On May 11th, 2012 the Navajo Nation Global health class decided to hit the road and go hiking  some Navajo Ruins. This time we decided to go to what is called the White House. The white house is a 2-floor building. It is said that there were about 50-70 people who lived in this building, mostly by those who wore a mask and performed rituals.
It took about 30 minute to from the top of the canyon to the very bottom where this ruins is. However,  to climb back up to the canyon took about 40 minutes. It is recommended to bring water for the road and eat well before the hike, as it can be energy consuming.
The hike was worthwhile because we, the SNs, could have a closer view of a famous Navajo ruin. It was very interesting to see how well preserved it was. White house is surrounded and protected by fences. even though, we could not touch it, we enjoyed the some jewelery and pottery sold by some native people around white house... good souvenirs.
People have enjoyed hiking and visiting white house. Upon questioning, here are some SNs' opinions about the hike: some mentioned that the kike was short, and for that reason, the hike was good.
Others liked the tunnel we had to go through to get dawn the canyon. Additionally, others like the opportunity they had to talk to the native people and vendors along the hike. Finally, all coincided with the idea that the hike provided us with an awesome and beautiful scenery.
Normal, this time in the year it is pretty hot and dusty. Therefore, it is recommended that people get some sunglasses and wear sunscreen. Definitively, this hike has fulfilled all our tourist expectation, we recommended, and willing to come back some day to hike it again.

Thank you to the people of Chinle

The end to our time here on the Navajo Nation is quickly approaching. We have all had such a great experience and we have loved getting to know the people here. We have met so many interesting and nice people. Whether it was in the hospital or out in the community everyone has been so kind and willing to teach us. The Community Health Representatives have been so willing to take us with them to go on home visits or events out in the community. They even let us help them pick up trash on the side of the road (which we were all very excited about!). They taught us about the culture of the Navajo people and what it is like to care for them in their own homes. I personally got to work with Alta, a CHR appointed to the Chinle area. She was kind enough to let me tag along with her on ten home visits where I got to know some of the elderly people in Chinle. She taught me so much about herself and the people. She made me feel at ease working with her and I appreciated it so much.

We also got to work with the Public Health Nurses during our time in Chinle. These nurses do many things for the community including staying up to date on immunization records, setting up health promotion events, working with the CDC, and going with CHRs to help take care of individuals in the community. They put us to work while we were here and we all had exciting opportunities to teach and serve the public in Chinle. Some of us even got to attend a BBQ they were hosting where they served us delicious food just for being here. I couldn’t believe how kind they were to us and wanted us to participate in their activities.

We are also grateful to all the helpful nurses at the hospital that let us work with them and taught us about their role as a nurse and let us practice our skills. Whether it was in the Emergency Room, the meg/surg unit, the OR, or the step down unit, we all had an opportunity to work with some great nurses who taught us so much. They helped us to learn the differences between the health center in Chinle and the hospitals back home and how we can better care for Navajo patients.

Our experience here wouldn’t have been the same without any of these people. And we definitely can’t forget all the people who were kind enough to invite us into their homes and feed us dinner. I couldn’t believe just how many people offered to have us over for dinner even though we are such a large group. We had a few ward members including Bro. and Sis. Smith, and the Yellowhairs invite us over. We attended each of their houses on a Monday night so we got to enjoy a wonderful family home evening with them. The ward members here have such a strong spirit and testimony and it was wonderful to be able to experience that over dinner and family home evening. We were also fortunate enough to get to spend an evening with Flo (the high school nurse that we were able to work with). She made us delicious fry-bread and her daughter Floronda taught us some cool new dance moves. Eric (the health educator at the hospital) and his wife also invited us for dinner. They held a pizza party in honor of all the students who had birthdays while we were in Chinle. The pizza was yummy and they gave us some great advice about becoming future nurses. They are two of the nicest people ever.

We can’t express how grateful we are for meeting all the wonderful people here in Chinle. Who knew so many great people could live in one place. To show our appreciation we wanted to give a little something to everyone who helped us. We gave a card and a treat to each unit in the hospital, the CHRs, public health nurses, and all the people that helped us while we were here. We hope they know how much we appreciated them and all they taught us. Though we are excited to return home we will miss the wonderful people of the Navajo Nation. 

