Taos, NM - Habitat for Humanity (Post 5)

Hump DAY!

Today was ditchin', literally (pronounced litch-ral-ly). Emmitt made some not frozen eggs and we let it go and ate them anyway because the cold never bothered us anyway #PUNINTENDED. Thus the day begun.

We made a short jaunt just around the river bend to a pretty awesome alternative school which was fitting because we are all cool and alternative being on Mizzou Alternative Breaks and so gran (the new abbrevs for granola). The first thing we saw was baby goats who knew we were trouble when we walked in (insert goat screaming here) (just kidding they were supper cute) (and Sydnie just farted, FYI). We took a short tour though the school and tried not to scare the students too much. Hopefully we were successful. Then we broke into some groups and all worked on clearing aseekias??? (sp). To give you an overview of the aseekias, they are irrigation ditches that were built in the 15th century by slaves to irrigate the land. How's that for history? Each group had a different experience, so we'll let them share below (aka prepare for more serious accounts below)



For over 19 years we (Alexus, Morgan, Michaela, and Nick) thought prairie dogs were cute and that tumble weed is something harmless, only found in abandon cartoon ghost towns. We were wrong. Oh, were we ever wrong. It turns out prairie dogs and tumble weed are other “forms of the devil” according to Alexus. But really, they’re all bad. Prairie dogs eat more per ounce than a buffalo, destroying the fields and devastating the crop potential. Tumble weed, aside from being extremely thorny and just generally terrible, clogs the irrigation systems mentioned above and pokes all of us in our faces, hands, and butts. We learned all this, however, only after being recruited by the wisest, most intelligent and courteous, sweetest woman, Lynda. She immediately made it clear she needed some stocky workers and hand picked the four of us to help her for the day, which we are now taking as a compliment because we were a great team. Lynda set us up raking and clearing the irrigation ditch of tumble weed and other pesky invasive plants behind her lovely home for the morning. With a clean ditch, water could then run freely and irrigate a neighboring piece of land that those previously mentioned devils had destroyed. In the future Not Forgotten Outreach will use this property as a place for war veterans to plant crops and enjoy the therapeutic qualities of working the land.

While we found this work peaceful and felt highly productive, the highlight of the day was picking Lynda’s brain. During lunch she spoke to us about her career as a physical therapist, which was amazing for Alexus considering that PT is her field of interest. Lynda had an incredible way of answering all of the questions Alexus asked while still relating those answers to the rest of us and our majors, as well as just life in general. Although everything she said was wonderful, powerful grandmotherly advice, one thing in particular really moved us. She said that sometimes, in both PT and in life, you’re not going to be able to fix the problem completely. Other times you will, and people that once depended on you will move on. Either way, it is important to celebrate what still can be done. The little things are just as important as the big picture. This notion was extremely impactful, making us reflect on the work we have been doing in Taos and how we can bring that home to Columbia. We all agreed that we had felt that we had learned more about life this week already than we had all semester, which Lynda referred to as integrated learning. Again, we were all left astounded. After a hard day of work, we dumped the dirt – what felt like a never ending amount in Michaela's case – out of our boots and headed back.

Alex, Nicole, Sara, and Sydnie spent the day working to clear the aseekia at the Cristalis Alternative school with our now good friend Russell. At first we were a little nervous because we were warned there was going to be some major heavy lifting but soon found that Russell was a pretty chill dude and guided us through our tasks. He knows all the mountains better than we know CoMo. In his words we were cleaning the veins of mother earth, which was pretty cool. After hours of clearing debris and hearing stories from Russell, the kids from the alternative school came down to help out. They cleared debris while we dug out and straightened the ditch for more efficient water flow. Russell needed a "helper" so Alex volunteered to join "cut some stuff" (with the help of Nicoles flannel, Thanks Nicole!) Just when we thought they were actually getting work done we saw some side chatter with Orion (Psh, good story time). Anywhoooo, Work continued throughout the day and we completed over half the aseekia!! Afterwords Orion showed us the goats and Sara showed us why she is the goat whisperer (aka granola the animal guru). Then we got to try some goat milk, which was actually pretty tasty. (We ALL loveddd it! :)) We were very privileged to talk to some of the staff and witness their dedication to the school and the students successes in life. Overall, we did the most work according to Don (known as "Hell on wheels") and felt very accomplished. Even though we are going to be pretttyy sore tomorrow, it was a GREAT day!

