on the res in tuba city

We drove through quite alot of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.  It has an area of 26,000 square miles, a bit larger than the of the state of West Virginia.  The level of poverty we witnessed is very depressing.  Many homes are run-down trailers, with lots of rusty cars and other stuff in the yard.  Our friend Joe, who is a colonel in the United States Public Health Service, has served as an internist on "the res" for about 25 years.  He and his wife, Kate, a family doctor, have raised their 3 college-aged kids in government housing in a town where the only non-native Americans are hospital employees.
The Tuba City Hospital has 65 in-patient beds, but they have 100,000 out-patient visits a year.  They have an ICU and some specialists, but fly out people with heart attacks and things like that.  Native Americans have all of their health care costs paid for, including medications.  They have high incidences of diabetes, alcohol abuse, and meth abuse.  Joe and Kate have seen some improvements in the lives of those on the reservation, particularly in education.
We visited a canyon on the res, where we found some Jurassic-era oyster shell fossils.  The cows were chilling at the canyon also.

sign on the door of the Tuba City Hospital

home on the res

"little" neighborhood canyon about 15 miles from Joe and Kate's house

Joe and Kenny--West Essex Class of 1975

a question for discussion--"A Christian Ministry in the National Parks"

We arrived at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon yesterday, around 5:30 pm.  It was a long, long drive.   Five million (!!) people visit the Grand Canyon each year, but only 10% of those go to the North Rim--it is farther away from everywhere, there are no museums, bus tours, etc.  Which is partly why we picked it--also it is not so far from Zion and Bryce Canyons, our next stops.


Anyway...after checking in at the beautiful Grand Canyon Lodge, we were reading the postings of activities happening for the week.  There was a sign for "interdenominational Christian worship" that happens in the auditorium every Wednesday at 6 pm and every Sunday at 10 am.  It was 5:50 pm on Wednesday, so I that I would check it out.  Kenny declined, and portered all of our stuff through the trees to our little room at the farthest edge of the accommodations.


I went to the auditorium, which is a magnificent space made of towering loges, decorated with Native American symbols, with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Grand Canyon--mah nora hamakom hazeh--how awesome is this place.


The worship is organized by ACMNP, "A Christian Ministry in the National Parks."  Begun in 1951, they provide young Christians with opportunities for ministry in the national parks, helping them to get work with a concessionairre--there are different ones in different parks, like Aramark and Foreveresorts.  In their off-time, they organize worship and do "informal" ministry for people visiting the park.


The 3 young women and one young man were lovely, energetic, clean-cut, kids from Texas, Ohio, and Arizona.  The worship was very casual, lots of spontaneous prayer from the kids, about 15-20 people were there for the 30 minute worhip, which was primarily  hymns, mostly what I would call "modern" ones, written in the 1990s or later.  Mostly about how Christ died for us.  The message was on The Lord's Prayer, which I have studied pretty extensively (for a Jewish person).  The young lady who spoke about it gave a very fresh-faced explanation--simple, sweet, like she was, nothing very deep or thought-provoking.  


The only hymn I could completely participate in was "Sanctuary," which we sing in Jewish Renewal settings and in my community, The Jewish Fellowship of Chester County, often with the Hebrew words added.  I call this a "cross-over" kind of hymn, one in which many many people can participate.

Oh lord prepare me To be a sanctuary

Pure and holy Tried and true

And with thanksgiving I’ll be a living Sanctuary For you

V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti betocham. 

(tranlsation=Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them)

The Hebrew is from Exodus/Shmot 25:8.


A woman sitting next to me started singing harmony, it was very beautiful.  I then joined in with the Hebrew, not loud, just there.  After it ended, the woman next to me said, "That was beautiful, thank you."


So my question for discussion is--does anyone feel uncomfortable with the idea of "A Christian Ministry in the National Parks," and their relationship with the employers there?  Does it smack of favoritism in hiring?  What would happen if "A Muslim Ministry in the National Parks" wanted to meet in the auditorium for worship on Fridays?  Or if Chabad sent teams of young folks to do Jewish worship and outreach in the national parks?  The young people were very clear to say that no money from the government supports their work, but the more I thought about it, the less benign I felt about it.  


I went to the ACMNP website, acmnp.com, to try to figure out how they coordinated with the concessionairres, but could not.  


Let me hear what you think....


 

Eat what you kill.....(not for the squeamish)

"Eat what you kill" is an expression that people sometimes use to describe productivity and compensation. In books like "The Omnivore's Dilemma," the question as to whether a person should eat something that they themselves would not be willing to kill is raised.  This question has been on my mind, particularly since the scandals of kosher meat and Agriprocessors, etc, over the past few years.  Is it a greater moral imperative for me to eat organic, free-range, hormone-free, "humanely" slaughtered animals, or to eat kosher ones?  Is it better for me to pay double, triple, to eat organic, free-range, hormone-free, kosher slaughtered animals that are raised in the next county, but have to be trucked to Baltimore for kosher *scheching?  Of course, the moral imperative might be for me to be a vegetarian, but I really like meat and chicken, and although I eat less and less of it every year, I am not willing to give it up.

