NASCHITTI, N.M. — Navajo second- and third-graders at Naschitti Elementary School have become e-mail pen pals with students in Wales, and teachers say the children have much in common.
The contacts began in December when the Naschitti students of Dana Sullivan and Glorita Morris began e-mailing students of similar age in southern Wales.
On Aug. 23, the e-connection developed into a visit by Rayner Rees, head teacher at the Cefn Glas Infants School in Bridgend, Wales, and her husband, Allan. Head teacher is the equivalent of principal.
The couple visited classrooms and conducted a school assembly, educating Naschitti Elementary School's 180 students about Wales.
Rees said Welsh people, like Navajos, are fond of weaving, sheep-herding, cultural expression through artistic endeavors and of preserving centuries-old traditions and language through ceremony and celebration.
"I believe we have a similar problem with preserving our cultures, with ours being the English influence on Wales," she said.
Rees explained that the Welsh, Irish and Scottish peoples are descendants of ancient Celtic tribes who have fought for centuries to preserve their cultures against English assimilation.
Just as Navajos have struggled to preserve their language, the Welsh language almost had disappeared in southern Wales, she said.
"But now we treat it as a compulsory subject," she said.
Gifts were exchanged at Wednesday's assembly — with the school receiving as one gift a traditional Welsh dress for girls.
It is worn every March 1, St. David's Day, as David is the patron saint of Wales.
"They sing Welsh songs and perform Welsh dances on that day," Rees said. "I suppose the festivities are a bit like an Indian ceremonial."
In return, the Naschitti School gave the Reeses a traditional Navajo woman's shirt, belt and dress in a girl's size.
Other gifts brought by the Reeses included a tapestry map of Wales, the dragon-adorned traditional flag of Wales, a stuffed sheep, a doll in a Welsh girl's costume, a "love spoon," typically carved by Welsh men as an expression of affection for their sweethearts, and a plaque with the coat of arms of Bridgend town.
"You're the first ones to actually get this because it's brand new," Rees said of the plaque sent by the mayor of Bridgend.
The Reeses live near Bridgend in Maesteg, Wales.
Naschitti school librarian Tim McGuire presented the Reeses a framed collection of area plants used for Navajo weavers' dye and a compact disc of traditional Navajo music, among other things.
McGuire, who helped initiate the international e-mail contacts, had attended Llandrillo College in Colway Bay, Wales, while on an exchange program from the University of Minnesota.
Rees said one big difference between the two countries is the wide-open space of the Navajo reservation compared with tiny Wales.
Another is the rain in Wales — and the lack of it in Four Corners country, where the Western states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet.
"If we go a week without rain, it's a drought — I'm not joking," Rees said. "And two days of sun is the summer."