Cultural Modules

Our first week here on the Navajo Nation, we completed all of our assigned cultural modules as a group. We learned about global health, health care systems, health disparities, cultural communication, and life-long learning and service. This assignment improved our cultural awareness because it taught us about many different cultures rather than just the one that we are in for this semester. For example, the international health care plans video taught us how there are many different ways healthcare is approached throughout the world. We learned about all of the strengths and weaknesses of various health care plans in a few major countries. It showed us how the United States spends the most on healthcare and still is only number 37 on the list. We also learned the importance of looking at other country’s plans and learning from their strengths.

My project was to watch the cultural videos for the life-long service module, provide a presentation of its key points, and answer to the module’s questions correctly. My peers enjoyed this activity because it saved them a lot of time and still taught them the information that was most important for them to learn. They also enjoyed my presentation because I included a few short stories that were interesting that the videos shared. This project increased our group’s cultural awareness because it gave examples of other BYU graduates and how they were examples of life-long service in other cultures around the world. It did this by encouraging us to continue to serve people of other cultures throughout our lives because of the joy it can bring to others and ourselves. Here are the notes that were presented in post-conference:

            Ann Benson- She is an RN that was called to be the Nursing Director over the volunteer clinic. Many doctors of other specialties come and volunteer there. United Way, LDS Church, and IHS hospital are all involved in funding this volunteer clinic. A co-worker invited her to come volunteer at the clinic with her. She really enjoys it and has worked there for 3 years now.

            Sandy Magnum- She has been a faculty member at BYU from 1983 to 2001. She took groups of students down to Guatemala with her each year. She states President Kimball’s advice about service, which is to “just do it!”

            Shannon Clegg- She graduated from BYU with an Associates degree and then later received her Bachelors degree. She has worked at IHC for 26 years. Her introduction to humanitarian care was from her parents and from Sandy Magnum. She gave a story in which she used a headdress to wash a premature baby off and wrap it up in. She then helped this mother and taught her how to correctly breastfeed. She gives three tips on what would help for a humanitarian trip: neonatal resuscitation, language, and develop some leadership and organizational skills.

            Kathy Garrett- Right when she retired she wanted to fulfill her desire to go on a nursing mission. Story about a missionary that had the flu and she had a really strong prompting that told her to go back and check out the missionary again. It turned out that he actually had an appendicitis and she was able to help him immediately because of her prompting. She talked about the importance of listening to the Spirit and said that listening to the Spirit is even more important than your skills. She originally had no medication when she got there, but some nurses came and shared their leftover Tylenol etc. with her. She gave out so many Tylenol to the missionaries that she would have sworn that they should have been gone but there was always more left somehow.

1. Where did Shannon go to volunteer? Ethiopia

2. Who assisted Kathy in providing necessary medications? Nursing Students

3. How did Ann get involved with the volunteer clinic? Co-workers invited her

4. What was Sandra Magnum’s main advice regarding service? Do it!

5. Which of these principles were discussed both in the reading and the video clips?

Patience, Resourcefulness, Flexibility, Tact, Cultural awareness, Adaptability

            (pg. 18 of the handout)

6. 3 tips that can help you better prepare to serve in the future:

            1. Just do it!

            2. It is very gratifying to be able to teach someone health principles that they had never heard of and for it to make
            a huge difference in their lives.

            3. There is a season for everything in life. Service can be done in numerous ways.            

            4. Go into an area of nursing that is needed for humanitarian aid missions.

            5. Learn a different language and leadership skills.

7. How does Louis Pasteur’s quote apply to service opportunities?

“Chance favors the prepared mind”- Louis Pasteur

Effectiveness of the humanitarian project will always be greater when one is prepared to help others. Basically, the more prepared you are to serve, the better the outcome.

As a whole, we liked that we were able to do the modules together, enjoyed the international health care plans video, and liked the humanitarian stories shared from the BYU grads. The group also had some suggestions for this assignment to be improved in the future. They are to make sure that the modules work properly and to have an option for students to go back and know the right answer so that they can learn from their mistakes. We also thought that it is a good idea to continue to do the modules as a group because our group liked it so much.

By, Amanda Barlow

Window Rock and Gallup

This past Saturday our group spent the day at Window Rock and Gallup. We stopped at Window Rock first and were able to learn more about the Navajo code talkers and look at the beautiful scenery.

This is what we saw!

