Blog 3

Auka (Hola, Hello) from the Kumeyaay Center!

By: Yoon ‘23 and Angelina ‘26

Today was an eventful day for GSL: Tijuana! We traveled to the Kumeyaay Center, picking up four students from Tecate - Saulo, Kevin, Daniel, and Benito. On our way to the Kumeyaay center, we traveled on two buses - one spacious, comfy charter bus and one cramped, half-sized school bus. Debby got this wonderful photo which we think sums up the experience pretty well. 

Once we got to the center, Agustín, the elder of the Kumeyaay people, performed a ceremony where he burned a bundle of sage, using the smoke as a way to welcome us into the community. 

Following this gracious welcome (and a delicious lunch prepared by the local restaurant staff), we received a tour of the Kumeyaay museum from Letti, where we learned about important items, customs, and history of the people. 

During the tour, we learned about a weaving that’s been done for generations and later, we got to take part in this weaving. Using reed, pine needles, and a thick needle, we each created a beautiful necklace. 

Continuing our learning, we got a lesson and small meal involving a collection of traditional Kumeyaay foods, such as a ground acorn dish that takes six hours to prepare and a meal of white corn kernels.

After all of these activities we got a break! Yoon got distracted by a group of turkey vultures that all congregated ominously in one tree, and the whole group played with a weaved, cotton frisbee that Ricárbol brought. The break inevitably ended, though, as we went onto the last guided activity.

The Nature Walk was led by Marlen right at sunset. We took an interpretive trail where we learned about the many important native plants of the Kumeyaay people, such as white sage, foxtail, lentisco, islay, and artemisia californica. While we learned first-hand about their cultural importance, smell, and texture, we also took in the sunset-soaked surroundings of the valley.

Our last major event of the day was our attempt to make a fire, which took much blood (not actually), sweat, tears (not actually), twigs, branches, and paper. Thankfully we got it going.

And Yoon ate five burritos. He was very hongry.

Yoon’s bird corner:

Verdict: birds were abundant 👍