Tuesday morning in Albuquerque
I am seriously lagging behind in my schedule - simply because I am meeting people all the time! (Yes, also because I spend far too much time online, trying to organize things…and because I sometimes get completely lost when driving, like yesterday for example, when I all of a sudden found myself in an area of cute little residential adobe houses and only dead end streets). Americans are often so nice and friendly, so when you start talking to people you meet you don’t exactly feel like cutting them off and rushing away, no matter how constrained the time is. Au contraire, it is through all these conversations that I get story ideas and contacts.
Yesterday, for example, in a restaurant in Santa Fe, I asked my waiter if he could tell me something about which Indian pueblo (village) to go to. He couldn’t, but the family at the table next to us overheard this and immediately asked me if they could help. It turned out that they knew an expert on Indian culture at New Mexico University, and suggested I interview him. And then of course they invited me to their home whenever I come back to Santa Fe. Nice things like this happen all the time, and it is no less than fabulous (and essential for my work).
Then, I went to one of the pueblos (that I found in Lonely Planet!), namely Pueblo Santo Domingo, and hang out with the guy in the pueblo store (like an old-fashioned “handelsbod” in Swedish). He looked like a proud Indian chief, which is exactly what he was (sort of). He didn’t mind my questions, so I had tons of information - albeit in limited time - on what life has been like on the reservation since 1938 when he was born. Only to hear him and his sister speaking in their language… In the store, they sold food and hardware, but also Indian jewellery, furs, ceremony paraphernalia…very fascinating. And today, I am invited back for a dance ceremony, to be followed by a green chili lunch! It is completely the wrong direction and will make me lag behind even more, but how can you not go to an Indian dance ceremony that you’ve been invited to?!
Gunilla
