Indian Market Heard Museum 50th anniversary

Another wonderful special weekend in Phoenix area with sister Pat and brother-in-law Dick. This blog entry is to tell a little about my first time at the Indian Market, and sometime soon (?) I hope to update other activities of the past couple weeks. My job at the college, although part-time, is taking more energy, and I'm having a wonderful time with Baha'i Ruhi Institute activities in Tsaile, and then, there are these unique experiences like this weekend.

The drive here was beautiful. Most of the snow near "home" (Tsaile) has melted. I took a route that goes through mountains and beautiful pine forests and some snow and rock formations. Then here in Phoenix, the temperatures over the weekend were about ten degrees above "normal" for this time. It was in the 80's on Saturda, 70's yesterday.

Pat has told me for years that I'd love the Indian Market at the Heard Museum. She's right! Artists often said that this is one of the best show in the country. Beautiful traditional and modern jewelry and sculptures and lots of entertainment, mostly drumming and dancing, from different tribes. I have videos, taken on my little digital camera, of some of the entertainment, but I haven't figured out yet how to share those. Pat and Dick helped both days at the fry bread booth. This is the largest single fund raiser booth at the Indian Market. Having done this volunteer service for years, Dick has the system well organized with the cooking of beans and used 72 institutional cans of beans. (Ran out, could have used 85!) Some folks choose to put salt or cinnamon sugar on their fry bread instead of beans and salsa. Dozens of other volunteers give four or five hours at a time to helping customers. A group of Native American women make fry bread, more of it than I've ever seen in one place.

Yesterday was the first day of the Baha'i Fast, and that went well for me. Today, because I'm going to drive six or seven hours to get home, I will remember it's the Fast, but I will drink and eat while I travel.

Thanks for checking my blog. Missing you all in North and South Carolina, but continuing to feel so thankful for being able to be in the southwest again for a few months. I expect to post more this week, including photos of some of the entertainment at Indian Market.