Menlo Borderlands- Northern Arizona 2024

 Dear Parents, The PHX to SFO flight has been delayed by several hours. The new schedule estimates that the group will now be returning at  10:23 pm.   Looking forward to seeing you then!

Dear Parents, Tomorrow (Tuesday), the group returns from Flagstaff via Phoenix. Both flights are on schedule. Please meet the returning group at SFO, Terminal 1, Arrivals, at 7:02 pm .  See you then,

Today was our final day in Pinon. We had a delicious breakfast cooked by Rena, then we started our closing ceremony. We reflected on our time and felt really grateful for Roberto and his family for being so compassionate and patient when teaching us about the Diné culture. We said our goodbyes to Roberto, Evelyn and Rena. Evelyn gave us hugs and treated us like family. They told us to keep in touch, and we wrote thank you notes expressing our gratitude to them. Then, we started our trek back to Flagstaff. In the cars we sang songs, rested, and listened to music. When we arrived in Flagstaff we took our first hot showers since we left on Thursday. The showers were nice, but we missed Pinon. We got a yummy dinner out and before heading to bed our whole group bonded over a game of baseball.  We're looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow!  - Kiera and Nuria Final picture with Roberto in front of the Hogan before we said goodbye.

 Today was a laborious day to say the least. We ate a breakfast of french toast and berry smoothies to fuel a long work day ahead. We skinned corn into kernels, painted logs, planted seeds, and chopped juniper branches, and wood. Talking to the workers, we learned that they do all of this work every day with no days off. There's always something to do on this farm. These activities made us feel for the workers who do this with less people on a daily basis, also also pretty grateful for our life at home. Turning the corn we skinned and grinned into corn mush and stew to eat made us feel like our hard work paid off and we got to eat a big traditional dinner to celebrate Memorial day and the end of the trip.  The days have flew by so fast, and we can't believe today is our last full day on the reservation (at least we get a hot shower tomorrow). We feel like we have learned a lot from our time here, especially how much we take for granted. While we are looking forward to our hot s

 Today, breakfast included breakfast burritos, fruit, and orange juice. Immediately after, embarked to Canyon de Chelly for a 6.5 mile hike. We had two tour guides, Del and Jarvis, who told us a lot about interesting culture and history of the canyon. Specifically, we saw cliff dwelling ruins in the mountainside from Diné, Hopi, and Anzanzi. We also met locals of the canyon who showed us jewelry and other traditional crafts. As we ventured further into the hike, we heard stories from Jarvis about his dream and obstacles to building a hogan in the valley. We were moved by the poignant anecdote of his routine of working early in the canyon and then late into the night as a hotel desk manager, resulting in little time for him to see his family. Additionally, we learned from Del about traditional ways of capturing water. After the end of the adventurous hike, we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and returned to Roberto's home. Our last activity was a group meeting focusing on the

We started off the day by waking up at 7 for breakfast. We then headed down to help Roberto's Grandma, Evelyn, planing corn traditionally. We saw her very friendly pet goose and her dog herding sheep. Afterwards we went on a hike over the hill to view some petroglyphs written by early Diné where we had a long discussion with Roberto about the history of Diné agricultural rights and access. Following lunch we had another conversation about Roberto and his family's experience living here and we helped to plant squash in Roberto's field, learning from his team. Finally, we worked to plant melon and been seedlings to the greenhouse to lengthen the growing season. We're now hopeful about our current sleeping system with the boys in tents and the girls sleeping in the Hogan. No scorpion or snakes have been found.  Good night parents and friends!  Henry and Liam Learning to traditionally plant corn with Roberto's grandma Dog and sheep at Roberto's grandma's house L