by Debby Buchanan

The Connection, November 2003

Once upon a time, I lived with my husband and two sons in a remote little village known as Arivaca. It was a wonderful place to raise a family. In all my travels, I had never lived any place where the people were as friendly, loving and kind. The residents were utterly dedicated to their families and community, and I jumped right in with all I had to offer. Sure there were occasional feuds and petty squabbles. And, yes, Politics was an ever-present force, along with the Border Patrol. Cows wandered the streets and ate people's gardens. But I loved it there with all my heart. In fact, I still do.

It's been 9 years since we moved away, and believe me, it wasn't easy to go. But after 38.years of desert life, I desperately needed a change of environment. We found our new home in the NW corner of Oregon, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific, and I'm totally in love with the place. Yet Arivaca remains dear to my heart—it is my spirit home. Meanwhile, it's been quite an adventure since we first cast our fates to the wind and left Arizona. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the wide world awaiting me beyond our little mud house in the desert. As it turns out, that tiny mud house has been a gigantic impetus in my journeys, even though we left it far behind.

How so? About 20 years ago, my husband, Kenny, wrote a lovely little story called “This House is Made of Mud.” As he tells it, it was more like the story came through him than from him: Our second son had just been born, and Kenny was feeling so full of love for that little bundle of joy, that he asked himself one day, “If I could give my son any gift in the world to make his life better, what would it be?" The answer that popped into his head was, “It would be a world that lived in harmony.” He reasoned that the world starts with your home. And your home starts with your house—plus the creatures you share it with, and the land that surrounds it. It doesn't have to be a fancy house. It could even be made of mud, and be built by your family.

And so the story was born. It starts: “This House is made of Mud. We made it, my Brothers and Sisters, and Mother and Father. We built this house from Earth and Water and Straw. We mixed them all together, and together made our Home.”

I loved the story from the start, and I always believed in its potential. So I helped with the editing, typing, searches for publishers, and sending it out. I also offered encouragement and prodding when Kenny got discouraged and let it sit for long periods of time. In the end, it took 7 years to find a publisher.

Now some people don't realize that we didn't build a house and then write a story about it. The story came first, and it was our dream ever after to build a mud house in the desert, just like the one in the story. Oddly enough, that also took 7 years. As it turns out-and I don't consider this to be a coincidence at all—the very week that the house was completed enough that we moved in, a publisher bought the story. It was as though we had to manifest the house physically before we could manifest the book—then bam!

Sadly, very few children's writers get truly rich or famous, and the competition to publish is tremendous. But the book has done fairly well—selling around 70,000 copies so far. From the beginning, I had always believed it had the potential to become a “Reading Rainbow” book, and sure enough, it did. It also received a state library award, and it's been republished several times, including by the NWF in one of their children's magazines. Those accolades have brought with them the wonderful by-product of invitations for public speaking. It started with This House, and expanded with our next two books, Lizards on the Wall and It Rained on the Desert Today. At first we only went to schools in Arizona. But when we left the state in 1994 is when the adventures truly began.

For a while we visited schools together, but eventually Kenny dropped out and I began making solo appearances. With the innovation of the Internet, I have been able to arrange speaking engagements all over the world. Riding on the wave of good fortune that began with a simple little story about a house made of mud, I have now been to 100 schools, 50 libraries, and numerous conferences spanning 15 U.S. states, from Florida to Washington, and from Vermont to Hawaii, where I celebrated my 50th birthday in a school, bedecked in fragrant orchid leis and surrounded by smiling children. I recently estimated that I have talked to about 50,000 children thus far.

But the adventures didn't stop there. There were two places I had dreamed of visiting since I was a little girl. One goal was Salzburg and the Bavarian Alps. By booking 10 schools in Germany, I finally got to visit Bavaria in the fall of 1998, and it was all that I'd imagined! I also got to visit the places around Heidelberg where my father's ancestors had lived before migrating to the New World in 1710.

The other place was Africa — especially Kenya, where I'd long dreamed of going on safari. It took 40 years, but being an author finally got me there. In the fall of 2000, I had the tremendous pleasure of spending 5 weeks visiting 4 countries in SE Africa, including the tropical island of Zanzibar, where I enjoyed a bungalow on the Indian Ocean. I also went on a 3-day safari in the Masai Mara in Southern Kenya, traveling there by small plane flying over the Great Rift Valley. I was there for the migration of the wildebeests, and I was close enough to a wild lion to reach out and touch him as he rested beside our open jeep! I also had the rare treat to see 3 cheetahs try to bring down a topi. In fact, in those few days, I saw nearly every wild animal known to the Serengetti, and since it was spring south of the Equator, most species had adorable little babies. '" I also met Masai warriors, and I even learned to speak some Swahili. Flying from NW Oregon t6 Johannesburg took me almost as far around the 'globe from north to south and east to west as a person can go without being on their way back home again! It was the adventure of a lifetime and it didn't cost me a dime. (I traded my author services.)

Oddly enough that little mud house made another lifetime dream come true for me, but in a different way. As with so many Arivaca families in the late 80's-early 90's, our money, was tighter than tight. Exotic adventures were little more than dreams, and they certainly didn't seem within the realm of possibilities. Then, about 7 years ago, one of our dearest friends bought that little mud house, and we cleared a little cash in the deal. Because my family was never happy with me for tearing them away from their home, one of the compensations offered was that each family member would get $500 from the proceeds to spend in any way they desired.

I was planning a trip to Tucson with my share, when I happened to get a call from a lifelong friend in Michigan. Her family owned a timeshare in Cancun, and she invited me down for a week. The cost of each trip was equal, so I weighed my options for a moment: Tucson/Cancun/Tucson….Cancun!! 2 days later I was off to the Yucatan! While I was there I did something I had always wanted to do—more than almost anything I had ever wanted to do—I swam with dolphins! I also went to the Mayan ruins at Tulum, Xcaret, and Chichén Itza. It was amazing!

During those earlier years, when my whole life was centered in the village of Arivaca, I had almost forgotten that there was a whole wide world out there just waiting to be explored. But what amazes me the most is that the whole adventure began with a simple little story about a house made of mud.

And I am far from finished, I guarantee you. In fact, I'm just getting started. This summer, Arizona Governor, Janet Napolitano, decided to choose one book to give to every first grader in the state as part of her campaign to promote literacy. She chose This House is Made of Mud because the simple language is perfect for 1st graders; it's bilingual—a big plus in Arizona; and many people think the story is narrated by a Native American child. Of course the child in the book is never described, so it could be any child you imagine. But it's true that the sentiments in the story reflect the traditional reverence for Mother Nature, and the round house is definitely reminiscent of a hogan.

The books will be distributed to 80,000 Arizona 1st graders at the beginning of November, and as a result of this incredible good fortune, I have been booking school and library visits all around the state, including Arivaca. I hope some of you will come out and see me at the Arivaca Library at noon on Saturday, Nov. 8th. I may have spent the past 9 years traveling around the world, but I have earned each and every one of you with me in my heart. Deep down in my spirit, Arivaca will always be my home.