Running in Beauty

Settling in

At this very moment, I am sitting at home.
Home is the home that I grew up in on the Navajo reservation. Earlier this evening, my mom cooked up a pot of mutton stew with squash and corn with a side of frybread. This is a true Navajo delicacy. Right now, she is in the living room lounging on the sofa reading The Navajo-Hopi Observer newspaper with some twangy country tune playing in the background from KTNN, our Navajo Nation radio station.

All of that constitutes home for me.
Dii shi shighaan. (This is my home.)

You all are probably wondering how the first week of work went. Well, it was eye-opening and wonderful, yet very exhausting. The first day had me reading personnel policy manuals and other job-related material. I was introduced to my fellow co-workers, everyone on our division's floor, and briefed by my boss about what was expected of me in this position. I am essentially the department's 'recycling program public educator and developer' as well as the biological surveyor. I'm up to the challenge of what is in store. While part of me is scared because of the overwhelming load, I'm still excited and eager to do my best.

On Thursday and Friday, all I did was drive around the huge expanse of our reservation from the west side to the eastern side and noting the condition of several solid waste transfer stations. I'm not sure how exactly huge our rez is but it is really huge. It is slightly bigger than the state of West Virginia. Just the trip from Window Rock to Tuba City took 3 hours and this had us driving through Hopi land. Before then, I had never been through there before.

I am learning a great deal about the reservation that I did not otherwise know. My co-worker, Jim, is an older gentleman who has been driving the tribal vehicle we've been traveling in and has been giving me local information about each area we drive through such as illegal dump sites, sites that have been cleaned up, what families live in an area, what historical buildings used to be where or what type of past socio cultural events used to occur in a given area. It is all very enlightening and I'm learning a ton about local history.

In Navajo relations, Jim is my "little father (uncle)" or shiyaazh. This aspect of my work environment is what I enjoy a lot--having kinship ties through our clans. I definitely would not have this had I worked off the reservation. It allows for comfort and a familial type atmostphere at work. I am only related to one other person in my department--my boss. He is my grandfather or shinali.

Each day of work had been leaving me extremely exhausted so needless to say, I haven't run since I last posted. I am running this evening at an old site just outside of town called "The Ridge". I used to run it in high school and has a couple of killer hills. I'm anxious to get out and get some red dirt on my Sauconys.

This coming week, I am starting my marathon program. I have selected Hal Higdon's Novice program. Hopefully, it works out. Good luck to all who also start their programs this week.

I am trying my best to catch up on all the blogs and comment but it's difficult given that I am on dial-up. *sigh*

Happy trails.

etched in stone by carmen @ 5:45 PM