Oct 28

October 28, 2006

The weather here was gorgeous today. At 1:00 PM it was 73 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and no wind. It was a little cold this morning so we waited until 1:00 to take our walk. We had a bit of trouble with the walk. In St. Anthony when we walked I had a “course”. I knew how long it was, how long it took to walk it, and where the dogs were. When we started walking in Cibecue it didn’t take long at all for me to set the “course” again. It’s 1.5 miles to the post office. That’s perfect and there are few dogs. So daily I set out on my course but Mr. Outdoor Fanatic thinks every walk should be an adventure. I have a history with his adventures. I nearly fell into the ocean and drowned in Hawaii “exploring” on one of our walks. I have traipsed through a nest of baby snakes in St. Anthony because he has to walk on the “nature trail.” And I wandered into Gang Graffiti Central in Cibecue exploring the creek bed with him.

So today when he announced that he thought we should try a new walk and “explore the area” a little my blood chilled. Trying to tame my OCD tendencies and be a good sport I agreed, albeit a bit grumpily. I lasted about a quarter mile when I saw the pack of dogs up ahead. I simply turned around and announced he could go on ahead by himself but I was heading back to civilization, such as it is here in Cibecue.

We really haven’t recorded much about the town itself. As you come into the valley you can see the high school sitting up on a hill. It’s shaped like a wikiup with the classrooms in the bottom part of the circle and the gym on the top. They don’t have a football field so the team goes to Whiteriver to play their games. There are about 1700 residents and to us the homes look better than we expected for a reservation. The tribe builds a house for anyone who is even part Apache, but then the resident has to make payments on the loan. There’s a health clinic provided by the federal government that is clean and very modern. There is also a gymnasium, run by the tribe, and it’s very rundown and covered with graffiti. There’s one main road through town that goes up to the elementary and high school or branches off to the “commercial center.” The sign on the commercial center advertises a “supermarket, Laundromat, cinema, post office, Cellular One office and a deli.” It actually has a small grocery store, another store like a 7-11 and a post office. Well, 50% of what they advertise isn’t that bad. They also have a trading post near us run by the Lutheran Church. They don’t seem to like Mormons as they’re highly unfriendly every time we go in there, so we make a point to go in as often as possible. They’ll either conquer their dislike of Mormons or hate us more than ever by the time we leave.

The Apache Tribe publishes a bi-monthly newspaper that we find very interesting. It costs 75 cents and the articles do give one the feeling that the tribal government is trying to improve the reservation.

We’re having a little trouble adapting to the weather. Two days ago it was 25 degrees when we woke up in the morning. That afternoon the church maintenance man came out and we told him he’d better drain the air conditioner so it won’t freeze. Now today it’s 73 degrees. We keep expecting winter to be here and it’s still what we consider summer. That means the hornets and grasshoppers are still alive and well. We keep hoping for a good freeze to cut down on their abundance.