Our Gallup, New Mexico, experience started back in the small Navajo town of Leupp, Arizona.
There we met the Navajo farmer, Tyrone Thompson, who farms at the North Leupp Family Farms. Tyrone invited us to join him and several other people at the STAR school just outside the reservation. Among other things, he said the STAR school is the only U.S. school powered entirely with solar and wind power. He said many people would be there and we’d like what we saw.
Tyrone was right.
We met and interviewed people and they met and interviewed us. We met a baker named Josh who lives in Gallup. (You can buy his delicious bread at La Montanita Co-op in Gallup.) He told us he had a connection in Gallup who could line up a location for us to talk about our run and mission for a GMO Free USA. Sure enough, he put us in touch with Sydney who arranged for us to meet at the Work In Beauty House. Largely due to an email message Sydney sent out, we met with some 15 folks from Gallup eager to talk about GMOs and the real solutions to the problems caused by GMOs, modern agribusiness and monocultures. We learned that Josh, Sydney, and Michael work at the local Co-op. Michael and Chakra hung around after the discussion and set up a repeat performance at the Work In Beauty House for the following evening.
If there’s a moral to this story it might be this: Opening our mouths leads to good connections, discussions, and relationships. We’re now connected with good people in Gallup who have paved the way for further connections when we arrive and present in Albuquerque. Speaking of Albuquerque, we are scheduled to present at the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Library (the Main Library) on Wednesday, March 12, from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. We look forward to meeting a good many good people at the library Wednesday evening.
If you have questions or comments about our run, mission, or the library event, or if you can offer us a place to shower, do laundry, or park our trailer, please call Kris at 907-752-0447.
Thank you so much!!!!
P.S. The monument to the Navajo Code Talkers at Window Rock, Arizona, deserves its own blog. It’s a beautiful monument commemorating a fascinating piece of history. But, as usual we’re running late with miles awaiting us. So these photos of the monument will have to suffice for now.
