The Cold is Here

It is Thursday evening and this is the last week of fieldwork. This is good because the days are starting to get colder out here at the duck pond. It seems like as the days get colder the number of people out here decreases.

There is an older woman, Misty, sitting under a tree reading a book. Occasionally she stands up and takes a few steps around before continuing to read, I assume she must be standing up to stretch her muscles for a bit.  She sticks around until a little before the sun goes down.

A young man, Norman, is walking his dog down international mall. He throws a ball forward and the dog brings it back. They continue to do this as they keep walking and never stop in my area.

A group of students come out of Piñon hall and sit on the grass for a few minutes. They don’t stay long and head back to the dorms right away, I didn’t really see the point of them coming out.

A larger group of about ten students approach the pond and gather around the edge of the water. They came very close to me and set up about 15 yards away. They gather around in a circle and light candles. They stand in the grass speaking but not very loud. From the looks of it I believe they might be praying. They stick around for about 15 minutes before they blow out the candles and head back where they came from.

Across the water I could hear a few people who appear to be arguing. They didn’t come here together, they might just of had an unfriendly encounter. I think they might be arguing over a fishing spot or something to do with the fishing. They are raising their voice and one of them appears to give up. He picks up his things and heads over by the bridge.

A young couple, Olson and Patricia, dressed in workout clothes jog down the sidewalk.  Olson stops and talks with one of the fisherman for a few seconds before they continue their run.

The number of people out here seems to have gone down since the first week. Nowadays most people I see are people passing by heading somewhere else not many stick around anymore. I use to see kids occasionally playing in the grass and you don’t see them very much anymore.