Navajo Nation Trip : Beyond Expectation

Navajo Nation is the largest Indian reservation, mainly located in Arizona but some of the area extends to New Mexico and Utah. To go to the Navajo Nation, we (me and 15 International students) took two vans and one car from downtown Scottsdale. We started at 7.30 a.m. and arrived in Many Farms,Chinlle - Navajo Nation, at 2.15 p.m. Once I saw the city with dinosaur statues near the street, I had to set my clock one hour ahead from Arizona time because Navajo Nation observes daylight savings time.

Beautiful Canyon is Navajo Nation's main attraction

We stayed with Christina and Ollie and had an agenda to help them build house corral. Ollie works at the hospital and he is a Navajo and usually they call themselves Dine; Christina is an Anglo and an anthropologist. This newly wed couple was so kind and let us stay in traditional Navajo house called Hogan. Even though they have the modern house, but they still keep the tradition to have hogan, a modern ones made of cement. 

Modern Hogan

“This is one of the most important things you need to know,” said Christina when she gave us a tour in her house and ranch. 

She opened the wooden door and I held my breath. The smell was terrible. I took a glimpse and could not stand it at all. I ran out away when Christina opened the cover of the toilet. I stood five meters away from the two- meter wood building called a “natural bathroom” or outhouse. The funny thing is those outhouse has two sit toilet next to each other.

"Yes, so you can chit chat with each other." said Christina when I asked why.

Outhouse - Navajo Nation

In the next morning, Ollie and Christina woke up before us. They taught us steps and gave instructions on building the corral. We were divided into small groups and did what they said. The soil was hard and dry. We need the machine to dig deeper and put the poles. At 2 p.m., the fence was built nicely and consisted of 19 poles. We named the pole as International pole and we each put our names in each pole.

Ollie let us had fun with his truck

Work hard, Play harder

Lenny's Pole

After a tiring day, all I wanted to do is standing under the shower and rinse off the dirt from my body but unfortunately I couldn't. We did not have running water in the bathroom or kitchen and even for drinking and cooking. The bathroom is just the place where they store some things. The only way to wash the dish was to put the water into two washbowl. The First washbowl was used to wash the dishes and the second washbowl was to rinse the dishes. Because there was no running water, the family had to buy their own mineral bottle for drinking, cooking and another uses. Ollie gets the water in Chinlle with his car and fill it up in big containers. That is why Christina told us to use the water wisely.

Luckily, the weather was warm in the morning, windy in the noon and cooler in the night. The himidity is very low and I didn't sweat much, so I felt fine not taking a shower for three days. I only washed my face and brushed my teeth. But for Christina and her husband, they takes a shower once a week. They will go to Ollie sister house to take a shower. For them, no shower every day is totally accepted.

After yummy dinner with Navajo frybread, everyone sat around the bonfire. Every participant from each country sang his/her own song. My friends and I sang "Disini senang Disana Senang" means here happy, there happy song from Indonesia and we taught the others too. Together we sang the song beautifully.  After that, we got introduced by s’more. S’more stands for something more which is a typical snack for camping. S’mores is consist of crackers, chocolate and grilled marshmallows. The S’more were really delicious and sweat. Two is enough for me, I'm not a sweet tooth though.

Bon Fire

Wanna some more?

By the end of the night, Ollie and Christina told us stories about Navajo myths. My friends also shared spooky stories of their own experience about spirits. I was so scared but had to hear everything until finished. I waited to go to bathroom, afraid to be alone in the empty and dark desert. Actually I held to go to bathroom all the day because I couldn't go to outhouse. Christina gave me the air sanitizer but the mix of the smell made it worse. Usually I took really long breath and held it as long as I can inside outhouse then rushed to go outside after finish it. Dont ever looked down!

So tonight, I had an idea to do my call nature in a real nature. I couldn't do it in a day because Navajo Nation is a flat area with no tree. I asked my friend to come with me and with permission from Christina, we did it!

Nonetheless, when the trip was over, I felt sad. Christina cried when we said good bye. We hugged each other and I promised I would never forget this moment.


Life is hard in Navajo Nation, they dont have everything here, just basic necessities. But as Dine believes, this place is the place belong to them designed by their creator and guarded by four sacred mountains, this is where you should be. Life is good, you just have to work hard.

International poles and students

anyway... I had good times peeing under beautiful stars.