translation

I realized that I should probably explain what Ashla Piwape means.  When I first moved to California we lived in area that used to be inhabited by the Luiseno Indian Tribe.  I felt I wanted a name that fit with the land. 

So I found a wonderful site that will personally help with many Native American language translations.  I told the lady I wanted a name that embodied my animals: donkeys, horse, dogs and how protective they are.  There were several choices. Ashla pronounced ahhsh-la, means both guardian spirit and domesticated animal.  Syunla means heart.  The words for long ears or small hooves would be very long: Tavulvush Nagla and Alu’mal Syulat respectively.  But the word for gray fur is Piwape pronounced pee-wah-pay.

Obviously the words had to flow a bit so I chose Ashla Piwape: gray fur guardian spirit. 

In Ohio my farm name was Gramadoelas which is an Afrikaans word meaning way out in the back of beyond, since I was in the ‘sticks’ of southern ohio at the top of a hill at the end of a dead end road it seemed fitting (it was a word a heard in a wonderful movie about the Truth and Reconciliation Trials in South Africa called In My Country based on a book Country of My Skull).