I'm back!

Wow... this has been a super amazing trip! I sometimes can't believe how lucky I am to be able to experience all these all at once in such a short period of time. First it was Columbia and now Arizona. And its not only just visiting Arizona and going around the tourist attractions. I actually went to the Navajo Reservation and visited the Navajo people. I learned so much about the native American Indian people. Not only did I visited their houses with them welcoming us with open arms, I ate their food, visited the office of President of the Navajo nation, have them perform a religious ceremony to us wishing us a safe journey back, and learned all about their creation story, culture, and lifestyle of the Navajo people.




I never knew a single thing about any Native Americans before I went on this trip let alone who the Navajo people were. But now I can safely say that I do know something about them. That they are a group of strong people that in the midst of adversity, can still build up their nation and maintain their cultural identity.

It took us almost 15 hours to get to our destination on the first day. We left at 8am in the morning and only reached our campsite at 11pm. We were supposed to camp outside on the first night and boy was it cold. It was around 2 to 3 Celsius! Imagine sleeping outside in this weather! It was terribly cold and something that I wouldn't wanna experience again. Once in a lifetime is definitely good enough.

The wind was super strong adding to the terrible coldness that everyone felt. Within 45 minutes, all the tents were set up and people started to build a fire.

The traditional house that the Navajo people used to live is called the Hogan.




Which is kinda like the igloo but the only difference is that it is build using wood. Its an octagonal shape with the fireplace right in the middle of it.



There was only one hogan and there wasn't any specifications on who is going to sleep inside the hogan. Obviously everyone wanted to sleep inside the hogan but there was this one gal, who was allergic to dogs so she was given the priority to sleep inside. And because I was kinda her friend, I stayed inside to accompanied her.




You cannot imagine how warm it is to be inside the hogan. Even without the fire, you can totally feel the difference between just standing outside and going inside the hogan. I already had a super hard time sleeping side the hogan because it was kinda cold, but imagine sleeping inside the sleeping bed, in the tent in 2 degrees Celsius!




Oh my god.

I was really lucky though. We even had beds to sleep in while the others had only sleeping beds on the cold hard ground!

Unfortunately I think the cold still caught up on me and I'm falling sick now.






I shall blog about this trip of mine later. I really hope I do though because I really wanna document my experience. It will be such a waste if it just stays in my memories because memories fade easily.