The Foundation’s Neighborhood

Its finally that time where college is just a hop jump and skip away, and i'm not all too quiet sure that i'm ready to leave home.

so many thoughts flood my mind every time somone asks me if im aready to go to college or if im excited to leave. and i always respond with yeah i'm ready. but then i think about my mom, my dad, my grandparents, shoot even my cats. lol. there are so many things going on in my life on a daily basis i feel like i'm running away from all the problems in my life. but i know that every one wants me to go to college. and so i realized that i'm the one who is holding me back in my mind. constantly reminding myself of what i'll be missing here at home and forgetting about all the new and hopefully fun expierences i'll have away at school.  i seem to be letting myself slip in to doubt and fear. fear about a new thing which is not likely for me because im usually all about trying new things.

So as soon as sunday comes and my brother, my sister and i head out the door to drive four hours to my new  temporary home, i know i'll be ready.  i'll be ready to start my  life as an adult, as a new student, and as a resposible individual.

YAY College Here I COME.

Where to start, where to start. Well no better place to start than the beggining huh?

I guess the airport is where it all started. i couldn't even sleep the night before i was just so gosh darn excited, sleep wasn't important. just as long as i got to the airport on time then i could sleep on the plane. I was the first to arrive well along with Thea, but i got my tickets first so Ha! j/k , but i was just anxious i guess. We finally boarded the plan around 6 ish and began our journey to Cali!

We finally arrived in california around ten got our luggage and a car and headed off to find our hotel. Unfortunetly when we finally found it and tried checking in we were told we would have to wait because the guests staying there hadn't checked out yet. so what to do now? Ah ha City walk which was conveniently located next to our hotel! Since every one was basically starving we all decided to go get some ahow at this awesome Italian restaurant called Buca De Bepps . . . i think. Man did we get our money's worth! the food was excellent and our waitress . . . Awesome! lol after we were done eating we went back to the hotel, checked in, rested up some, and then headed to UCLA! what a beautiful campus! And now for the tour! . . . syke its really a scavenger hunt. . .so we found out. we had to locate the student union building and from then find different things on the campus that are usefull to college students. seeing how in only three weeks all of us on the trip will be full time college students i think this self guided tour/ scavenger hunt was really the best way to explore the campus. it taught us how to use a general building to locate and find resources that we may need, like tutoring and ethnic groups for example. Great lesson Francis! After running frantically around the UCLA campus we all headed back to the hotel for a great meeting with MIke Brown. we talked about our culture back home and how it was precieved that native american woman are thought to be oppressed. Boy did we get to educate Mr. Brown! it was amazing that we got to pass some knowledge onto the person who came to talk to us, usually it's the other way around but it was very interesting telling him how even though Acoma and Laguna are so close and similar we are actually very different! but i think the big shocker to him was when we told him that we were matrelineal societies, that women are very important to our culture. i'm glad he learned something and so did we. he opened our eyes to realizing that south central isn't really as scary as it is on tlevision, and that gangs are full of wars that start from oppression. so we finally finished our conversation with mike brown aroun 8 ish and headed back to the lobby. AHH REST AT LAST!!!  . . . RIGHT??? nope hunger calls and its time to go find some grub! . . .so city walk it is. we ate at this awesome mexican retaruant called El Cumacho or something like that! and our waiter had the coolest name. . . . . Ruperto! lol yeah we could barely understand him but it was all good! so back to the hotel we go now time to sleep! . . right?? wrong time to SWIM!!! lol yeah we went swimmin from like 9:45 to 10:15 ish lol fun times!!! ok ok Now Time To  REST UP! Wow what a long day we had! We were up from 3 am to 11pm! but it was all worth it! . . because those beds were as soft as the clouds! lol or something like that use your imagination!