Cara, Dani, Emmitt and Kelly headed to Patricia's (pronounced Pa-treece-ee-ah) farm to clear out some veins of the aseekia. But first, Patricia had a surprise for us. We stopped by her house and in the backyard we found sheep, and a GUARD LLAMA. That's right folks. Patricia has a llama that guards her sheep and goats. But these aren't just any goats; they produce cashmere that we know and love in the sweater form. Patricia was also kind enough to show us the inside of her gorgeous traditional adobe home that was hundreds of years old. After taking some time to be in awe of her beautiful home, we headed to the work site. Guess what! MORE ANIMALS! We found some beautiful horses named Pepita and Princesa (they like carrots, btw) and some really chill goats. Our favorites were named Peggy Sue and Cayenne. After fawning over these creatures, we got down and dirty in the ditches. It was hard work, but at the end of the day, we had successfully cleared three different areas of the aseekia, but more importantly, we learned that our host, Patricia, had much more to offer us than shovels and rakes. In all seriousness, she is one of the most incredible people that we have encountered on this trip, and probably in life. She shared with us the importance of being centered and living in the moment. Patricia used to work as a lobbyist and travel the world, but she gave that up, along with the benefits that came with it, to return to her roots in Taos and focus on what really mattered. We could tell even in the short time that we were with her that she is present in every single moment and takes nothing for granted. When the work day came to a close, we were sad that our time with Patricia was going to end, but she had another surprise for us: she graciously invited the entire group to dinner at her house on Friday night. We can't think of a more perfect way to end our time in Taos.

OKAAAAAAY. WE'RE BAAAAAAAAAACK!

So we decided to go to Wally World (aka by we we mean the cool people in Ice Princess) and buy mas comida and lotion because our skin was ashy. After that we headed back to get ready for the climax of our trip thus far where we single-handedly put the spring in SPRANG BREAK. But it wasn't actually as climactic as we thought because we kind of traveled to Area 51 instead and went on an amusement park ride where Alex almost tipped the van like a cow and we thought about #WWBGD (aka What would Bryan Goers do?). Even the almighty Google maps couldn't help us because we were in AREA 51. And it looks like poo, but the view is great so that's a plus?



ANYWHOOOOOO after getting lost for about the 239576983245691235th time we finally realized that Mark (our 'trusty' map maker) didn't know there were two signs to the now infamous Dobson house. You would figure it's like this really important place, like a national monument? No, it's actually a bed and breakfast Earthship (holla Emmitt). So....two hours later (okay maybe like one) we finally made it to what appeared to be a lot with cars in a parked state. We saw some real life hippies and asked for directions. At first, they were playin' and said that they didn't know about no hot sprangz, but after seeing the look of anguish on Mom's face, they cracked (literally, in half). Mark also told us that it was only going to be a half-mile hike to the sprangz. Well, 2304823084023840298340928 miles later, and a few scraped feet, we found the sprangz, but we weren't the only ones. Our hippie friends had joined us, and let's just say, their clothes didn't . . .

After that cultural experience, and making a new friend from Quebec, we figured we should probably take a selfie. But who would take it? We were all wet! Lo and behold, Alexus wasn't. Great find am I right? No, because she doesn't know how to take a selfie. We guess she should listen to that song like 4852349p578 more times. It's okay though, we still lurv her. Anywho, we decided we should probably head back before it's gets dark and mountain lions eat us. We saw some mountain goats (aka RAMS) which obviously means that there are mountain lions according to Morgan. But what does she know, because she told us she can teleport, which she can't, and it was Wednesday and she didn't wear pink so she can't sit with us. Does she even go here?



Well, now we're back (in black) and anxiously awaiting the arrival of BRINNER which we hope will be delivered to us in bed, where we are writing this literary masterpiece. Seriously, can we make that thing?

Welp, that's all for now. Hard to believe we are already twerking to the second half of the week and our time in Taos. It's been super real so far, and we can't wait for it to get realer.

Stay Classy,

From your two most favorite ASBffls,

Mom and Tex (AKA Cara and Kelly)


P.S. Shout out to mah boi Bryan for retweeting our hump day pic. You can check it out at @MAB_Taos. #teamfollowback

P.S.S. Nick has really smelly feet so he's demoted from kewl dad to weird dad and Cara is obvi the cooler parent.

P.S.S.S. Imma let you finish, but you know Ice Princess > Black Swan (we tried both, so we know).

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