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It was a scene reminiscent of an old winery, but instead of stomping grapes, the five Los Gatos children were stomping straw into mud. The occasion was an adobe brick-making workshop sponsored by the PaiPai tribe of Santa Catarina. The children, joined by their new tribal friends, were up to their knees in a mudpit created by a natural spring. Their job was to mix in the straw, then shovel the adobe into wheelbarrows and transport it over to the area where it was poured into brick forms.

The occasion was Day Two of Camp Comunidad, a program that brings together Northern California families with the leaders, elders and children of the PaiPai and Kumeyaay tribes. Organized by Pamela Pearson, Director of Comunidad’s Escuela program, the camp is a combination of cultural exchange and ecotourism. “The goal of Camp Comunidad is dual,” she explained. “To bring together the two cultures in an educational manner that shows our American kids how another culture lives, and to help the tribes create ecotourism programs that allow them to earn a living while preserving their culture.”

The program started the evening of July 12, as the families all arrived at the San Nicolas Hotel. After a swim in the Olympic-size pool, the families headed down to Chapultepec, where they stuffed themselves as Poblano’s, Comunidad’s favorite taqueria. The families then bought a round of fireworks and headed down to the beach, where the parents treated the kids to an hour-long amateur firework display.

Day One was spent at San Antonio Necua, a Kumeyaay tribe. After a ceremonial greeting by the tribe’s shaman, the kids and parents headed out on a nature and archeology hike, where they saw a variety of fauna used for medicines, as well as a centuries-old grinding site, a huge stone table dotted by holes, with pestles nearby. The kids then headed back through the animal graveyard (each child was allowed to take a small bone back with them) to the lunch area, where they were served a traditional meal by the tribal parents. “The Shaman led nature hike really opened my eyes,” said Stacey Geiken, one of the parents. “What appeared to be a dry river bed, turned out to be a veritable pharmacy. The Shaman showed us medicinal herbs and plants and described how they could be prepared to cure various ills.”

After lunch, as the parents helped clean up, the kids—both Californian and tribal—headed off to a variety of games: Frisbee, baseball, and a spirited game of soccer. At the sound of a bell, the tribal children led their Californian friends back to the crafts area, where everyone learned the weaving techniques of the Kumeyaay, taught by tribal artisans. Every participant worked with willow to create a tightly-woven medallion. “It was calming and rewarding to try and weave a medallion of my own, but since I wanted to actually wear it,” said Patti van der Burg. “I was relieved there were some for sale by the local artisans!”

When the crafts were over, the tribal children and elders, now dressed in traditional garb, performed a number of tribal dances, with the Comunidad kids and parents joining in. Then it was on to the bus and back to Ensenada.

Day Two was a longer drive out to the remote tribe of Santa Catarina. The exposed, harsh landscape is normally in the low 100’s during July, but some rare cloud cover kept the temperatures in the 80s. The first stop for the campers was Teresa Castro’s pottery workshop. Castro, a renowned Pai Pai potter, had set up stations for each participant, along with examples of her highly-acclaimed pottery, which uses traditional hand-made and unique firing techniques. The campers made either bowls or animal figurines, which they brought home with them. They then headed over to the adobe pits, where they built bricks for upcoming tribal construction projects. “It was cool to see how they used to make the bricks that we see when we visit the missions,” said Riley Friar, a sixth-grader at Fisher Middle School. “But this wasn’t history—this was real life.”

Lunch was posole and tortillas made by the Comunidad children, with direction from the tribal cooks. Afterward the group headed over to the tribal school, where they heard a fascinating presentation on the history of the PaiPai language and the tribe’s attempts to preserve it. They then played sports with the tribal children until it was time to get on the bus and head back to Ensenada.

On the way back the kids all completed their “Seek and Find” booklets, small exercises generated by Pam Pearson and Horacio Moncada, Comunidad’s Ensenada-based employee. Each page gave the kids a chance to either draw or write something they had learned in the past two days, with the kids encouraged to work in groups to come up with the answers. A completed booklet was rewarded with a much-prized Comunidad baseball cap, which Pam handed out at the farewell dinner.

Overall, the trip was a great success. The tribal leaders and Pam, with input from the participants, are already planning the next trip. Plans call for two school-based Camps, with the possibility of offering Camp Comunidad as a team-building exercise for businesses and organizations.

Perhaps the best evidence of how successful the trip was came from Anya van der Burg, who asked her parents on the way home: “We’re doing this again next summer, right?”