AHH . . .STRETCH!!! time to wake up! it's day number two! some would say the best way to start off your day is to have a well balanced breakfast!. . . with some good quality food! and thats exactly what we did minus the well balanced and the good quality and add on the exspensive! yeah we paid twenty bucks each for some fruit, ur basic fried meats, assorted breads, yogurts, and lets not forget the eggs! to be honest all i liked was the bacon! well after are hearty breakfast we all met up in the lobby for some updates. we were then assigned to go do little video diary confessions about how we felt about what we talked about the day before with mike brown and how we felt about oppression, violence,non-traditional leaders and women roles. it was interesting to listen to what the other girls thought about each subject. i think we all had agreements with what each other said. i know after hearing what geanna said about non-traditional leaders my view point changed. so thanks geanna! even though we didn't do our video confessions till later that day.lol ok so around 11:30 am we headed out to south central to go to the Youth Justice Coillation. but before we got there we had to make a pitt stop for some chow. we went to Fatburger! i love that name for a burger stand. ok so back to YJC. first off let me tell you this; this orginization is really outstanding! it helps youth in the area know their legal rights and know what cops can and can't do. there is also a school program called FREE L.A. for youth from the ages between 18-24 get there high school diploma. which i think its great because it seemed that all these youth needed was some one to push them to excell and continue thier education. we also got to talk to some of the youth that were in the programs at YJC. one of the guys we talked to was telling us that he got a ticket for sitting on the stairs in the metro and since he was black the cops automatically asumed that he was gang affiliated. he told us that the police asked him where he lived and they immediatly assigned a gang to his name even though he said there are about ten different gangs around where he lives. so to this day he still has no clue as to which gang they put him in. it's sad that the police there are so trained in there minds that when the see someone they asume your a gang member just by the way you look. so after YJC we went back to the hotel to go relax for a while. then we had decided to go to the beach! for a few of us it was the first time going to the beach. when i first saw the ocean i was blown away! it totally shocked me! especially when i saw the ocean and the sky meet! it sorta freaked me out but it literally took my breath away! i mean sure you see it in pictures all the time but to see it in person for the first time is amzing! ahh it was SOOOOO amazing! but we had to go back to the hotel to catch some Zzzz's so before we headed out we got some chow since we hadn't eaten dinner yet. we got these super delicious burgers on the pier. i was so hungry i started eating my fries as soon as i got them and sadly i burned my tounge. :( i guess thats why u should wait to scarf food down till it cool. lol oh well all is good.

Now the day we've all been waiting patiently for! . . . ok kinda patiently. so after a few hours of sleep we all awoke to the excitment of going to disney land!!! . . and the annoying alrm clocks.  lol well the drive there was so long, i think mostly because we were all anxious to get there. for me, it was my first time going to Disneyland. so i was thrilled. the biggest amusement park i've been to before this was little O' Cliffs. since francis hadn't been there in a long time, we could not find the visitors parking! we drove up and one street, and we even passed this guy who looked like santa claus on vacation! he was awesome! thankfully francis found the parking and we began our disney land adventure! the first thing we did was watch a presentation by the man who was the tech supervisor for the whole park! he was a really great guy, even when he talked about the bad times in his job he still had a cheerfull smile splashed across his face! Now thats a guy who loves his job. so after we were done with the presentation we headed over to  the mini broadway style theatre to watch. . . . are ready for this . . . . ALADDIN!!! heck yes. it was the most amazing, funny, brilliant show i've ever seen in a theatre. They had to cut the show down to 45 minutes to allow the park wisitors to be able to still do other stuff through out their day! let me tell you, those 45 minutes could not have been any better! the genie was hilarious  and everyone in the show was very talented! there was even a woman in a wheelchair who performed in the show. just goes to show ya that disney really provides equal opprtunity. After the show was over we got a backstage tour of the set. it was really neat to see hoh everything either drops down or slides in. we even got to check out the elephant that aladdin rides in on. really interesting! so after the V.I.P treatment we had for the aladdin show we headed back to regular guest parking and went into the park. we were given park hopping tickets so that we could go into disneyland or california adventure. Aweaome Right? Right! so the first thing we did was go into disney, we ate some hot dogs and then headed over to tomorrow land. there we rode some virtual rides and headed back out o meet francis. when we were coming out we were able to catch the very end of a parade. after meeting francis we all headed over to Frontier land and headed towards BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN! it was a pretty awesome rollercaoster. then we found fish and headed to the haunted mansion with a stop for bathroom break. then we went to california adventure! there Was the best ride i rode all day it was called tTHE HOLLYWOOD TOWER . THE TOWER OF TERROR!  it wa all Twilight zone themed! you ride this elevator that drops u three times, one bout half way up, the second time about 3/4 way up and the last time all the way from the top! AHH. . . i loved that ride!!! so then we rode the monsters inc. ride really cool as well. then we meet up with francis and rode the grizzly rapids. . . . of course i'm the only one who got soaked. hahaha it was still fun though.then we went to go find the corndogs that we were told we simply incredible and finally get some food in our stomachs again. oh man those corn dogs were the bomb! very very delicious. after getting some food in our bellies we headed back over to disney land to watch the FANTASMIC!!! we even got V.I.P seating! but before we sat down we had some time to kill so we rode the pirates of the caribbean ride. it was really neat. so we then headed back to our v.i.p seating and watched the fantasmis show! it was really cool, it was like a stage show, a water show, and a musical combined.  i only wish my camera didnt die on me because then i'd have some great pictures from that show! so were all pretty tired about now but will that stop us from riding one last ride. . . no way man. lol so we all head over to the last ride of the day for us, the indiana jones ride! just getting through the line to the actual ride is an adventure. when we finally got on the ride and rode it, it totally blew our minds! i think we can all say we had a wonderful time at disney. so thanks Francis, i doubt i'll ever have the chance to do disney land like that again.

