running water at Twin Pines, just like Toko'i (the other New Mexico site). We will have to build temporary showers with a hose and PVC and carry our water over to the "kitchen" for meals. Anyway, back to the service, there only ended up being about 10 people at church, 8 of which were related to Harry, the pastor. Harry's wife, Blanche, lead worship and it was very cool. Half English, half Navajo, and so beautiful. Navajo isn't like any other language I've heard. Maybe like tongues, haha. Actually, a lot like that. After worship, Harry asked Josh to come up and testify for a minute, and much to our surprise, he went down the line and called on us too. After that, Harry informed Josh that he would be giving the message for the morning after Sunday School. Blanche got back up and lead Sunday School which was basically just Bible teaching and it was really wonderful. They had been going through a book and this week was on Holy Spirit Living. Good stuff. Josh got up and spoke from Philippians 3. During Sunday School an elderly man had come in who Harry informed us later could not speak English, so he translated as Josh spoke. Josh had not planned for this apparently, and due to stage-brain or whathaveyou, he was completely unaware that he spoke for about an hour and a half. We joked with him in the car on the way back to the Mission and he had no idea. He thought it was about a half hour! He had made Harry go hoarse from so much translating!
After the service, we met a sweet man named Edmund who will probably be helping us a lot with construction. He and Harry took the four of us around to some prospective work project sites and they were really good. We met a woman named Nora who was probably nearly 90 and we are going to do some work on her house as well as her son's trailer down the road. When we got back to the church, Harry invited us in to his house and Blanche cooked dinner for us (that's right...dinner. Church got out a little after 2). With dinner she had what she called hot bread, that looked like over sized tortilla-like pancake things. SO tasty! Not sweet, just cooked dough, but it was amazing. She told us she would make the famous fry bread for us when we come back. Fry bread has been talked up to us by the interns that came out here last year. They say it compares to funnel cake that you might get at the fair, with powdered sugar on top. That sounds pretty good to me. :)
We sat around with them and watched home videos of the National Navajo tribal dance competition, in which several of Harry and Blanche's kids and grandkids competed! Ages 30 to 3! It was incredible to see... all the traditional clothes of the tribe and hundreds of navajo dancing different dances. Pretty awesome.
Harry taught us a few words today. Ya'at'eeh is hello. (sounds like yah-teh) Hagoone' is goodbye. (ha-goh-neh) and Ahe' he is thank you. (this one is harder cause it's got a phlegm sound... ahche-heh) Hopefully I'll be learning a lot more. Many of the elderly navajo don't speak English at all, and since Navajo only became a written language about 30 years ago, most of them do not read or write. Navajo is incredibly hard to read because it wasn't created as a written language. I also learned that the Navajo do not point if you ask them where something is, they point with their mouths, moving their lips to one side of their face. Neat, huh? Also, it would be incredibly rude to drive up to a Navajo home and knock on the door. You must stay in the car and honk, and once the resident of the house has come and opened the front door, then you may get out of the car. I learned so much today and for the first time felt like I got a good dose of the culture. It was great, getting to know Blanche and Harry. Blanche even came out after dinner and gave Molly and I each a pair of hand-crafted earrings- they are beautiful!!! What a great family, and what a great day.
Hagonne'!
Laura Marie
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So now you know why the Premo's are always late after living in New Mexico!! A friend of ours started a church in Coyote Canyon. Once when he was praying he asked God to "forgive us sinners" but unfortunately the words sinners and drunkards are very close and he said drunkards instead. Everyone was snickering during his prayer. He used to go read the Bible every week to a home bound Navajo man, and every week the man would tell him he read like a baby. And this guy knows 4 languages fluently. It is a hard language. We almost gave Caitlin the middle name "Nizhoni". It means beautiful and there a number of little girls named that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the culture shock from that to Tuscaloosa was a growing experience for the Premo kids. There were no racial divides there, no real materialism, very laid back culture. Grant had such a hard time at Verner when we moved there that he "threw up" almost every day so he could come home. Meghan wept for months over the racial division and how overwhelming it was to her. We learned so much there that just can't be found anywhere else. And then we learned wonderful things that can only be found in Alabama!
Oh yeah, the equivalent of "Smith and Jones" for Navajos is Yazzie and Begay. Yep, lots of Yazzies and Begays. :) And the Navajo Tacos I spoke of earlier are made on fry bread - awesome!!
Keep enjoying your experience!
So excited for this opportunity you are having! I love you girl and pray for you always!!
ReplyDeleteDear Jesus,
ReplyDeleteI pray that you be with Laura Marie during her time in New Mexico. Lord, give her strength from day to day, and I pray that you help her to fully rely on you in any tough situations. Jesus, help her be a witness for you. I pray this in Your name, amen.
PS- I really wanna hear you saying those words with your Alabama twang lol! :-)
And in case my username wasn't a helpful hint, this is Jamaal. Bye.
ReplyDeleteLaura..Im so happy that you are having this experience and getting some good cultural tid bits. Keep writing them down for us to see too! I hope that you soak in every sight, memory, conversation and grow so much this summer!
ReplyDeleteLove you MUCHISIMO.
xo
Laura (sis)