We then headed down to the Window Rock flea market and spent the next hour shopping.  Our group had some great finds including jewelry, cow boy boots and our favorite… banana bread.

Some of our purchases at the flea market

Afterwards, half of our group decided to visit the zoo because it was free zoo day.  They were impressed by the amount of animals there and even saw a porcupine that lived in its own Hogan.  Next we drove a half hour to visit the flea market in Gallup.  The flea market was huge and we got to see more of the Navajo culture through the crafts and handy work.

Overall the team really enjoyed our experience at Window Rock and Gallup.  We loved visiting Window Rock and learning more about the code talkers.  We also enjoyed the flea markets because it was a great opportunity to visit with the people and learn more about how they made their crafts.  Most of us, however, wished that we would have waited to do our shopping till the Gallup flea market since there was a larger selection there and most items were cheaper.   In the future we would recommend going to Gallup first and stopping at Window Rock on the way home because Window Rock had more unique items that you would not be able to find at the Gallup flea market.   Overall it was a great day and a wonderful cultural experience.  

The Wonderful Culture of Navajo Nation

We did an assignment the help us review what we've learned about the Navajo people down here, and we came up with a fairly comprehensive list of different things we have noticed about Navajo people. Here is a condensed version of our discussion and findings.


- As far as communication the younger people tend to speak English only, middle aged speak both, older mostly just speak navajo (as in >60 yrs old). The older people also usually don’t read English or Navajo. A lot of times, the older people want to be addressed as grandma or grandpa as well as most liking to be greeted by their first name and with a shake hand. They tend to speak in quieter voices, as well as using a lot of silences. Also, there's not as much eye contact, and no waving.


- This is a pretty a matriarchal society. The mom is the boss. Family is also very important; Your family is you wealth (not money or material things).


- The people tend to be a little more reserved but very nice. They open up to you with time.


- Never give a strong handshake! Think: limp fish :)


- Children take care of their parents once they’re older, and grandparents help out with the children.


- Many have their highest education level as graduating high school. The younger generation is more about going to college.


- The younger generation tends to be more affectionate.


- There are many, many taboos that come along with traditional Navajo beliefs such as not talking about death or disease (this will bring them upon you if you talk about them). Also, there are many taboos for pregnant women such as not looking at snakes and not having their husbands tie knots. There are, in addition, many important ceremonies that can be done to help with anything from healing sicknesses and restoring balance in your body to celebrating a young girl's transformation into womanhood (this particular ceremony seemed to be pretty big in their culture and is called a Kinalda).

- As far as foods go many have a deep love for hot cheetohs. Some other popular items are soda, energy drinks, fried foods (fry bread, which is very delicious), and lots of mutton.

- They also happen to have some great health and safety programs set up and run down here by the wonderful public health nurses and community health representations. We have all been really impressed with their health clinics and programs.

So that doesn't even begin to cover it all, but hopefully it gives a good little taste. :)

Church in Chinle

By:  Mary Katherine Drasbek

Marcos Inga in front of the Chinle Stake Center

While staying here in Chinle, we have had the great blessing of being able to go to church with the Chinle Ward at the Stake Center, just a couple of minutes from the hotel.  We were warmly welcomed our first Sunday by the senior missionaries, the elders and the bishopric.  We learned that most people arrive to Sacrament meeting 20 minutes late.  After the meeting many ward members came to say hello and welcome us to Chinle.  In the combined Relief Society/Elders Quorum meeting we were all asked to introduce ourselves, specifically, our names, where we are from, and if we are single.  Then, the ward introduced themselves to us.  It was great fun!  The Navajo members are very kind and enjoy laughing.  We loved getting to know them and their personalities a little better.   

Although the ward is small, they are very strong.  I admire their faith and determination to put away the traditions of their fathers and to fully accept the gospel.  Unfortunately, this has caused some members to become inactive because they are not yet willing to give up the traditional Navajo beliefs and practices that contradict the gospel.  The active members that I have spoken with have strong testimonies of the gospel.  They say, “We are Latter-day Saints first, and Navajo second.”  What a wonderful statement that perfectly exemplifies what Elder Dallin H. Oaks recently said in a regional conference to Africa in November 2010:

“To help its members all over the world, the Church teaches us to give up any personal or family traditions or practices that are contrary to the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ and to this gospel culture. . . . We ask all to climb to the higher ground of the gospel culture, to practices and traditions that are rooted in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Our second Sunday was fast and testimony meeting.  We all felt the Spirit very strongly.  We noticed that the Navajo members love telling stories about their families.  They especially loved telling us about how it was growing up in the Navajo Nation many years ago.  Even though every meeting was a mix of English and Navajo, we still felt the Spirit.  At dinner that night we discussed how the Church is true throughout the world.  The same gospel is being taught around the world.  It is very comforting to be able to go to any ward and feel the Spirit. 

