Rural Roads and Rural Programs

I find it to be odd how so many people drive the speed limit here. Following stereotypes, people in junkers and the elderly drive below the speed limit. But pretty much everyone else follows the speed limit signs. It’s bizarre for three reasons: 1) there typically is hardly any traffic, 2) there is rarely a cop, 3) the cops don’t stop you for speeding (speaking from personal experience). Since I live so far from anywhere, I can’t suppress the temptation to set my cruise control 20 mph higher than the speed limit sign (that I can’t read anyway because it has been tagged by some local punks). Even when I am driving ridiculously over the speed limit, cops have only flashed their lights on to warn me, and then continued on their merry way. And so it continues. My cruise control even helps me out sometimes by occassionally forgetting to cap my speed, and instead continues to increase until I realize I'm going over 100 mph and still accelerating! Then I correct it.

There is one recent advancement in my job situation for which I’m extremely grateful. The Deaf AmeriCorps members have started to provide services. This means that once a week, a recent college graduate, who happens to be Deaf, will be volunteering at my school to work with me, my student, and probably the staff and the student’s family. What an ingenious program! Communities like this one that keep their deaf children in the community typically struggle with effectively interacting with the deaf children, and have no concept of how successful a Deaf individual can be. So, the New Mexico School for the Deaf (NMSD) proposed a program to AmeriCorps, in which they place successful Deaf adults in our rural communities to provide services and be a role model and example for how Deaf does not equal disabled. It has been a huge blessing for my work environment and my psyche to interact with these amazing volunteers.

Yay-Bih-WHAT?!

Yeibichai. If you google it, you won’t find much information. You won’t find a picture of one (extremely taboo). You might find a drawing or painting, but they’re probably inaccurate (because that’s also highly discouraged). You probably can’t pronounce it properly. Yeibichai: the lead Diné (Navajo) ceremonial dancer. Yeibichai’s are primarily responsible for the 9-day healing ceremonies that take place in the colder months, but they also have a couple of other roles in our community. As far as I can understand, the Yeibichai also leads the ceremony for the changing of seasons from fall into winter (possibly other seasonal changes also, but I haven’t been here that long).

From what I’ve been told, part of the ceremonial responsibility includes the punishment of misbehaving individuals in the community in order to bring them into balance and harmony. How does this unfold, you ask? Whipping. I rolled my eyes at it, too, assuming that even if it happens, it’s rare and discreet. Then two of the students approached my roommate in a huff saying, “It’s your fault I got whipped!” Baffled and assuming that it was going to progress into a sarcastic joke followed by “Nay”, my roomie inquired nonchalantly. They proceeded to explain that because she wrote them up, they were in lunch detention; and because they were in lunch detention, they were there when the Yeibichai came to whip the problematic students.

White mask. Animal pelts. Eagle feathers. I’d be upset, too. If you drive to the Chaco Wash, our Laundromat, you’ll see a sign that points and says Yeibichai. I don’t go that way.