Mathis undaunted

The season is over, but isn't this the best basketball photo you've ever seen?

Gathering of Nations

A pow-wow is an event celebrating Indian culture. There's a big one this weekend in Albuquerque called the Gathering of Nations. It has turned Dulce and Lumberton into ghost towns. Everyone has gone south.

Lots of our kids will be dancing in Albuquerque, including Jalene, my 5th-grade student, seen here in her magnificent regalia.

Santuario de Chimayó

During Holy Week, thousands of people make a pilgrimage to the Santuario de Chimayó, a church that dates from 1816 and is revered as a place of healing. Many people walk from Santa Fe, 28 miles away, and some even from Albuquerque, 90 miles away. We walked thirteen miles from Pojoaque.

Inside the santuario is a room which contains el pocito (the little well). El pocito contains la tierra bendita (the holy dirt) which has curative powers. This room also contains poems, crutches, baby shoes, and other things left behind by those who claim to have been cured.

Heading home, our tired feet got a ride in the back of some benevolent stranger's pickup.

Granny loves cowboy boots

Los Hermanos Penitentes

It’s Holy Week and I am in the midst of los penitentes—an old fraternity that still thrives in northern New Mexico. The brotherhood will hold many ceremonies and processions this week.

When this part of the world was controlled by Spain, there was no separation of church and state. The Spanish missions were run by the Franciscan order and were the centers of government. But when New Mexico was acquired by the United States and foreigner Americans began to anglicize things in the 19th century, the Hispanic people grew increasingly bitter about all the changes taking place, including the replacement of ancient Franciscan traditions with secular ones. Out of that bitterness grew a rich folk religion with los hermanos penitentes at its core, a brotherhood which scorned the new church authority and was often condemned by the Catholic Church.

The penitentes meet and hold their rituals in places called moradas. Moradas are meeting houses in secluded places. Down the road from here, beside an old hillside cemetery, are the crumbling remains of the Lumberton morada.

Closely connected to los hermanos are santeros, the artists who create religious paintings and carvings for them in the old New Mexico style. The pictures here are carvings at our church by a santero from Santa Fe.

Being poor

By Ariana
In New York City, a poor child ran the streets. This poor child's name was Anthony. He lived in Queens. The only family he had were his dad and sister. They took care of Anthony, but they had no food. Anthony and his family used to be rich and had all the food they could eat. But one day his dad got fired. The government came and took away all their goods.

By Elijah
Once there was a little boy named Peter. He was very poor. He had a box as his house. One day Peter said to himself, "Why am I here? I should be selling cans." There was a friend next to him who said, "I tried selling cans but it did not work. Everyone just said no thanks."

Peter's life was terrible. He only had this one friend. The little dude's life was poor because his family had to move to Kansas and left him on the street.

By Elena
Last summer I met a kid named Jimmy. He was 13. He used to be rich, so when was eight, he moved to Pagosa Springs, Colorado. On his 11th birthday, Jimmy's parents died of typhus. He was an only child. Now he is an orphan. Poor Jimmy wasted all his money on things he didn't need, such as candy and pop. He didn't even have a funeral for his parents! Soon he lost his memory and started taking drugs.

One day Jimmy ran away. I had to help him remember all that happened. It took a long time. I asked what happened to his money, but he didn't know. I gave him money to go to school and, boy, was he happy!

By Dulcia
He is poor because he has no job. He has a little sister named Angel. His parents died. His name is Luke. Luke and Angel live in Albuquerque. Luke and Angel miss their parents very much. Almost every one was mean to them, but there was a lady who tried to help them. She gave them what she had. Luke was nine years old. Angel was seven. The lady that was helping them died. They were so sad.

By Lester
Once there was a boy who lived in Africa. He was very poor. His community was rich, but they didn’t want to give him money. The community was stingy. The boy’s mom and dad were named Lesha and Kevin. His mom and dad were about to die. The dad was 43 and the mom was 41. They had chicken pox. They had no food and no water. He had two brothers and two sisters. The girls’ names were Lela and Sheila. They had only their grandma. Their house was tiny. It was for five people. Their beds were made out of sheepskin. Their pillows were made out of their clothes.

By Robert
There once was a boy named Patrick. He used to be rich, but then a fire burned all his money. So he had to live in an abandoned house with his brother and his mom. What does he eat? Well, he eats all the raccoons that come in the building. Since he has no dad, he is a boy without any man. His brother is an obnoxious child, but Patrick is always good for his mom. One day Patrick’s mom died of dehydration. Patrick had to take care of brother until his brother eventually got the flu and died too. Then a miracle happened. Patrick’s dad was alive! But the dad was poor too, so they lived in that abandoned building until they died.

By Andrew
There was a poor man living on the streets of New York. His name was Zach Martins. Zach was lonely living on the street. Then he found five dollars in the gutter. Instead of going and buying food, he went and did something kind of stupid. He ran as fast as he could to a gas station. With the money he had bought a scratch ticket. As he walked, he scratched off three slots. With two more to go, he scratched one slot, then the last slot. Three matching! He ran to the gas station and turned in the ticket. The clerk said, “You won $1,000,000!”

Bathing in the wild, wild west

In Lumberton, we've been eight miserable days without water. Dulce, the town down the road, not only has water, it has a laundromat with showers!