Life in the most unlikely places

So, just when you think everything has come to a complete stand-still, it takes off again. That is what happened Wednesday. We had waited Monday and Tuesday thinking we would be going to look for housing again and nothing was happening. Then Roger had an opportunity to go to another community and work with some women on a greenhouse project at about the same time I was offered an opportunity to go somewhere with my counterpart about 2.5 hours away in the truck. So I figured it would be good to get out in the reserve no matter where it was! OH MY! I was in for a surprise. This time I got the long, winding gravel road through the mountains! If you don’t know, I am NOT fond of winding mountain roads, much less gravel ones. I now have a real appreciation of the OS bar in the truck! This place was, I swear, at the end of the world. I don’t think the road went any further. Think Appalachia. Very poor, but the women were interested in the program about the Reserve. They sat in one room of the 2 room schoolhouse and wove hats and bags while listening to the presentation. Meanwhile the children played in the yard and crowded into the doorway. The trip home was almost more than I could handle. It began to storm, a dangerous situation in many circumstances, but made worse in the mountains where the soil rushes downhill with the rain! We traveled at about 10 miles/hour (thank goodness my counterpart is a very good and careful driver!). Then we passed a truck of hombres whose truck had slid off the road and they were stuck! We went in search of a tractor to pull them out. After traveling back and forth on this insane road we were able to get things going and resume our trip home. Only 4 hours to get back.

Here is Roger's story. A bit more satisfying, I think.
While Anne was riding on some challenging roads I traveled to a small pueblo were work a year ago with the women in the community assisted in identifying important native plant species that they use in medicines and other products such as soap production. These same women are now reviving a small plant nursery to grow native plants. All of the labor is by hand...moving gravel with wheel barrows and shovels, raking and leveling the sand in the beds, removing the old concreto shade posts to make room for new steel posts to support shade cloth. I had a choice to go and sit at a meeting for an hour or so or work along with the women on their renovation project. I chose to work in the nursery and removed about 8 of the easiest posts. I suggested using a tractor(there was on in the community but was told that could not happen! ) Oh well. It should be interesting as this site is only about 15 kilometers from our final site and I should be able to maintain a relationship with the project.