If all I have is today...
... I’m gonna choose to praise!
It may not always sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies...
But if all I have is today, I’m gonna choose to praise.
The song Not Gonna Wait, has becoming an anthem for our trip in 2022.
It may not always be sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies...
There are still plenty of things we can be grateful for.
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On the day we arrive in New Mexico (Sunday) and the afternoon of first day of camp (Tuesday).
Now, I've met with a group of four elderly ladies. Three sisters and their cousin.
They were attending the Relational Studies class we’re offering that week.
When I first met one of them, she told me that I share the same first name as their dad. She immediately called her sisters and cousin.... and within a few minutes I got 4 new friends, haha!
The next day these ladies invite us to their church for dinner after camp, where they would serve Navajo Taco and taught us how to make frybread – exactly like the ladies we met in Tuba City back in 2017.
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Back to the rain... they said “we haven’t have rain in this area for a long... long time! The week you guys came here, we already have two days of rain! You guys are such a blessing!”
— I know, I know.... if you’ve been following my stories here.... similar situation thing happened in K-Town 2019 in the Hopi Rez.
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The rain itself presents a challenge...
So, the site of this year’s camp is located only roughly 30 miles or half an hour-ish drive from our basecamp in Bloomfield, NM. In fact, it still has Bloomfield's zip code — as common practice for many unincorporated area around the country.
Now, it normally took us 20 minutes to go through the first 27 miles or so. And another 20 to go the last 3 miles of paved but under-maintained, bumpy and full-of-potholes road. The rain added muds and debris to an already challenging condition.
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Bloomfield, New Mexico is a small town, in habited by 7,000 something of nicest people I've ever met.
Situation at a junction between a much larger Farmington to the west, Aztec, NM and Durango, CO to the north, and large cities such as Santa Fe and Albuquerque to the far South-East, Bloomfield is a town that can be easily forgotten by most people simply passing through. A couple hotels, gas station, some stores, a few restaurants and government buildings, and that’s it. It doesn’t even have a hospital.
For us, Bloomfield has been a home, not just for the week we were there in 2022, but it’s also been our base camp for Huerfano site for so many years. To me personally, I admire Bloomfieldians hospitality. I have traveled quite a bit and met many friendly, warm, and welcoming communities. And I can say Bloomfield is among the top of my list.
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The school facility where we had our camp is very enticing.
The campus is a home to a mission/bible school that’s been ongoing since the late 1940s, staff housing, a small museum/gift shop, a basketball gym that’s also doubled as a sanctuary for a worship service that is broadcasted on a local radio station (that explains the pews in the gym), equipped with industrial-grade kitchen.
A church-shaped building that’s been utilized as a hybrid school (in-person session a few days a week, and the rest are at-home studies), a dorm with multiple rooms, and a smaller building with a couple of classrooms, and a larger multi-purpose building with multiple classrooms, offices, and another industrial-grade kitchen, and internet connection!
Sadly, due to the pandemic, the facility in general was in a dire condition (with cobwebs, dusts, ant colonies, etc), and needing a lot of clean-ups and restoration. Although the gym, staff housing, and office are in a good condition, it’s obvious the rest of the facility haven’t been used for a long-long time.
Whilst things aren’t looking that great at the time we were there, this would lay a great foundation for the future. Definitely something we can take as a win. After all, this is a pioneer team, breaking through a new site, reaching a new community and cultivating partnership with new people and organization.
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The smaller classroom building is one of the building we used, despite needing a little cleanup (in fact, our first student was a slithering creature that visited us on first day of CPR training).
Thankfully, that was the only unwelcome visitor we had. CPR class itself attended by many adults in the community who needs to get certified — more than double the average of previous camps in other sites.
Relational training is another big hit. It’s a training designated for adults, based off TBRI (Turst-Based Relational Intervention) curriculum. Started with just one participant on the first day, more and more adults came on the second day and beyond. Including the four sisters mentioned earlier. They are respected elders in the community, and they have a great influence in continuing the work restoring their community from generational traumas.
In our previous camps, we have always been focusing on the kids, but in 2022 it seems like we are here mainly for the adults. Rightfully, after the long pandemic, combined with history of generational traumas... a relational restoration is greatly needed.
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That doesn’t mean we completely abandon the kids. Not at all!
Basketball and crafts still going, despite not having the same kind of attendance as in other sites we visited in the years prior.
