Its over! Finito!

Today marks the end of a rather fantastic adventure. Being a cashier at the BCNHA. Its been quite ride ladies and gents, one I wasn't sure I was going to survive a few times. But, in the end, I am richer and overall happy with the experience.

I'm probably going to miss the never ending entertainment of the tourists, despite their rank stench and lack of  fashion consciousness they were honestly the highlight of my day. Isn't it amazing that people from all over the world would travel to rural Utah to see a relatively small canyon. Which actually, I learned from Sean Duffy, isn't a canyon at all. Because canyons are formed by rivers, and if you'll notice, there is no river in Bryce, thus making it its own special thing that doesn't actually have a name. Oh gosh, did I just go on a nerdy ranger rant? My apologies. The point is, kids my age are so anxious to get out of Southern Utah to do 'something'. I assume that Northern Utah kids are the same. But guess what? We have a bazillion (yes that's an exact count) of volunteer kids from EVERYWHERE that are super enthusiastic about getting to live, briefly, in such a beautiful area. Granted, this is probably due to the fact that they are all big science nerds (no offense ladies and gents no offense) that are surrounded by things they love to study.
Maybe, Utah isn't the most glamorous or happenin place on earth, but it is in fact quite lovely and wonderful in its own right.

Sometimes, and yes this is about to get super cheesy, when I would be cleaning up the prairie dog display for the millionth time or dealing with grouchy mean people, I would remind myself that every single person who walked through the door of the visitor center was special and had a story. Jesus loved them all, even when I wasn't feeling overly fond of them. That Jesus fellow knows what's up.

Besides the fat wad of cash I gained from this job, I also collected a small, but pretty legit, sum of foreign coins. Some were given to me on accident, Euros and Canadian money look really similar believe it or not. And some were given to me as a gift. Like my good luck coin from the Italian man. Two girls that are currently waitressing at the Lodge from China each gave me a Chinese coin for helping them learn our money system. Frankly, I'm not sure if it was the Lodge's best idea to hire foreigners who don't know our money to work in their establishment that is full of foreigners who also don't know our money. But hey, not my place to judge right?


As you've read probably too many times, I've been lucky to meet truly amazing people. My  very favorites, hands down, I didn't ever blog about. Because it was almost too special to simply blog about. I didn't feel like I could tell their stories with the justice they required. Most likely, I'm going to slaughter it in my attempt to tell you right now.

In the first week I worked at BCNHA, I noticed two women come in with three or four kids. Like any other family they played with the animals and thumbed through the books and whatnot. It wasn't until I watched more closely that I saw that both of the women were deaf. All of the children were hearing. When they came to check out, I learned that they were sisters, a mother and aunt traveling with their kids/nieces. The aunt spoke haltingly and somewhat garbled, but remarkably clear. She told me that they were visiting many of the national parks while their hearing husbands stayed at home. The mother, couldn't speak at all, and occasionally uttered frightening noises of frustration to her children when they misbehaved.It sounds insensitive to say, but deaf people make extremely frightening noises due to the fact that they don't know what sound they're making. The children, only half signed to their deaf mother and aunt. They spoke to them and they mother and aunt would sign back. I know there are a lot of deaf people out there, and I know that many of them are blessed and capable to live normal lives. But for some reason, these woman touched me, I admire the bravery it would require to travel hundreds of miles away from home, without your husbands, and try to communicate with others who probably, often can't understand you.

The next story, happened on one of the busy crazy days. The kind of day where we had huge lines and impatient people wanting to buy their overpriced magnet and get back on the tour bus. I saw a little girl in a pink baseball cap, carrying one of our birds around. She petted the feathers down and hugged it tightly to her. I smiled thinking that I was going to be ringing up a bird for that little girl soon. To my surprise, she put it back into the bin and picked up another bird and repeated the ritual. In the next ten or fifteen minutes, she had picked up and snuggled every single bird in our bin. Almost like she had to show every single stuffed bird that they were loved. I also noticed some other tourists taking pictures of her. I figured it was because of how cute she was treating our birds, and then she turned around. Looking at her it was apparent that she had some sort of facial disfigurement or birth defect. They weren't taking pictures of her because of her cute action, but rather her somewhat strange appearance. Not to be racist, but Asians like to take as many pictures of people at Bryce as they do of the Canyon. I'm fairly certain I'm going to be famous in some small Asian village because of this fact. Even though she wasn't my child, and I didn't know her, I was hurt that people would be so cruel. In fact, the whole incident bothered me for the rest of the day. Around closing time, she came in again with her family. This time she straightened  the passport section and looked longingly at the puzzles. I watched as she desperately tried to communicate to her dad that she wanted a puzzle, only to have him glare and her and ignore her. But then I watched as her mother protectively put an arm around her and glared at every single person who dared to stare or take a picture of her child. Very last minute right as we were going to close they bought her the puzzle she'd been pining for. Shannon told her that she had a very pretty hat, and while she seemingly ignored Shannon's comment while her parents coached her to say thank you, I could see the pleased look on her face from being complimented.
The overall experience, in a way disturbed me. For a society that claims to be forward thinking and accepting of everyone, there were plenty of rude judgemental stares at a little girl who couldn't help how she had been made. I was hurt and angry at the seemingly embarrassed father who wanted to pretend like this child who was receiving the stares wasn't his. But,I was touched at the protective mother who probably would've attacked anyone who dared take a picture of her daughter.
I wondered to myself as I drove home that night what kind of special spirit that little girl was. Who she had been in the life before and how much I'm sure that God loves her small spirit that's encased in that imperfect body.


Beyond all of the hilarious encounters I've had with the tourists, its the more melancholy and serious ones that I'm going to remember. I'm sorry this post was like drowning in the cheesyness factor, but everyone needs a little queso in their life right? (Do you get my pun? good)

Peace and Blessings y'all :) Onto the next adventure