ASB offers immersive experience

My first coherent thought during my spring break was “Where am I?” At 5 a.m. on the first Saturday of break, I crawled into a van with six strangers and promptly fell asleep. I didn’t fully wake up until late afternoon, surrounded by towering red rocks and fading sunlight.

The theme of “Where am I?” continued throughout the trip, whenever I took the time to look around and consider my surroundings. I spent nearly the entirety of the week on USC Volunteer Center’s Alternative Spring Break trip, on the Navajo Reservation located in the Four Corners Region — Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

I wasn’t expecting the trip to spur such a sense of incredulity. I assumed that the destination’s relative closeness to California meant it wouldn’t be that different from home. I’m still not sure exactly what motivated me to sign up for the trip. I was drawn to the idea of a “service learning” trip, and the specific activities — trail restoration and working with youth — stood out to me. Additionally, I’d missed the deadlines for all other ASB trips, and viewed the fact that the Navajo application was available later as pure fate.

Regardless of location, all spring break trips are just that — a break, an escape from the grind of schoolwork. From napping at home to partying in Cabo, all spring breaks are essentially created equal, even though it may not seem like it based solely on Instagram posts.

Prior to the trip, I thought of it almost as a “working” experience. I assumed it would be a week full of hard work, with little time for rest or reflection. The Navajo Nation trip, however, is neither a simply traveling experience or a dedicated service trip, but a cultural immersion experience.

The cultural immersion aspect of the trip meant that we didn’t visit the Navajo Nation, we experienced life on the reservation. We learned the Navajo language, devoured Indian tacos and participated in a real-life pow-wow. Overall, the key word of the trip was “learn.” We spent a large portion of the week visiting a reservation school, so like many fellow participants, I thought I’d primarily be teaching. Instead, we were always learning.

Lesson number one from the Navajo reservation: the Navajo themselves didn’t come up with the name “Navajo.” The tribe was dubbed Navajo by the Spanish, but actually refer to themselves as the Dine.

In my opinion, the most relaxing and unique part of the trip was our visit to a traditional sweat lodge, where our host told us stories of Navajo culture. We learned that traditionally, a girl’s 13th birthday is marked by a three-day ceremony in which the girl must run alongside family members and later, massage them.

With my fourth grade students the very next day, I heard about this ceremony first hand, when a girl randomly brought up the ceremony and expressed her nervousness surrounding her 13th birthday, even though it was years away. Connections like these occurred throughout the week — we didn’t just learn about Navajo culture, or only witness it, but instead experienced a unique combination of both.

The dichotomy of culture shown by the fourth grade girl’s hesitancy towards her upcoming traditional celebration is demonstrated throughout the reservation; the specific focus of the trip is cultural erosion in native peoples. At the school, students danced to Skrillex before practicing traditional pow-wow dances, and transitioned from English to Navajo vocabulary lessons.

And we learned the Navajo culture right alongside them. We spent the night in a traditional hogan, a hut made of logs and mud. At more than one meal, we consumed fry bread, a Navajo staple comprised of flour, salt, baking soda and oil. We were even invited to a traditional sheep butchering ceremony, which I volunteered to attend even as a vegetarian (when in Rome, right?). Unfortunately, the ceremony was cancelled, saving you from a column titled “Confessions of a Vegetarian at a Sheep Butchering Ceremony.”

Usually, it may seem like this column encourages the reader to visit a specific place. In this case, you probably can’t immediately make the trek to the Navajo reservation, and if you’re interested in attending an Alternative Spring Break, you’ll have to wait until next year. So, I apologize that this week’s column lacks the opportunity for instant gratification. I’m not trying to persuade you into attending an ASB trip, but to rethink how you approach any trip — from a day adventure in the city to a cross-country road trip. What I learned from a week of “service learning” essentially boils down to this: experience places, don’t just visit them.

Erin Rode is a freshman majoring in environmental engineering and print and digital journalism. Her column, “The Rode Less Traveled,” runs Thursdays.