One thing I noticed, we do have different breed of kids attending camp this year. Many of them are student athlete playing under tutelage of a local coach, who is our main partner this year. They aren’t the same kind of kids we normally serve in various other sites of Navajo Nation. They resemble more of a student-athlete we found here in Orange County.
They would come in their street shoes/sandals. Then when they first get to the gym, they would mop the floor (it’s very dusty there, due to sand and wind in the area). After that, they would carefully remove their basketball shoes from a special bag, put them on, go through all the sessions, then wipe the shoes clean before putting them back in it’s designated carrying bag, and put on their street footwear before heading home. We may have a different target audience here in this site.
Now, I’ve been serving as team photographer for years, back to my first trip in 2016 to Shiprock. And it’s very easy to get lost in the routine of snapping pictures, organizing them, and printing them. Naturally photographers tend to be a little removed from the action and thus more distant and have less interaction with the kids. Usuallly, I would mix things up a little, and help in the basketball camp, or try to talk with the kids during lunch time.
In 2022, since we have a smaller audience, I have a lot more flexibility. So I positioned myself under the rim and started doing action shots. Now before long, a few of the teenage kids realized what I was doing and start posing and performing some moves. Naturally they were curious of the shots, and shortly after their turn, they’d come to me and asking to see the pics.
There were some nice pics..... but the look at their face when they saw their pictures were priceless!
Perhaps they never see an image of themselves playing and performing those moves, and I noticed that’d encourage more teenage kids to do the same. I could never get tired seeing their face when they see their pictures.
One of our mission objectives is to bring encouragement. I never realized photography could play a huge role in this, more than taking a picture, we’re capturing moments and commemorate memories of their lives doing what they’re passionate about.
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Their coach — our main partner this year — is a guy who was born “just down the street” from the camp site (quite literally, at a clinic that’s no longer exist) and grew up just a few miles down the other way. He left the community a while back, pursuing his dream becoming a pro basketball player, then coaching at a collegiate level. Later on, he decided to come home wanting to give back and build the community. A similar story I’ve encountered a few times in my various trips to The Rez. Most recently, the school manager at the school where we had our Hopi camp during our trip in 2019.
Speaking of gift, let me close this 2022 series with a sweet, short story....
First off, let me introduce you to a girl named...... well, let’s call her “H.”
Just like the coach character—whose stories reminds me of others with similar story, H is a character that we found in every camp. Each of them is unique of their own self, that’s for sure, I just can’t help but remembered all the kids I’ve met through the years.
Back to H, she’s an energetic kid, who befriended everybody, around 10 years old, tend to be a little younger than their teen-age friends/siblings/relatives, but older than the little kids. The in-betweener who can easily be a misfit here or there, but also belong everywhere at the same time. The girl everybody loves, but also often annoyed at by her antics. H may be small in stature, but big in everything else. Big personality, endless energy, loud voice, and a bundle of lean muscle — one day she bumped me from behind, I turned around expecting one of our adult/late-teen team member pulling prank on me. But I saw nobody, until I look down... there was H! Giggling at my confusion... (I’m a soccer ref... sometimes older muscular player bumped into me in the middle of the game, it felt nowhere close like what H just did. Keyword: bump, and let’s just say I’m not looking forward playing flag football against her).
On the first day of camp, H immediately made connection with one of our team member, N—a young lady in her late teens. N was stationed on our check-in table and upon making connection with her, H asked her to play basketball with her. N was not prepared to play basketball of course, and responded that she’s wearing jeans and did not bring her shorts. H shrugged away and shifted her attention to the basketball program.
Then came the next morning....
Upon checking in, H immediately went to see N. With a black shorts in hand!
— she wouldn’t take no for an answer, and this time N gave in and put on the shorts and play with H.
The morning of our last day, N tried to return the shorts...
H:“no, it’s yours..... too big for me”
N: “it’s okay you’ll grow into it”
H: “I want you to have it”
and simply walk away acting busy and pretending not hearing N.
Then the afternoon came, H asked N to help her remove her necklace. Saying that it’s stucked on her hair and bothering her. Once N managed to removed it and tried to hand her the necklace H simply walked away and said something along the line of “that’s for you, it’s yours, I want you to have it”
N was stunned and seemed a little confused, but H just kept insisting.
Such a sweet story, while H can be a little passive aggressive, and try to hid her emotion at times, but at the same time expressing it in her own way.
It may not always sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies... but 2022 trip is nothing short of meaningful moments.
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With that “short” story, this not-so-short post concludes the 2022 series. Our first trip in the post-pandemic world.
Thank you for partnering with us in this journey, and stay tuned for 2023!
