Another crazy week in the Nation’s Capitol! Like the rest of the east coast, we have been living in a frying pan for the last several days. Today it is raining and cooler, a welcome change.
Last weekend was glorious. Not only did I have a four-day weekend, it was July 4th. With my extra day off, I tried hitting the Holocaust Museum, the place I have wanted to see the most since coming here. Unfortunately, I could not get a ticket that late in the day. They had an excellent exhibit on Nazi propaganda, however, that I was able to tour. The tour guide made a frightening point when, at the end, he made us realize how much propaganda we see each day. We get to see the rest of the museum today, with advanced tickets!
A few friends and I went to the Folk Life Festival on the mall that weekend as well. Despite being a million degrees, it was quite interesting. We were able to see some traditional Mexican dancing, along with several stations discussing the production and consumption of tequila, haha. One gentleman told us this multi-step process for taking a sip. He ended by saying, “First you drink it with water, then without water, and lastly, like water.” You have to love the humor in this place.
We went to several other events this week. We went to the aquarium, which was awesome but surprisingly small. The American Art Museum has a great contemporary art gallery (and it was not crowded!). We celebrated the 4th of July by going to a local park and watching the fireworks. It felt very patriotic to be in Washington for America’s birthday, but I have to say, the fireworks were a little lame this year. Chalk it up to budget cuts, I guess.
After the 4th we went to the zoo, which was a lot of fun, except the gorillas kept throwing up and then eating their vomit, which was pretty bizarre. Friday I learned that one of the best ways to end the work-week is to hit the sculpture garden for their weekly jazz festival. It is a great way to end the week, with some jazz, some sangria, and a pulled-pork sandwich!
I have continued to realize how little people know about Indian Affairs. It makes me happy that I work with NCAI, because I care about raising awareness among non-Natives, like myself, about Indian issues. It is for this reason that I am excited about a web project I have been working on. I am working with economic and community development, and I am helping redesign that section of the new NCAI website. I am looking at the issue through the lens of educating and informing a non-Native audience, while also providing resources for tribal leaders, policymakers, native community members, and others. As a history major and (hopefully) future educator, I care about this public awareness piece. My supervisor admits that NCAI’s weakest efforts are in public outreach. It is a good feeling to be bringing my unique perspective to NCAI to help the organization in a real, tangible way.
My advisor came from school this week, and he confronted me with this simple question: what have you learned? To close, I have learned too much since I have been here to recount, or even to realize. I have learned practical skills, like budgeting, cooking, and others, professional skills such as researching, and all kinds of content and other things.
One of the things I am happiest to have learned is about people. I have met all sorts of people, from all over, and to have built a community and sense of camaraderie with them is an incredible feeling. It scares me to think that I would never have met these amazing people, never have experienced their perspectives and stories and points of view, if I had been too scared to take the risk and come here. What I have learned is that it is necessary to take some risks in life, and stepping out of that comfort zone will reap huge rewards in the end, bigger than anyone can imagine.