A Navajo Book of Mormon

This Saturday we are teaching Disaster First Aid at the Stake Relief Society Super Saturday activity.  Next week is our last Sunday.  We are looking forward to two of our girls teaching in Relief Society and two other students speaking in Sacrament meeting.  We have loved getting to know the Chinle ward!  

The Sanitary, Spotless, Sparkling Squad

By: Brigitte Smith

Operation Waste Removal began at 8:30am on Friday, May 4. Our mission was to pick up as much trash as we could along a dusty, dry, one mile highway.  This was, most certainly, not an undercover mission. If our orange vests and blue bags didn’t set us apart, the fact that we are “beliganas,” AKA Caucasians, certainly would! Lucky for us, we did not have to go far to find trash. As a matter of fact, the wind would blow, and the trash seemed to come to us! All we had to do was walk along the fence line and pick up the waste that was intertwined in the sagebrush and barbwire.

Overall, Operation Waste removal was a huge success! Many Navajos stopped by or honked at us as they drove by to thank us for our work in combating the waste. Though the number of trash bags we filled is not certain, we think that it is close to 40 trash bags! We found it so rewarding to be part of the attack against waste! Our next endeavor is to find a way to properly dispose of waste her on the Navajo Nation that does not involve 10 students and 2 instructors…. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Deployed for Duty

Unfortunately, Some Were Injured... 

The Boys

Native Healers

A significant part of health care in the Navajo Nation deals with native/traditional healing. Western medicine is a more recent development on the reservation, and while the native people understand its importance, they incorporate traditional medicine into their care. We wanted to get an insiders perspective on native healing, so we had a meeting with the hospital's healer. (The Indian Health Service has incorporated traditional medicine into the free health care services provided to all natives.)

We met with Sheila Goldtooth, the medicine woman at Chinle Hospital, in the hospital's designated hogan. I thought this would be cool because we've all seen hogans from the outside while we've been here, but a lot of us have never been inside. But I don't think it was quite as exciting as we thought it would be. No one had been in there since the wind/sand storm from a few days earlier, so it was really dusty with dirty chairs, and it was pretty plain looking. We did have to follow the traditional rule of walking to the left around the fireplace. I'm not sure if any of us ever figured out why going left was important. I think we just had an educated guess that it was simply tradition and respect. Marcos asked if he could take a picture inside the hogan, and Sheila said he could but that he couldn't take a picture of her. This was interesting, and Vickie later told us that the natives sometimes believe having a picture taken of them takes a piece of their soul. Needless to say, Marcos did not attempt to get a picture of Sheila.

This looks similar to the hogan we were in. It had dirt floors (to be closer to Mother Earth) and bare walls.

While we were in this meeting with Sheila in the dusty hogan, we learned about the many different kinds of healers, or medicine men. When someone gets ill, they will go to a diagnostician who will use hand trembling, crystal gazing, or star gazing to diagnose the problem. Almost all the time the illness is a result of something that happened in the individual's past. For instance, the 25 year old patient looked at a snake when he was 14 and now has some sort of mental illness. Once the patient is diagnosed, special ceremonies are performed depending on the diagnosis. We also learned about how Sheila got into healing. Surprisingly, her story wasn't too different from a lot of ours. She wanted to help people from a very young age and worked hard to be able to do that. We also learned how native people access the hospital's native healing services, the variations in ceremonies, what the hogan is used for, and many more things. Toward the end of the meeting, another healer came in to speak to us, Linda Ross. She talked about a lot of the same things.

Burning incense is part of a ceremony in which something/someone is blessed.

Overall, I think it was a good experience. I asked some of the other students what they liked about it. Responses I got include: good explanations which were clear and understandable, questions answered well, able to understand what healers do and what the ceremonies are as well as where they occur, gave a good history of native healing, very informative, instructors were knowledgeable, interesting topic, the people telling us about it were actual healers.

