Author: robertalfaro28

The first week of the program I had a lot of interacting with my peers. I had a lot of fun with the mentors and I had a very good experience. One day in theatre we made a little alter and everyone put something on the alter and shared a story about what they put on the alter, after that some people got emotional (which I get) but as the program went on it seemed like everyday some one new would get emotional. I think that in the mornings as we got up really early to go play traditional games with hector it would give us energy as the day started. After the first week we traveled to Wishtoyo. Then went to Limu island for a few days, while the wifi barely worked I felt like i was able to bond with other people other than the people I already knew. I felt like we got closer after we weren’t in any dorms and had to be out with others Wishtoyo. Overall the program was really fun and for some reason I thought there would be more activities, I had really fun in all the classes but my favorite had to be blogging. Gina is so fun and taught me blogging is really fun. thank you Scott for giving me the opportunity to be apart of this program.

At Wishtoyo i learned so much about the Chumash people. The first night was amazing as we were greeted in with a traditional song and that alone was an honor to me. the next day we left to Limu Island. we walked about three miles just to get to where we were staying, after some of us bonded over some games of pool. The next day we went down to the beach. On our last day on the island we went kayaking and snorkeling, I personally liked kayaking more because it was more easier and fun than snorkeling.As we were on our way back to where the boat leaves us we saw a lot of dolphins and saw a wale, it was really amazing because i never seen a wale. On our second to last day at Wishtoyo we had an all men’s ceremony and it was really encouraging to hear what the elders had to give us as advise. overall my time at both Wishtoyo and Limu island was really amazing and id like to thank them all for having there with them

An object that I would put on the alter would be my inhaler. I chose this because when I need assistance with my breathing I always use my inhaler to open up my lungs and get my breathing back to normal. A tradition that has meaning to me is before Easter and Christmas me and my family get together at the cemetery and decorate my great grandmothers grave for her. It means a lot to us and makes us all feel like she is still with us. A tradition i’d like to create is the peers from my school that I came to the Pitzer Pipeline with take our clapping sticks and use them as we give thanks to the four directions in the morning.

Ok so in the morning I woke up much better than yesterday, I was not tired and i was ready to go! We learned and played more indigenous games and I had a really fun time. We threw spears at some kind of tree and threw some more spears to see our distance. After we looked for scholarships and made a fastweb account which is a website for scholarships, then we shifted over and watched some indigenous short films, I liked two out of three. Later on in the day we traveled to Western University and leaned about the heart and some other things like the kidney. We were able feel hearts, lungs, and a kidney. Then we went to another part of Western University which was called “virtual reality lab”where on a big tablet we were able to set it up to take out the skin and see the heart(it was not a real person). Today was a little hard as well because it was my moms birthday and i felt really bad I could not be there with her.

Today was very hard waking up (again) but it was much more fun I got out of bed. The highlights of my day was in the morning during  martial arts we learned a traditional way that Hectors ancestors trained. Then we went to writing admission and i really like that class because t keeps me busy and helps me improve my writing skills. My next highlight was talking about the scholarships because I found out about some pretty weird scholarships. Then one of my favorite parts of the day came, lunch. After lunch we had an hour break and it felt good to just relax. We went to theater and today was different, usually we have fun but today seemed a little emotional as we created a alter in the middle of the class. A lot of us opened up about meaningful things to us and i feel like that brought us all together.

Hope you all had a fantastic day.

We got a few papers from Joe Parker one that was titled “Zapatista Movement Major Event” which told us about the organizations within the Zapatista movement, and one of the things that stood out to me the most was the resilience. One thing that I am passionate and want to see a change in the world is racism, to me it feels like it causes people to question themselves. Racism creates an environment where people do not respect or trust each other racism really discriminates people and can reduce them from achieving their goals.

Today i woke up, sadly at 6:30. My day started off by doing traditional games and after we went to breakfast. Later on we went visited a lab at Pomona college and seen glowing worms that were made by some genetic sea creature. After we went to lunch then went to the Pomona museum and learned how to make a traditional basket. We came back to Pitzer and seen a movie about the Native American people. What I got from the films were that cowboys were always shown as good people while the Indians were shown as the bad ones. Also Indians couldn’t get a role to play an Indian in a movie.

My first impression was a fun, I learned how to make a clapping stick, and expressed myself during theater.  I am going with the flow and enjoying myself with others. I can not wait for tomorrows new adventures.

Hello, my name is Robert Alfaro and I live in Live in Los Angeles with my mom, two sisters, and grandma. I attend Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School. I am sixteen years old and i will be a senior this upcoming school year. During my free time I enjoy going to skate parks with my friends. Skateboarding is something I do to clear my mind and release stress. When i was in the tenth grade I completed and passed my personal project.  Now, I am very excited to be a part in participating in this program and cant wait to gain new experiences.

Thank you.