This is all of my stuff for a week in the desert: giant army green rain poncho, sleeping bag, primitive pack frame, books, hiking boots, mesh bag for day hikes, water bottles, food bag (full of small bags of dehydrated foods, spices, grains, etc.), undies, one change of clothes, and sleeping pad.
This is what you call bomb proofing your belongings. These bright orange coverings work great for keeping things dry and protected from the elements, if it is put on with a little tender love and care. If not, then things tend to get a little damp in the rain
We don't have tents in the desert, so this is how to take shelter from the monsoons of summer! Fun! :)
Even though we couldn't shower for a week, I could keep at least one thing clean... my teeth!
Juniper berries. We used these to fill small leather pouches with to make madd balls (a game we play in the desert that is like dodge ball).
Juniper branches, sometimes used as toilet paper... very soft and smells super nice, not quite as soft as toilet paper. Use at your own risk ;)
This is a piece of juniper that we cut down and I used as a spoon blank. This is how it looked before I started carving my spoon out of it. We are not given any kind of utensils to use in the desert; everyone makes their own spoons. My first one didn't turn out so good and I got some nice little splinters in my mouth on occasion. This picture is the spoon blank I used to make a spoon my last week working in the desert. My skills improved some over the summer and this spoon I was very pleased with how it turned out! I keep it on display in my room now.
This is the boot tart. At night the kids have to put their boots and crocks on this tarp and we wrap it up so that nobody tried to run away during the night. We have to do a 3:00am check each night to make sure that all of the kids are still in their sleeping bags and haven't snuck off during the night. That is an ugly hour!
Several of the kids would make dumplings with their food supplies. They look something like this. These are corn bread dumplings. They are actually pretty tasty, especially considering your food options in the desert.
This is a yuka plant. I think it's really pretty and very useful.
This is soap stone. It crumbles when you touch it or step on it.
This is a corn bread I made. It actually looks really good compared to how my breads looked my first week in the field... UGLY!
We were on fire ban all summer so we used little propane stoves to cook on all summer.
Wow, scary! This is what hiking, rolling around in the dust and dirt and not showering for days at a time looks like. I know, it is not a pretty sight! Gooooo! Girl you didn't sleep at all last night! (that line is for Jacquelyn) :)
My pillow would scratch my face every night, because there was always loose sand that gathered on it each day. I got pretty bad acne after working there for three months.
These are called bluies. All of our water was dropped at our sites in these containers. They hold 5 gallons of water in each container.
One boy made carmelized onions for his dinner after a long day of hiking. Pretty creative and tasty!
My beautiful socks and hiking boots. The wool socks I hiked in were awesome for cold or hot weather.
Some of my many blisters from our many days of hiking.
The blisters after being bandaged. Looks worse then they were.
These are what some of the dirt trails we hiked on looked like. I didn't mind hiking in the dirt. I LOVE hiking, just not always with a 40-50 pound primitive pack on my back.
The base of a juniper tree. I thought it was artistic looking from this angle.
This is the name of one of the boys' groups I was in: Kayenta.
This is a holy ground. We would prepare these to hold sacred ceremonies of honor.
This is how the kids shower in the desert! Not much to it and it's really hard to get clean. You are standing in the dirt while you shower, so it's pretty tough to get super clean. I would usually wash my hair on shower day each week.
Group meal time! Looks tasty huh? Well, this is what is called a service meal. Every Monday and Tuesday we are given good to prepare for lunch and dinner for the whole group. It was actually nice to not have to cook some of your meals on those days and the food usually tasted really good (I think it might have been because you're in the desert and almost anything tastes good out there). ;)
Shhh... don't tell anyone how long it has been since I last showered...
Fellow staff members taking a break on a morning hike.
I love how this dry mud looks like scaly reptile skin. Pretty incredible if you ask me!
