DAY TWO

I went back to work today at Ak Chin. The air in the clinic out there is gritty, you can taste dirt in it.

When we were in Albuquerque New Mexico I took a class for my certification for my new employer. I met a gentleman who had travelled to the Phoenix area working as a nurse. He complained about the filthy air, the crowded congested traffic, and the general unpleasantness of his experience. At the time I was taken aback by his statements and thought to myself "why in the world are we taking our children into such a horrible sounding place?". I dismissed his comments as grumbling from a unhappy man, although he didn't appear unhappy. I needed to convince myself we weren't heading into some overpopulated dirt clod filth farm.

Well we've seen a lot of the Phoenix area and some points this man stated have born out to be true. In several of the pictures on the blog you can see mountains shrouded in the film of filth hanging in the air. Today as I drove home I could see the brown stain that marked the air above the greater Phoenix region and I remembered vividly the look on that traveller's face. I could actually recognize the same look on my face.

The air appears to be permanently wrecked like those white shirts in the Tide commercials where the kid plays in mud all day and Brand X fails to remove the dirt, only leaves a faint dark smudge after the wash. They need Tide for the air.

The filth appearing in the air you can see. Drive to Maricopa or Ak Chin and you suddenly become afraid to breathe deeply. The smell reminds you of a ripe overcrowded cow farm and engulfs your senses. The past few years people have built new houses all over Maricopa. I wonder if the smell or the people came first.