Arriving at beautiful New Mexico
Friday morning we said goodbye to Bill and Schmidty and started our trip to Gallup. The drive was blessedly uneventful and we arrived at Red Rock Park Campground around 7:30 pm. When we found our assigned campsite, there was already a trailer in it. That was kind of distressing. The office was closed for the weekend and I got voicemail when I called. I also sent an email. The guy parked next door said we could park next to him and use the one water hook-up there for a few days because he was leaving until Sunday. (He said he works at the hospital in Gallup and lives in his RV during the week, and goes home to Albuquerque for the weekends.) We started to do that but then I got an email that said, “Park in any free spot. Sorry for the mixup.” So we found a nice pull-through spot and set up.
On the ride in to Gallup, I listened to an On Being episode from 2015 where Krista Tippet interviewed the poet Mary Oliver. So good. There’s a little clip where Krista plays a recording of her daughter, 12 years old at the time, reads “The Summer Day.” Oh, my goodness, it made me cry.
As we got close to Gallup, the scenery was so beautiful. They call New Mexico “The Land of Enchantment” and it is. I made a list of what I was looking at as we drove.
Vast plains with bushy trees
Shadows of the trees on the ground
Shadows of clouds on a hill
Long, long trains with 3 or 4 engines at the front, sometimes 3 or 4 more in the middle
Faded signs of Indian souvenirs
Clouds angling toward the horizon
Brown houses with brown roofs
Dilapidated buildings with grey weathered wood, missing planks
Rusty red-colored rocks with holes piled up, looking like little Anasazi homes
Boulders and trees in the concave amphitheaters of the stone cliffs like scenery for a play
Saturday we spent with our friends Dan and Betsy. It was so good to see them and hug them as we said hello. We went out to breakfast with them and their children Juliana and Thijs, then to a huge flea market. Dan and Betsy said it would be very busy because it was the first Saturday of the month, which is when many of the Native Americans who live far out in the country come into town to get supplies for the upcoming weeks. And it was—lots of people in the booths and walking around shopping and greeting each other. It was fun to look at the beautiful Native American art and crafts. I found a few gifts and one pot that I bought for myself. It was interesting to hear stories from some of the artists who had made the pots, jewelry, blankets, and so on that we looked at.
Then Dan and Betsy took us on a tour of Rehobeth School, including the cemetery on the hill behind the school. Rehobeth began years ago as a CRC mission school for the Navajos. Originally it was a boarding school. The school looked really nice, with lots of floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the surrounding hills. Awesome spaces for art, worship or gathering, athletics, and science, besides the classrooms. The cemetery was touching, with its almost haphazard-looking graves, covered in artificial flowers. It was very sad to learn that a big area of graves had just gone in during Covid. The Navajos were hard hit by Covid. Dan said every child in the school had several family members who died. Incredibly sad.
Way back when I was in high school I came to Rehobeth a few times with my young people’s group. I met Elmer Yazzie back then and he taught us “yáʼátʼééh” or yatahey, a Navajo greeting. Years later Elmer was at Calvin when Randy and I were and then I saw him again when I was on the alumni board and he was on the “regular” board. Once when we were both staying at the Prince Conference Center, I had breakfast at the same table as Elmer. We introduced ourselves and when he realized we had a mutual friend in Bill Schripsema (Bill’s father was a missionary in New Mexico), Elmer told me a funny story about driving home from Calvin with Elmer in an old pick-up truck with one of those huge steering wheels, bouncing along. Elmer was laughing like crazy and making motions of holding and turning that wheel. It was pretty funny.
We got a few things done in the trailer in the afternoon, then went out to dinner with Dan and Betsy. We went to a Mexican restaurant and had some delicious food. It was good to talk to Dan and Betsy about their life here in Gallup. Dan is the high school principal at Rehobeth Christian School and Betsy teaches 6th grade at the Zuni school. It seems like Dan, Betsy and the kids are all thriving in New Mexico. God be praised.
We started to see signs in Navajo.
The Middle School
With the incredible New Mexico skies you can see why there would be observatories. One is remotely used by Calvin University, one is for the school.
The back area of the cemetery has many new graves from Covid
Sisters from the Acoma tribe at the flea market. I bought a little painted tortoise from them and they explained the symbolism on it.
The Meester family.
Rehoboth Christian High School. You can see some of the tall windows that frame the surrounding hills.
Rehoboth Christian Reformed Church on the campus
The cemetery on the hill behind the school
The military section
And of course I must include some clouds. These are wispier than usual.