wfn.org | Volunteers at Hopi Mission School unique

[Beth Hawn]

Microsoft Mail v3.0 (MAPI 1.0 Transport) IPM.Microsoft Mail.Note
To:  Worldwide Faith News
Date: 1998-06-11 13:43
Priority: 3
Message ID: DA9CD9672801D211AAB0006008075ABF
Conversation ID: Volunteers at Hopi Mission School unique  

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 June 10, 1998
Mennonite Board of Missions
Beth Hawn
219-294-7523
NEWS@MBM.org

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. (GCMC/MBM) -Mennonite Voluntary Service brings to mind
jobs in various social-service agencies and communal living in a unit
house in a mixed-income, mixed-ethnic, urban setting, right? Right.

Except for Kykotsmovi.

The Kykotsmovi MVS unit has no trouble pointing out the ways in which   
they are
an exception to most rules.  The current unit consists of five people -   
Sam
and Kathy Coffman, Harold Enns, Shannon Wiens and Gary Wittig - who work
at Hopi Mission School (Sam takes care of maintenance; the rest are   
teachers
in grades K-6). In addition, Herman Lapp, a former MVSer, shares a house
with Enns and is also employed at the school [see related story].

The six live in four separate houses, though none is more than a good   
stone's
throw from the others or from the school itself. They go to work at the   
same
place. And their MVS job descriptions caution that those who come to Hopi   

Mission School "must be able to live and work in a remote area" is
no exaggeration.

Hopi Mission School sits on the outskirts of the town of  Kykotsmovi on   
the
Hopi Reservation, 1.8-million acres of mesas and smaller tablelands   
rising
out of the Colorado Plateau in northeastern Arizona. The nearest large
grocery store, movie theater and hospital are in Flagstaff, 90 miles   
away.
Staples, however, are available (at higher prices) in the small store in
Kykotsmovi and emergency medical assistance is only 30 miles distant at
Indian Health Services in Keams Canyon.

"It's like living in a foreign country," said Wittig, who came to Hopi   
Mission
School in 1995. "The Hopi have their own culture, their own language and
institutions.  It's not like an 'ethnic neighborhood,' where there might   
be
several cultures together. It's a Hopi place, and we're the foreigners."

It's probably no coincidence, however, that all six unit members had
previous experience in "out-of-the-way" locations before they came to
Kykotsmovi. Wittig taught for a year at a Bureau of Indian Affairs school   
on
the Navajo reservation in New Mexico before coming to Hopi Mission   
School.
Lapp did some of his student teaching on the Navajo reservation in   
Ganado,
Ariz. Enns' four years teaching in Canada included a year in the Arctic.   
Sam
and Kathy Coffman (who, with Enns, began MVS terms in 1997) most recently   

worked aboard "Mercy Ships" run by Youth With a Mission - living on the   
Hopi
reservation seems "great, after being so crammed together," Sam said.

Wiens did come to Kykotsmovi in 1995 from an urban area - Chicago, where   
she
served in a program for homeless people with Brethren Voluntary Service.
Before that, she had worked for 12 years in a school in Colorado. She   
first came
to the reservation to visit a friend at Hopi Mission School and was drawn   
back
by the "sunshine, blue sky, wide open space."

None of them seems to regret living so far from the amenities of an urban   

setting. They just have to plan a bit more carefully -  such as   
collecting a list
of errands for when someone goes to Flagstaff or buying groceries in   
bulk.

It would be easy for all free time to go into school-related things, so   
unit
activities are taken seriously. There are unit meals once a week and   
evenings
spent playing games or watching TV or videos together. The MVSers try to   
go
"off reservation" regularly for some kind of recreation such as bowling   
or
ice skating.

Each person has favorite individual recreation as well. Kathy Coffman
enjoys working in a flower bed planted by a previous occupant of the   
house
where she and Sam now live. Lapp likes to "sit outside, talk to Jake [his   
dog]
and look at the stars."

"The word is out that Harold can play piano for funerals and weddings,"   
Wiens
said.

"It's so quiet here," she adds. "No sirens, no car alarms, just a few   
barking
dogs. We love the quiet."

"The landscape seems bleak at first," Sam Coffman said.  Another unit
member recalls one volunteer who arrived with a U-Haul, got it half   
unloaded,
then re-loaded it, turned around and left. "But the longer you're here,   
the
less desolate it seems."

None has trouble listing the rewards of their MVS placement. "It's the   
pay,"
said Lapp, keeping a straight face. After spending 1996-97 as an MVSer,   
he
returned for another year, living only on support from friends and   
family,
plus free housing from the school.

"You work for the day, not for the future - it's easier to concentrate on   
things
that are happening right now," Enns said.
   

"It's seeing little things that let you know you're accepted by the   
locals,"
Sam Coffman said. "I went up to the store [in Kykotsmovi] one time and   
when I
went to the counter, the check-out person looked at the ice cream I'd   
picked
out and said, 'The other kind's on sale.' I thought, 'Well, I must be
accepted.'"

"Jane [Polingyouma, principal and first-grade teacher] was teaching Hopi,   

using the corn with its different colors," Wiens said. "She happened to
mention that 'Miss Wiens really likes somiviki,' a blue corn pudding   
boiled
in a corn husk. So the next day, one of her students brought me some."

Wittig, Wiens, Kathy Coffman and Enns, who are classroom teachers, and
Lapp, who runs the computer lab and the sports program, agree that the   
Hopi
Mission School children are "great."

"The students have taught me a lot about generosity," Lapp said. "I watch   
them
share money, at concession stands or on field trips, with no thought of
getting it back. They just want to make sure everyone has some."

The Hopi Mission School assignment also is different because volunteers   
are
encouraged, though not required, to commit to two years instead of the   
usual
one. Although both Wiens and Wittig originally said they could promise   
only
one year, both have now extended into 1999, making a fourth year for   
each.
"The school needs continuity, and that's one reason I've stayed so long,"   

Wiens said. "It takes a year to find your way around, and two years for   
people in
the village to talk to you.

"My first year was a bit of a challenge," she said. "But then I thought   
I'd stick
around another year to see if they [kindergarten class] really could   
read."

All six agree that the school's most pressing need is to find an   
administrator
who is willing to stay longer than a year. Jane Polingyouma, a   
first-grade
teacher, has filled in as principal during 1997-98, with Wiens and Lapp
taking some of the administrative responsibilities as well, but they   
don't
expect to continue this arrangement into the next school year.

A small school - though its size is one of its charms - that constantly
struggles with funding and administrative needs also makes the Hopi   
Mission
School placement one of the most uncertain. But the MVSers who have   
chosen to
be there are at peace with being different.   "We hear 'except for   
Kykotsmovi'
so much, we know we're unique," said Sam Coffman.                      
* * *

Melanie Zuercher is news service editor for the General Conference
Mennonite Church. Mennonite Voluntary Service is a joint program of the
Commission on Home Ministries of the General Conference Mennonite Church
and Mennonite Board of Missions of the Mennonite Church.

PHOTOS AVAILABLE
1. Herman Lapp talks with Jane Polingyouma, Hopi Mission School   
principal.
2. Shannon Wiens with kindergarten class.
3. Harold Enns with his Grades 5 and 6 class.
4. Kathy Coffman with former MVSer Pearl Janzen.
5. Kathy Coffman at blackboard.
6. Gary Wittig with his Grades 3 and 4 class.
7. Sam Coffman with minivan purchased with Campbell's soup labels sent by   
Sunday school classes, women's groups, churches and individuals from all   
over North America.
8. Hopi Mission School.
9.  Children practicing for the Hopi Mission School Easter program
(two different shots).