Sing Cucu Nu

Sumer is icumen in. Well, okay, I'm lying. But it is 56 with sunshine today in KC, and regreening is in the air.

Just received an invite to the 8th Annual Native Vision Sports and Life Skills Camp. It's in Bernalillo, N.M., hosted by the United Pueblo Tribes. The mailer says they expect more than 700 youth from 25 tribes. There's surprisingly little on the net about the camp--a three-day event in mid-June. I helped out at the last two sessions in 2001 and 2002, when it was at the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona. In 2002 everyone was hustled out of Whiteriver because of the Rodeo-Chadiski fire (in the news again, recently). We were shuttled back to Phoenix on a school bus--a long winding ride with the Emergency Broadcasting System signal blaring across the radio about evacuations--and the event was considerably disrupted. Last year, the camp didn't happen, but it looks like the NFL Players Association and the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health have revitalized the program. Had a few interesting talks there about coordinating literacy ventures with the camp, expanding the life skills side with added dimension.

Normally, I wouldn't carry on about USPS mail, but I'm really happy to be invited back and to see that the program is once again viable. What's more, I'm waiting impatiently for acceptance-rejection letters from a medium-sized list of prospective PhD programs for next fall. The wait is much more enjoyable with the pseudo spring we're having. But it's still a wait.

And the tech-autobiographical sketches have been fun and interesting to read. They're particularly interesting because of the diverse mix of students, which is usual where I teach. Students from Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, Poland, N. Ireland, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri are in class this semester, and our work is off to an improved start with the zippy classroom.