Checking in...

Checking in... letting you know I am not ignoring/relaxing on the course. Other things are in the way it seems. Busy month at work.

February is Exodus month. That is the time when Yavapai and Apache people celebrate the return of their ancestors to Verde Valley after 25 years of incarceration at San Carlos. Its a busy time... planning all of the events. This last week was the culmination of all that planning. Monday was a fashion show, neat event! Tuesday and Wednesday were storytelling days. Thursday was movie night and on Friday we played a Jeopardy game devised with topics in Traditions, language and culture. All of this finishes off with a 6am blessing on Saturday at Boynton Canyon, a location sacred to the People. Then a lunch (open to all) and a full days entertainment. I am either attending, part of, or documenting each event.

Today... well, I am vegging. There is no energy left for much!

Next week we will be on the road. We will travel to Tucson to examine museum materials and collect documents and images. Later in the week there I will be at a GIS training session for cultural mapping.

I did put up two additional sections of Indians of the Southwest. We also began developing content for Apache language. I need to digitize lessons, as the original files have been lost. We have recorded sound for four of those lessons. Once I have the word lists for the five beginning lessons, I will make Study Mate games of them.

Yavapai language is on hold for two week due the personal problems of the instructor. Then we will begin that one also. Once we have the initial course offerings, we will announce the project to the newspaper and further.

Meanwhile, I had better go pack.