Desert landscapes, distant mountains, ancient rock formations—these are the sights that characterized the winter break of my senior year in high school. Thanks to a unique service opportunity offered by the campus ministry at my school, Lauralton Hall, I was able to discover a place unlike anywhere I have ever been.
This past February, I spent a week with seven other Lauralton students and two faculty members in Tohatchi, New Mexico, part of the Navajo Nation. There, we met with members of St. Mary’s Franciscan mission as well as the Navajo community, learning about the role of the mission and learning Navajo culture. We assisted the community with daily tasks such as painting and cleaning as well as packaging and delivering food. We also attended several Masses with the Navajo people.
Why did I decide to go on this Service and sharing with the Navajo trip instead of relaxing with my family or hanging out with friends at home? When I first heard about the mission, I was drawn to the chance to help the Native American community in some small way. According to a study released in January 2017 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Native American families occupy the most severely overcrowded and rundown homes in the U.S. In fact, roughly 40 percent of total Navajo housing lacks electricity or running water. Yet most people I’ve spoken with are unaware of this crisis.
SERVING THE NAVAJO PEOPLE—simple tasks like painting and cleaning brought home the importance of making mercy real in this world.
Each day, my classmates and I had a new opportunity to assist the community while becoming more familiar with Navajo culture. One day we helped Clara, one of the women of the community, make traditional Navajo fry bread. She then invited us to share a meal with her family. As we told stories from home and participated in their Navajo traditions, it dawned on me that this is what real service is about—being truly engaged in a community.
Another day, we prepared for and participated in a traditional sweat lodge, a Navajo purification ritual, led in native-language prayer by a Navajo woman. We also visited the capital of the Navajo Nation—Window Rock— as well as Native American ruins at Canyon de Chelly. Finally, we participated in an outreach program, helping to deliver food to several Navajo homes and visiting with the families.
All the while, I learned to understand and appreciate the richness of the Navajo culture and spirituality. The people are so firmly connected to the earth and their surroundings—it was an enlightening experience, so different from mine at home. The Navajo showed me how to be ready for the changes that will inevitably come in life. When something doesn’t go as expected, they accept and adapt rather than resist change. I also learned to better appreciate the home that we have been given on earth. Spending time with the Navajo, I realized that we have so much to be grateful for.
Perhaps the most important lesson that I took from my trip was one of mercy, a virtue that Lauralton Hall and our sponsor, the Sisters of Mercy, seek to instill in students as a way of life. The Navajo live their lives trying to give back to the earth and to the members of the community, never letting the horrors their people endured make them vengeful or bitter. Instead, they show compassion to all people they encounter, no matter where they come from—also a value emphasized throughout my four years at Lauralton. As I prepare to enter college, I know I will carry with me the wisdom gained by meeting and serving the Navajo people as well as the importance of making mercy real in this world.
(To help the St. Mary Mission, go to: http://stmarytohatchi.org/may2017appeal.pdf)
(Gabriela Baghdady, Lauralton Hall Class of 2017, is a member of St. Lawrence Parish in Shelton. She will attend Johns Hopkins University in the fall.)
