From Marcie

A few moments from our service trip to Tuba City that were significant and meaningful, for me:

- Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, gazing into snow-speckled reddish-purple peaks and valleys for as far as the eye can see.

- Meeting Ms. Tso, 6th grade teacher in the Tuba City Boarding School for over 20 years, and being welcomed into her classroom with open arms.

- Sitting at lunch with “my” 6th grade class, and having one of the girls turn to me and say “So do you know about the Long Walk?”, and feeling grateful that I could at least say “a little” because of things we had been told on the previous day, but also feeling deeply embarrassed that previous to the trip, my answer would have been “No.” No, I don’t know about the atrocities that my own country committed against your people only 4 generations ago.

- Observing the class go over their vocabulary words, standard for any 6th grade class in the USA, but realizing that all of Ms. Tso’s examples would make little sense to a 6th grader in Boston or Arlington. (ie, You have to be VIGILANT when you are changing a horse shoe, right?)

- Sitting in “culture class”, and having 6th grader Lakeisha ask me if I knew what the Navajo call people like me. Saying no. Having her tell me a word – I can’t even remember it now – and then saying “But please don’t be mad, because it is racist.” James Bilagody told us that night that the term translated to “white person,” “hand-killer,” or “killer with the hands.”

- Watching with pride as two youth group members, Danny and Lizzy, made up an algebra lesson on the spot to teach the 6th graders, including PEMDAS (the order with which you solve algebraic equations.)

- Being thanked by Ms. Tso’s class on our last day, and having 6th grader Damian raise his hand and say “Daniel, it was really nice of you to teach us PEMDAS.”

- Watching Lizzy, Danny, and Eric answer questions from the 6th graders about life in Boston. The first question asked was “Do you have sand there?”

- Being given advice by Ms. Tso on our last day in her classroom. After telling the youth group members to be sure to go to college and continue their education, she told us that we now had an obligation to act as ambassadors for her culture: “When you see someone going like this [tapping her hand over her mouth the way “Indians” do in the movies], you can say ‘No, I know Navajos, and they don’t do that!’”

- Sitting in the darkness of the sweat lodge, huddled next to other youth group members; feeling the hot steam on my face, my arms, my legs; seeing the red flicker of the hot rocks; listening to the rumbling of sounds and words as our voices joined together in our individual, simultaneously-spoken prayers.

- Emerging from the sweat lodge into total darkness, the Milky Way across the night sky.

- Huddling together around the fire at the hogans, warmed by laughter as much as by fire.

- Sitting in the back of the sanctuary of the Tuba City Church of Christ, dead tired, listening to a chorus of voices singing Wagon Wheel in the front of the room, and being completely happy.

- Watching the landscape change drastically from red rock desert to snow-covered pine trees to Saguaro-cactus-strewn hillsides on our way back to Phoenix.

- Late at night, coloring paper plates in the kitchen to spell out “Today Elias is 18.”

- Being filled with gratitude that it is my job to spend time with such a fabulous group of high school youth.

- Holding hands in a darkened sanctuary, 2500 miles away from First Parish UU Church of Arlington, saying the First Parish benediction: May faith in the spirit of life, hope for the community of earth, and love of the sacred in one another, be ours now and in all the days to come.

Marcie Griffith, Youth Group Advisor