Colorado

A perfect Colorado summer evening

"West Virginia, mountain momma, take me home, country roads"

Last week I had a wonderful opportunity to travel up to West Virgin-ey for a leadership seminar.  It was hosted by the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Offices. A total of 12 tribes were represented and I felt honored to be part of such a wonderful group of people.

My head was so full of new and great information by the time I left on Thursday and I can't wait to implement what I learned.  I love being re-energeized and being reminded that although our work is challenging, it is also so fulfilling.

We stayed at the Fish and Wildlife's National Conservation Training Center which sits on over 500 acres.  It was beautiful and I felt like I was at camp all week.  All our meals were provided for us in a large dining hall with huge rustic chandeliers.  Giant taxidermy bears, deers, and wolves graced the hallways. The rain sat over us most of the week, but I didn't mind too much.  It made the already green vegetation vibrant and the smells of boxwood and dogwood hung heavily in the air.  I didn't think my hair could get any more frizzy from humidity, but apparently West Virginia's got nothin' on South Florida!

On our last evening together, we all headed down to the fire pit.  Although the rain had finally stopped, it had soaked most of the wood, so it took awhile for the fire to get started.   We made s'mores, laughed, told stories, and shared about the week.  I sat and listened, watching the crackling fire create bouncing shadows and turning everyone's faces a deep amber.  It warmed us from the chilly damp air and as the sky grew dark, we all drew closer to the fire. The fireflies eventually appeared and twinkled all around us, no doubt trying to compete with the twinkling stars above.  

 

Its easy to get caught up in the day to day drama of the office and we can quickly forget why we do what we do. The fights in Indian Country are real and hard and it takes strong leaders to make significant and positive changes. Sometimes I'm not sure where my future career will take me, but I hope that I will always have the opportunity to work alongside tribes.

Survivor.

The other week I was sent out to the field to help one of my staff (lets call him D) work on a project at an archaeological site.  Now, let me preface by saying I love the outdoors.  I love being outside in the the fresh air, away from the crazy.  But sometimes the great outdoors isn't so kind and last week became one for the books.

A seemingly pleasant start to the day

Day 1, 10 minutes in:

+ Crawled through an old barbed wire fence, scratched my arm, and crawled right through a spider web.  Spider more than likely leapt into my hair and built a new web.

+ Realized my Girl Scout training failed me and I FORGOT MY BUG SPRAY!  Florida mosquitos are something else.  They are overly attracted to me (I know, I know, I'm so sweet!) and the bites swell to almost 4 times their normal size.  At one point D thought I had been stung by bees on my face.  I probably swatted at least 1 gajillion mosquitos and I swear none of them died, they only multiplied.

+ Traversed a 6 inch wide log across a small pond of water.  Fell off the log.  The fun thing about the swamp is that when it only looks like 1 foot of water it is a lie.  D came to my rescue, gabbing my backpack and as I fumbled to my feet, my boots proceeded to sink into  3 feet of muck and I prayed there were no water moccasins floating near by.  Using all of my energy, I pulled myself out of the jungle quicksand.  My first instinct was to cry, but I had to be a big girl boss and plastered a huge smile on my face.  No biggie.

+ D was a trooper and hacked through the thickest parts of the jungle with his machete.  At one point we got a little turned around and made a huge circle, thankfully finding our flags (think break crumbs from Hansel and Gretel) from earlier. 

+ Stumbled across hundreds of hog tracks and prayed again there were none around.  D said calmly "Kate, if you hear any snuffing or grunting your best bet is to climb a tree."  Wild hogs can be very dangerous and all I could think was, "I don't know how to climb a tree."

+ Found fresh bear poo...twice.

+ Was only steps away from disturbing a pygmy rattlesnake

+ By the time we got back to the office, everyone seemed to know that I had fallen into the water.  And that when I fell, I looked like a turtle with my backpack on and legs in the air.  Cute.  My boss even came up to me and said in a very concerned voice, "I heard you had a rough day.  Are you ok?"  Not embarrassing at all. 

When I got home, I counted over 70 mosquito bites on my arms and face.  I literally looked like I had the chicken pox (or the measles) and was convinced I had definitely gotten Malaria or Dengue (so far no symptoms...)

Day 2:

+ Made it across the pond!

+ Remembered my bug spray.  Thank you bug spray inventor.

+ Ripped the crouch of my pants open climbing through that darn ol' barbed wire fence.

Day 3:

+ Made it across the pond again!  I could have easily been a gymnast in another life...

+ Ripped the back of my pant leg on that stupid barbed wire fence.

All I can say is that I am a survivor of the Florida jungle.  I should get some sort of metal for bravery or courage.  Or maybe just for being a girl who survived the worst mosquito attack of the century.