Apr 25 07

April 25, 2007

Last night we were correct in our assumption that the night had not ended at 7:00 PM. We finally kicked the Elders out at 8:30 (literally) and then at 9:30 President came over. He said he wanted to use our computer, but what he meant was he needed a letter for the school board and thought maybe Robert could write it for him and I could type it and then we could print it for him. All of which happened just as he had planned. He didn’t leave until almost 11:00 and then at 6:45 this morning he was back! He’s taking his family with him to Albuquerque until Sunday for a school board retreat. He needed to make some copies of things for the retreat and strangely enough didn’t have keys to the church. Why not? These are the things we never ask. So the kids all came in here while he was busy and Maxine took breakfast to her invalid grandmother. These Bonito children look sweet but they’re actually little criminals. By the time they left they had pilfered one of our pillows, 2 apples (that I cut up for them), bottles of water for everyone in the family, 2 oranges, a bag of candy, a Diet Coke for their mom and a Mountain Dew for their dad. We have to question our own intelligence when we’re so easily bamboozled by three small children.

Once they left we got ready for our day. We had to go separate ways today. We had already committed to attending the Meth Conference in town, and then we did the 2 food orders yesterday. The Bishop’s Storehouse is only open on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we had to get the orders today or make people wait clear until next Tuesday. So Robert went to the conference and I went to Snowflake.

At the conference Robert learned that 50% of the clans in the Apache tribe have at least one family member addicted to Meth. Also there have been 14 new cases of Aids reported in the last year because the women are turning to prostitution to finance their drug addictions. This is a staggering statistic because a few years ago Aids was considered a White Man’s disease and was practically nonexistent on the reservation. The police feel that the Mexican Mafia is targeting the reservation because of poor law enforcement practices here. Also, they said that Arizona leads the nation in the number of children ages 12-17 addicted to Meth.

The Bishop’s Storehouse was very busy, so I helped get the orders ready. I actually really enjoyed this as it helped me see what I’m ordering for people and realize that I could order a little less for them. When we finally finished the orders and took all the food outside there were 5 men who came out to help me load the truck (missionaries always get great service there). They said there was no way they could get all that food in the truck. But the packed the back, the back seat and passenger seat and everything fit. We were all delighted, and I promised not to tell my husband that they had insulted his truck by doubting its capacity.

Because it was so busy I got back to Cibecue late and drove in just as my piano students arrived. I had 3 today…Alma and Faith didn’t come. They had box lunches from the conference because Naysha and Megan danced at lunchtime at the conference. We left them here to finish their lunches and ran to unload at least the front part of the truck so we could take the girls home after lessons. Amber Tessay came for the first time today.

We delivered the rest of the food, crashed for an hour, made some phone calls, cancelled scouts so Robert had to take some boys home and he went to the post office and Alfred and Thelma’s. Jared has to have a cast for 6-8 more weeks. Remember Alfred and Thelma went to the temple in March. They’re very sweet people and have been thrilled with the temple and have been attending quite regularly. They’re just good people. However, Alfred told Robert that as part of the assistance he receives from the tribe he had to take some sort of psychological screening test. He was declared at risk for alcoholism (never mind the man never drinks) and was ordered to attend a 12-step program. This is prevention gone wrong, we think. They also said they wanted to come to the parenting class, so Robert said to do that and we’d consider it alcohol counseling at the same time. The tribe has good intentions, but sometimes is a bit unclear in how to deliver their services. We see drunks wandering the streets all the time who are never ordered to do anything, and poor Alfred is supposed to attend 12-step meetings on the basis of a paper and pencil test. Right!

It’s now 8:00 and we’re waiting for Roma to come over. She also wants to use our computer. This must be a new thing that’s in the water or something, because no one has asked for 7 months and now it’s the place to be every night.