jstevens@observer-reporter.com

WAYNESBURG - Maybe it was the sight of roaming wild dogs or horses and cattle grazing anywhere they pleased. Or maybe it was their introduction to an authentic hogan, an earth-covered Navajo dwelling with one room, one door and one window that was to be their living quarters.

But no matter what it was, Melissa Fox and Maddie Snyder, two Waynesburg University freshmen, knew their week at a Navajo school in Tuba City, Ariz., would be an experience neither would forget.

Snyder, a Jefferson-Morgan High School graduate, and Fox, a Waynesburg Central High School graduate, were among nine university students who chose Tuba City from several mission trips offered in early May by the university.

Of all the trips, this one fit into both their fields of study - education.

"To actually work in a school with students and observe different cultures seemed just right for both us," Fox said. "We felt we could get more out of the trip than if we went someplace to build a house."

But their initial impression of Tuba City and the Navajo boarding school could best be described as culture shock.

"After we saw the animals and the hogan, and discovering we had to walk outside to used the bathroom, it was decided this was not a safe place to stay so we were all moved to one of the high schools in Tuba City," Snyder said.

Tuba City Boarding School offers classes in pre-K through eighth grade. Fox was assigned a third-grade class, while Snyder was placed in a kindergarten class. And while the school does have a new cafeteria and a new playground, most of the classes are held in trailers. "It is a very poor area and although we were still in the United States, we felt like we were in a different world," Snyder said.

Snyder said her experience in the kindergarten class made her realize kindergarten is not something she would want to teach, and Fox, who didn't actually have the opportunity to teach, did help the regular teacher grade the students' work.

The two learned on this Navajo Reservation, the books and supplies are outdated and one teacher has been trying for 10 years to get a new curriculum.

They also learned that many of the younger children are losing site of their culture because the parents no longer instill the Navajo values and beliefs in their children.

"If it happens at all, it is usually the grandparents who try to keep their Native American culture alive," Fox said.

And the two also learned that drugs were quite prevalent in the school, so much so, Fox said, that teachers had to stop drug deals among fifth-graders in the bathrooms.

"Our eyes were opened," Snyder said. "We went there kind of blind. Everything was all new to us because the picture we were shown beforehand didn't do justice to what we actually saw."

Both young women came away from the experience saddened by the knowledge the Navajo people on this reservation in Tuba City feel like outcasts. "They feel put down as Americans," Snyder said. She said a man who came to the school to speak told her that when she goes home, "be our voice." He said, "You need to speak up for us and stand up for us."

Fox said, "They are people I don't know, yet I have a passion now to try to make things different for them. But what can you do when no one understands?"

Both Fox and Snyder agree the trip made them appreciate what they have.

"I see these kindergarten kids who are pure of heart, who are not exposed to the drug problems yet. Are they going to be making drug deals in the bathroom in a few years? I sure hope not," Snyder said.

Fox said her experience taught her incredible lessons that cannot be learned in a classroom. "School is a place of learning, and it has to be a place of comfort and security, too," she said.

And in spite of the poverty, the bland food and not-so-luxurious accommodations, both would go back again.

"I know those kids taught me so much more than I taught them," Fox said. "To know that I have impacted their lives and that they have impacted mine is something I will keep forever."

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