Ruth Roessel and 7 Hour Journey

For two nights, I slept on a dirt floor.

.....Wanna know why?

Well our group went to the home of Ruth Roessel, an elder Navajo living on the reservation. Our group had stayed on her property for two days, learning about the different cultural aspects of the Navajos. We learned about the story telling, and family tree and the different words used for family members. We learned that the Navajo culture is matriarchal, and everything is family is based upon the mother's family. 

Our group learned how to make Fry Bread! it sounds weird, but basically all it is flour and water mixed together, and then friend in boiling oil. It doesn't seem appetizing, but it is absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS. We put sugar on it and it was great.  

The other interesting experience that our group shared was sleeping in a hogan. A hogan is the name for a small house made out of mud, that is very important to the Navajo culture. It was difficult to sleep in the small house for two days. 

Fitting 16 people in a tiny hogan was probably the most entertaining part of the trip so far. I really got to know a lot of people very well, on terms that are not appropriate to post on the internet......

Even though we all stuffed ourselves in the hogan, it was still cool to learn about how hard things were for people that had to live in a hogan.

After that, we had hiked the Canyon De Chelly. Our tour guide was named Andrew and he was a BOSS. He was so cool and he told me a lot about his histtory and how he owns a lot of Quarter  horses. He also said that he lives in the southern branch of the Canyon and that he has a lot of sheep that he brings through the canyon. 

It was so beautiful and it was unbelieveable as to how HUGE the rocks were... turns out i have a lot of pictures of pretty rocks.

***This rock is pretty....and so is this rock.... oh and i like this rock too.... OH WOW this rock is beautiful. 

^ That was my basic thought process while hiking the canyon.

I thought it was so pretty and amazing. Seeing the wild horses that lived in there was awesome becuase i had never actually seen wild horses roaming around.

The next day was our 7 hour trip to the Bosque Redando. Once we got here, we spent the night with a woman and a group of kids who live in Fort Sumner. We  had to make food out of the very few things that had been given to the Navajos when they arrived at the Bosque. 

That was an interesting task. We made coffee( and strained it through a plastic bag and it tasted like dirt), cooked yummy bacon, and also tried to make a make-shift fry bread but it just looked like a lump of burnt goo. 

Tomorrow we go back :) im excited.