I have long suspected that I would be able to kill something that I was going to eat, but I never had the opportunity to try.  Thanks to Rabbi Robert Saunders, who has a great deal of knowledge and skill in schechting, I was given the honor and privilege of doing so.  He explained that schechting a chicken is not very complicated--one checks the blade for imperfections and sharpens them out using a diamond sharpener (deeper teaching there), one says the **bracha, one does not hesitate,  one makes the cut, drains the blood, plucks or peels the bird, does an inspection of the innards, then soaks and salts the meat.  Start to finish, Robert said, less than 90 minutes could have a chicken from running around the yard into the pot.  Yael, who has been staying at the ranch for a few weeks, helped to clean and "de-gut" 50 chickens the week before, and I, a novice, assisted.

We did not take pictures of the actual schechting, and really, it was a very sacred kind of experience that I felt inappropriate photographing.  It was serious and prayerful.

Kenny watched from a bit of a distance.  His comments include: "I did not have a need to touch it" and "At least I didn't faint."

We didn't eat the chicken, it went into the freezer.  I am glad I had the experience of seeing the chicken be killed, holding it while Robert cut it in the proscribed way, holding it while it died and while the blood drained (there is not alot of blood in a chicken), and helping to peel off the feathers and skin.  

At times, I remembered my Gross Anatomy class, because there are so many anatomical similarities--but several differences--chickens have 2 ***cecums, and they have very, very tiny compressed lungs.  Robert, a dentist, enjoyed going over the finer anatomical points with someone (me) who could appreciate that sort of thing.

Chickens in the barn yard

Chicken ready to cook

*schecht, schechting=kosher slaughter
**bracha=blessing
***cecum=the first part of the large intestine--faked you out--not a Hebrew or Yiddish word!

The Chief Rabbis of Pueblo

Rabbis Robert Saunders and Elisheva Brenner live on an amazing ranch south of Pueblo, Colorado.  They are developing and living an eco-Judaism that includes organic farming, chickens raised for eggs and meat, varieties of lamb, and cultivating Jewish learning.
Two versions of Eco-Jewish American Gothic:

Four Corners

Four Corners is the only place in the USA where four states meet.  It sounds kind of keechee (sp?) and it is.  There is pretty much nothing there, and you had to pay $3 a person....but it is run by the Navajo and other local Native Americans, so we figured we would take a look.

Kenny doing the classic Four Corners pose

Around the plaza where the monument is, Native Americans are selling their wares, and lots of tshochkes from China--T-shirt, shot glasses, paper weights, etc....We looked at all of the stuff, and there was only one thing I fell in love with, a beautiful pot made by a Native American woman in the photo (she is holding the pot).  We were half-way out, and then I knew that if we did not buy it, I would be sad later, so we went back and got it.

The pattern has eagle feathers with stars in them, each representing a prayer.  Native Americans traditionally put corn in these, then use a grain for a special occasion--the birth of a child, a marriage, etc...I am thinking about how to adapt this for my own use....

Petrified Forest

The Petrified Forest is a place I have wanted to visit for my entire life.  I think it started because my parents travelled across country while my mom was pregnant with me.  My dad would show slides (remember those) and one was of my mother, very pregnant, in the Petrified Forest.
We weren't sure it was do-able on this trip, but with alot of driving yesterday, we made it!  It gets dark very late now, and we had an extra hour, since Arizona is not on daylight savings time.

Because of people stealing petrified rock, before and after it became a National Park, about 90% of the original petrified wood is gone!  About one ton of it is stolen EVERY MONTH!  Hearing about that in the visitor's center really irritated me.  People can be such jerks.  One of the rangers told us about an 80 year old woman who brought back a piece that she had taken over 50 years ago, and the same ranger said she had collected six pieces in the auditorium that day alone.  Evidently, people take a piece and then feel guilty about it....sometimes right away, sometimes not for decades.

Petroglyphs from about 1100-1200 

Teepees section of the Painted Desert

A huge field of petrified wood--only 10% of it remains

"I could just take this piece home and no one would miss it...."

It looks like it was sawed cut, but it wasn't

Petrified wood

A very mellow collared lizard

Painted Desert

The Petrified Forest is in the Painted Desert, which Kenny said had brighter colors when he was here in the early 1960s.  I guess we can add that to the list of "it's not as good as it used to be."  But it looked amazing to me!

out of touch for a while

We've been in places with no internet service--so no postings for a few days.  I will post some things in mixed-up order, so hang on!

Joseph City! Near Winslow, AZ

We spent the night at La Posada, in Winslow, Arizona (yes, like in the Eagles' song "Take It Easy").  We finally got into an area where my DROID worked (no cell service in the entire Navajo Reservation we drove through for hours......) and I was looking around for cool places to eat and stay.

La Posada

The Turquoise Room's chef, John Sharpe, was a 2011 James Beard Award Nominee, so we figured we ought to eat there.  The restaurant is in the La Posada, an historic hotel from 1930, renovated just ahead of the wrecking ball.  The architecture, gardens, and ambience are amazing!  The husband and wife team who renovated it with two friends did almost all of it themselves.  One owner, Tina Mion, is an amazing artist whose works fill the public spaces.

Kenny and Camel

Dinner was delicious.  We had fried stuff squash blossoms, yummy and original.  We tried the piki bread, made from bean ash and blue corn.  Subtle, as our waiter described it.

Squash blossoms

Piki bread--a Hopi tradition

BBQ bison shortribs

Mahi-mahi with amazing mushrooms, beets, broccolini over polenta

Kenny had bison short ribs, "falling off the bone," the way he likes them.  I had mahi-mahi with a variety of mushrooms, yellow beets, and broccoli rabe over polenta.  Some of my favorite foods, all on one plate!

Our room overlooks a beautiful garden.  The fountains make a relaxing sound.

Our room is the one on the left