Where do I even begin?

So Wednesday afternoon, we made our way to Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation lands.

My words can’t describe it, and they say a picture is worth 1000 words, so…

The best photos are on my real camera, but basically it’s these crazy rock formations in the middle of the Navajo lands… A LOT of westerns have been filmed there.

So anyway, we had signed up for an overnight package tour that would include a Navajo guide, traditional dinner, sunrise and sunset viewing, tour around the monuments, some Navajo dance demonstrations, and sleeping overnight in a traditional Najavo hogan… Aka mud hut. Sweet.

I was more excited about it than even the Grand Canyon…

I had let my students decide beforehand whether it was something they’d like to do, and they all voted ‘yes’.

But apparently they didn’t read the info because right as we parked and prepared our ‘overnight backpacks’, Yan told me she needed to run back and get her phone charger…

I knew we were in trouble because everyone seemed shocked that there wasn’t going to be electricity for a night.

The night before, the shower already come into question. Everyone seemed really distressed about going one night without a shower. We spent a good hour discussing that there would till be a bathroom and we could still wash our faces and brush our teeth. I finally just said, ‘ok pretend we have a hotel room but the shower is just broken for the night.’ that seemed to settle everyone…

Fast forward to Wednesday evening.

Our guide, John, was awesome. He seemed to enjoy giving tours and knew a lot about his culture… I asked him way too many questions from the beginning, but he was kind enough to answer and not get annoyed…

A cute husband and wife from France joined our tour, but they literally spoke no English… And we spoke no French… So we did a lot of gesturing.

So anyway, John took us around the monuments and told us stories and names and such.

He showed us petroglyphs and pictographs from the ancient Anasazi.

He told us all about their herbs and medicine men and culture and a lot of stuff that sorta went over my head but was interesting.

We bought some awesome handmade jewelry from a girl named Janet who was around my age.

I’ve never met anyone who is Navajo, but I really enjoyed learning just a bit about the ancient culture as well as the modern culture and life. And I really enjoyed talking to Janet about her jewelry making and lifestyle…

After exploring the monuments, we met up with some other tourists and guides for a traditional dinner … A Navajo taco. Basically a taco with a piece of steak rather than ground beef and bread more like naan or chapatti rather than a tortilla.

That’s when Richard, one of the Navajo guides, put on his grass-dancing clothes to demonstrate some traditional dancing for us.

John, our guide, played the drum. Here’s a short clip:

Then, we all got to dance a rain dance together, which was ridiculous.

I was hoping for a more elaborate performance… Fire, lots of dancers, a real rain dance… But I actually ended up liking how it was… Because we got to see Richard as a modern day person and chat about life as well as his ancient culture. He stopped and explained each dance to us and even told some stories. Sometimes, with just a performance for tourists, you don’t get a taste of the folks as real people as a part of the same daily lifeI was hoping for a more elaborate performance… Fire, lots of dancers, a rain dance… But I actually ended up liking how it was… Because we got to see Richard as a modern day person and chat about life as well as his ancient culture. So i enjoyed that. And Richard was pretty funny to talk to.

Then, Richard and John sang the Navajo Happy Birthday song to Jiyeon since her birthday was Thursday (today).

So basically It was awesome 🙂

So then we headed over to our night destination.

It’s going to be hard for me to describe in words, especially words from my
Phone blog app, but I’ll do my
Best.

Imagine yourself in a relatively
Untouched desert valley. Every once in a while youll pass a small house with some animals and perhaps a truck. But everywhere else you pass is smooth reddish sand with a green bush here and there. Surrounding you are those giant sandstone ‘monuments’. When you shout, it echoes. When one dog barks, it sounds like five.

There is no running water in this clean valley. Even with the Navajo who live there, it’s barely touched by human ‘progress’. And there’s something beautiful about that.

The air blowing through is fresh and crisp. Not too hot, not too cold, just perfect.

There’s a hogan (trAditional hut) to our right; a field of desert, an outhouse, and then a giant rock formation in front of us; a small barn with several dogs and trucks to our left; and a huge rock monument behind us.

If you look up, the sky look like a black blanket with tiny diamonds scattered all over it.

More stars than even in Sedona!

John told Navajo stories of the stars and pointed out constellations.

My favorite was the one where the didis (gods i think?) gave each animal a crystal with a magic power they were suppose to do something with. The animals all had a party to decide what to do with their crystals, but they didnt invite the coyote. the coyote got mad and asked why they didn’t invite him and they just told him to leave… So he got mad and grabbed the blanket with all their magic crystals and flung it up into the air. That’s how the Navajo say the stars were created.

Yan and I decided to sleep outside of the hogan under the stars. Jiyeon and Giulia took the hogan (at first). But it was so hot inside that Jiyeon joined us outside eventually.

He started to tell us that these lands have ‘skin walkers’ wandering about at night. He got as far as to tell us that they were the opposite of medicine men or healers… I made him stop there because that stuff freaks me out. (he explained it in the morning and it was way less scary than I had imagined that night). Yan and I were picturing soul-sucking figures who looked like humans walking around looking for humans to possess or something. So we didn’t sleep too much at first…

Eventually I decided Jesus would just have to protect me from any spiritual weirdness and I eventually got so tired that I just didn’t even care anymore if something wanted to eat me either literally or metaphysically.

In the middle of the night, we awoke to the Sounds of horses galloping and winneying around us. They sounded Sooo much closer than they were, so we were a little freaked out at first that we’d get trampled, but after
Realizing they were actually quite far, I LOVED hearing them.

We heard the dog barking at the sheep with the sheep bell during
The night.

And coyotes in the distance.

And every once in a while if your eyes were open, you could see a bat swoop down near us to catch a bug flying our way.

It was awesome.

The other girls were pretty shaken up by having to use the outhouse… I tried to explain that there are worse toilets even in their home countries, but apparently they haven’t used them. But we managed anyway.

The best part was the sunrise. unspeakable.

I’ll end our Navajo experience
There though there is much more to tell.

On the way to Alburqueque (where we are now), we also stopped at 4 corners, where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah all touch.

Also, just in case you were concerned, our hotel does provide a ‘fresh [tv] remote’