The group representing Belarus visited Tucson on Cultural Language Preservation
Thank you to the Embassy in Lithuania for arranging this visit.
It has been a pleasure to welcome this group to Tucson and introduce them to not only the different cultural sites but also the languages of the area. They had the opportunity to meet with Nadia and the language department of the Pascua Yaqui and learn of how they are retaining the tribal language. They also met with Chairman Austin Nunez at the Tohono O’odham and learned of how the language is a key component of the life of this tribal nation. Follow that up with a morning at Salpointe High School and the Spanish department with Natalia Owens and Jennifer Ardemis to learn of the teaching of Spanish followed by lunch with the students. Thanks to Kay Sullivan, President and CEO of the school for arranging this opportunity.
Of course, no visit to Tucson would be complete without a visit to the Desert Museum and Trail Dust Town so they experienced that too! Also the Case Grande Ruins, Amerind Museum, Camp Fort Lowell and the Pima County Historic Courthouse were sites they got to visit. The mixer with members of the Alliance at Monterey Court Cafe was a success with great conversations and new friends.
All this followed up by a dinner with the host families at Opa’s where the certificates of completion were handed out.
Here are some photos of the group.
None of this could have been accomplished without the fantastic home stay hosts, Bill and Anita Jones, Tom and Thea Chester, Casey Woods and Pat and Greg Watson. These hosts open their homes to the visitors for the week, providing some meals (those not arranged in the evening for events or lunches during the programming days), transporting the visitors to Pima Downtown to meet each other to start and end their days and sharing their homes for the week. What a wonderful involvement of volunteers!!