First Week in Zuni

I arrived in Zuni, New Mexico after an uneventful 10ish hour drive. The drive was quite pretty and varied from the Colorado mountains to desert southwest to city to multicolored sandstone buttes to pine forests. Zuni is definitely off the beaten path! I've posted some photos within this email and also linked to a photo album you can access at the top right corner of the page by clicking on the photo under "Zuni, New Mexico Photos".

My first week went well overall. I'm living in a duplex across the street from the hospital which I share with a room-mate. The Zuni Hospital where I am doing my clinical is a 35 bed hospital that contains outpatient, inpatient, urgent care and an emergency room in the same building. There is 1 PT, 1 OT and 1 Podiatrist along with 2 Medical Assistants that make up the rehab department for the hospital. Our patients are primarily Zuni and Navajo with a few Hopi native Americans. We primarily see orthopedic injuries but also see inpatients, do wound care, well child checks, elder checks, and some neuro. We will do a spinal cord injury clinic in Gallup mid May and we may have an amputee clinic at some point while I am here. Many of the problems we see are related to Diabetes and alcohol abuse which are both sadly running rampant here. The patients all have interesting stories and I've enjoyed my time in the clinic so far. I had orientation this week and was given some information on Zuni culture. It was by far the most interesting orientation I've ever had. The Zuni have 6 deities in their religion and they can sometimes be seen in town (for real). We were told in orientation that if we see a deity or other masked figure walking down the street to leave them alone, give them the right of way and be careful to mind the speed limit because it will be very bad if we hit them with our car. Yes indeed. We were also warned to carry a stick if we go out walking to fend off the reservation dogs because they have been known to bite people. Ok, check...don't run over deities with my car and avoid the avoid the dogs.

Zuni village is a dry, dusty little town at an altitude of ~6500ft situated amongst a sagebrush desert and colorful sandstone buttes. It is fairly isolated, but has a gas station with a deli counter, a small market with a deli counter, one restaurant (Chu Chus Pizza), and some little shops. Many residents heat their homes with wood burning stoves, there is no wifi in town (not surprising) and most people drive 45 minutes north to Gallup to shop, do laundry and get onto the internet. I am glad I brought some groceries with me! Because Zuni is fairly isolated the Zuni Indians have maintained many of their cultural traditions, which I am learning about little by little. They are a very very old culture and very spiritual. I had the lucky opportunity to stumble upon and attend one of the religious day dances in old town plaza when I was in town with two of the medical residents. It was very colorful and neat to watch. Non-Zuni people are not allowed on the same level as the dancers, however non-Zuni are allowed to watch from the roof tops around the plaza which actually provided a nice vantage point. Karen, one of our medical assistants has said she will let me know when the last night dance of the Shalako celebration is and take me. They don't tend to schedule things; it is just by word of mouth that you find out when the dances happen. The main business here is art including turquoise and silver jewelry, pottery, small carved figurines called fetishes, paintings, and kachinas. Photography is highly discouraged within the village and banned at religious dances, so unfortunately I will not have many photos of the village to share. The Zuni are also known for their sourdough bread baked in huge outdoor ovens overnight. Karen said her biggest oven can hold 60 pounds of flour worth of bread! Good thing I like bread!

My colleagues are all very nice and have been helpful to me. Karen drove me around the village as part of my orientation and showed me a dog-free dirt road where I can walk/hike. As a department we went hiking today and then enjoyed breakfast together. There is also a wellness center across the street from the hospital that is free for me to use. I've attended a zumba class and plan to make good use of it while I am here.

All in all I am settling in and learning a lot on all fronts about Zuni, Navajo, New Mexico and Physical Therapy. It has been a bit overwhelming, but very interesting.