Alright time to wind it down to the last day. we all wanted to go back to the enchanting beach and swim this time so thats exactly what we planned for our last day. we got home around 1 am from disneyland and to wake up at 5:30 to leave early for the beach. boy were we all stll burnt from the day before but thanks to our awesome director, Mr Francis, we were able to go. when we got there we all excitedly went down to the beach and slowly but surely emersed ourselves in the cool salty water of the ocean. oh what a feeling you get when you take that first step into the water. i think the only thing i didn't enjoy too much was when the seaweed gets caught around your legs. eww fells so gross but you get used to it eventually. after we were done relaxing in the water we dried off and ate at this little cafe called Jinkys. it was an ok restaruant i didnt enjoy it too much, but they had really fantastic hot chacolate! yum. as soon as we met up with francis we went back to the van and headed back to the hotel for the last time to clean-up, shower, and finishing packing. when we were sure we had left nothing behind we headed out the door and down stairs to check out. after everyone loaded up into the van we went to the airport to leave california. . . i was sad to be leaving but happy to know that soon i would be able to see a clear sky with no smog blinding the distant mountains. we then departed from bob hope airport and landed in salt lake city, from there we were just a hop jump and a skip away from home. finally good ol new mexico. clear skies with no smog. it was around 9:30 when we landed and there waiting for us when we got off the plan was our loving families with open arms wiating to embrace us.

There is so much you can learn from everyone you meet and even people you already know. We learned not to always believe what you see on Tv. and that eveyone is just human with the need to propell themselves in any direction to better themselves. That sometimes all we need is someone to motivate us to reach our goals like getting our high school diplomas and being aware of our legal rights. That oppression causes so much damage to the human soul that it can later lead to violent wars. and of course that there is so much work put into creating the magic of disney. This was an adventure that i will never forget!

in only THREE more days including today we will be on our way to L.A.  . . . no not our old high school guys. lol  i think were all very excited to say the least!  and somewhat unsure about going to learn about gang prevention. when i first heard we were going to learn about gang prevention i was about confused as to why but then i thought why not. what better way to prevent something than to learn all about it!

even though were all excited to learn learn learn out there, i think we are all most excited to go to DISNEY LAND!!! for me it will be my first time going there. i'll be the first of my siblings to go to disney land!!! YAY i get to rub it in there faces! lol j/k kidding i wont do that. . . alot. but seriously i'm super duper excited!

well before we head of on adventure of fun AND hard core learning of course, we really have to finish the inerviews scheduled . . . which i'm positive we will do today!