There were a few suggestions on how to make this experience better for future groups, and they are as follows. It should have been planned on a day without as many scheduled things and should have had some more time between clinical. Students also felt that the second instructor was repetitive, so both instructors should have been in the room the whole time or there should have only been one instructor. It would have also been more enjoyable with an interactive activity.

Once these changes are made, we agreed that this is an activity that should be repeated in the future. This activity was important to get a better understanding of the culture and understand how traditional and Western medicine collaborate for the health of the Navajo people.

BRUSH YOUR TEETH, WASH YOUR HANDS

Building healthy habits in a community begins with teaching the children of that community.  Last Tuesday, May 1, we put our public health nursing skills to use as we taught about 60 Navajo children proper hand washing and dental hygiene techniques.   Mary Katherine Drasbek, Spencer Cahoon, and Megan Lund organized and carried out the presentations, which took place at the Headstart program located in the town of Many Farms, AZ.  

While visiting three separate classes of 20 kids each, we made the learning fun by using songs, interactive activities and pictures.  Beginning with the hand washing portion, the children held potatoes covered in flour and examined their dirty hands.  The flour represented germs that can make them sick.  After learning a song to sing while they rubbed their soapy hands together, the children practiced their hand washing skills and learned various scenarios after which they should wash their hands.

Our dental hygiene portion included an appearance by the "plaque villain" (Spencer), who was sprayed with water and eliminated by the "toothbrush hero" (Mary Katherine).  Megan used giant teeth and toothbrush models to demonstrate the best way of brushing, and she discussed healthy foods to eat and the importance of visiting the dentist.

In conclusion, the kids expressed enthusiasm for what they had learned, and the teachers expressed appreciation for the interactive class.  A principle of public health nursing that we incorporated was teaching what the community considered to be important.  We developed our lesson plan based on what the Headstart teachers felt would be effective for their kids.

The Hubble Museum and Trading Post -- By: Tabitha Aggen

A Navajo rug

            A few days into our trip we visited the Hubble Museum and Trading Post. This has significance in Navajo culture that dated back to when the Long Walk occurred. Our tour guide told us of how after the Navajo people were driven from their land and took the Long Walk they were given land back. However, they had nothing because when they were driven from their homes it was done so quickly that material possessions were not taken. As they were getting re-established traders decided to attempt to trade with them. Once the traders realized that the Navajos had nothing they would often leave, which caused the people to become even more so in poverty as they did not have more resources available to them. However a gentleman named Thomas Hubble was a trader who decided to set up a post in the Navajo Nation. He stuck it out, even though at first there was nothing that the Navajos traded that would be of monetary worth to him (they mostly traded him things that were from the land). Eventually though, Mr. Hubble became very rich and successful as many of the people would go to him to trade as he was respected, which caused the economy in the Navajo Nation to grow and become better.

            The museum was the Hubble home, which was full of all the original decor. It was neat to be able to walk around the home and see a glimpse into how this family lived. The guide told us of how artists wanting to paint in the Navajo Nation would stay with the Hubble family and when they left they would give one of their paintings to the family. The walls in the home were filled with these paintings and many of them were of the Navajo land and people. We also walked around the yard surrounding the home and saw the HUGE oven where the cook would bake bread, a guest Hogan (an eight-sided home that holds significance in the culture), the garden, a barn, a very noisy turkey, and the trading post. 

            Inside the trading post there was a room that had many Navajo rugs. We had the opportunity to  have someone who worked at the store speak to us about the symbolism and the significance in the rugs. Many of the symbols in the rugs are related to principles upheld in the Navajo Church relating to their belief in the Creation. 

         As a group we really enjoyed the opportunity to tour the home and see all the rooms inside. It was very impressive. Many also liked learning about the Navajo rugs, and it was especially neat that we got to sit on piles of rugs as the person spoke to us. We also really liked having our tour guide explain more about the history of this place to us beforehand, as none of us really knew what it was so it allowed us to more fully appreciate the tour. Something that the majority of us did not like was the gift shop. Many of the things were overpriced, so an advice for future students is to wait to buy things at the Flea Markets. Another word of advice is to also try and go to the Hubble Museum during National Parks Week as the cost for the tour is free!

 

The inside of the Hubble home; photo taken by Marco Inga