Sooooo. . . California here we come!!!

so i just got back down from the rock and already i miss all the people coming together to keep our tradition and culture alive. it's amazing that for four days everyone units to revive tradition that has been continued for centuries now. it makes me proud to be who i am. a person with a culture and beliefs.

but sadly i and everyone else have to come back from living in the past of no electricity, plumbing, and technology to the present which is a life luxury i'll admitt, but doesn't compare to life in the old ways.

so now that it is back to work we are currently working on a video about Mt. Taylor which to many, 5 tribes in specific is a very sacred place.

i think we are all excited to work on this video since we are all from one of the tribes who fought to get Mt. taylor to be under TCP.

hey lee heres our evidence . . . . . .

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what a handfull of information we recieved tuesday about non-profit organizations, i'm still trying to let it all sink in.

first of i had no idea there are 27 different classifications for non-profit organizations and the most common classification is a 5.0.1.c.3. i also learned that in order to have a board of directors there must be a minimun of three members. there are also three sectors the socoal sector, the public sector, and the private sector. i learned mainly about the social sector. we were infomed about the variations of mangement levels within organizations and very small ones.

the non-profit world is a fantastic gateway to helping others!

cleaning up your community . . .what a way to spend a friday. it may not be every teenagers plan for a friday but thats exactly what we did and we had fun doing it.

every one in the group knows that i am from Acoma. Since that rest of the members are from Laguna we decided to clean up both communities.

Acoma was the fisrt stop on our journey to find trash in the areas. as we went up there i was afraid we weren't going to find anything to fill our black plastic bags and as we got to the top i looked around to find hardly any trash at all, which is pretty normal. as we walked around we started picking up any trash we spotted. Then when we got to the edge we hit the jack pot as every one was saying. thankfully we managed to get are trash bag about half way full.

Next stop on our trash hunting journey was laguna. but before that we made a pit stop and dropped geanna off at her house because she had other duties that call. then we had the best lunch ever lol j/k geanna we didn't chow. anyway when we got to laguna we started walking around picking up trash in site cleaning up around the plaza. i felt proud to help clean up my nieghboring community.

picking up trash in the communities was the best way to spend a friday. know we can all say that we helped better our communities even though it was on a small scale, but hey at least that trash isn't there anymore! : )

who ever knew public service announcements could be so intriguing. For the last two weeks we have been working on creating PSAs about tobacco prevention. So many topics come up while trying to think of a good idea for your own video. anything from quiting smoking, to the effects of tobacco, to cancer, the concerns about tobacco are endless!

Since some of us were new to making videos we turned to the infamous you-tube for inspiration. it was crazy to see all those tobacco prevention PSAs on you-tube but it was also an eye opener. we saw plenty of PSAs that played off of fear in order to spread the message of the effects of tobacco. i personally enjoy them and think they are very affective on younger people. i was intrested and upset by this one that had an old man who Basically lost his lower jaw and his wife to tobacco and the only reason why he started was because he wanted to be cool. at the end of it he said do you think i'm cool now. that line at the end just made the PSA even more affective.

Once one of us had an idea for a PSA we began filming which was my favorite part. filming the PSA was fun because we had to basically use what we had availabe. for example we needed a cigarette but since we're on a drug free campus we used a rolled up pice of napkin to make a fake one.. . .but it turned out good in the end.

of course after filming comes editting i haven't yet done this because i havent started my PSA yet. but i have editted a video and this is the longest and sometimes most complicated part of making a video.

thankfully during all our video making we were all able to rely on each others for support and by support i mean . . .actors, make-up, ideas, transporation, extras, and LUNCH!!!

the only real challenging thing about this for me is coming up with an idea and sticking with it. i still havent fully worked out my idea in my head because i'm not sure if i like it but hopefully it turns out great. 

Why don't women get enough credit? Why are we so easily forgotten? Who ever said males were the dominate sex? Why dont we see more women in our history books?

History, who wrote it?  every one who has ever made a difference, be it good or bad, has made history. but why do we hear mostly of men and their accomplishments? i belive woman dont get that much attention for there actions and accomplishments because society veiw men as the stronger and more dependable sex and that women are more or less there to be the support system. even if we are the support system men wouldn't be able to do the things they do without us, after all we are the givers of life.