In the small, Christian high school that I attended, we had the option of going on a “missions trip” during Easter break. These trips began my sophomore year. That year, we had the choice of going to England, South Africa or Washington D.C. Based on my interview, I was chosen to go to D.C. The next year, I went to South Africa, which was one hell of an experience for a 16 year old, young, black female. For my senior year, I was chosen to go to the Apache Reservation in Arizona. We would help build homes (and a shed) for local families, and interact with the schoolchildren after school. This is the second trip of mine, (South Africa being the first) that I consider the most interesting and eye opening.
It was a small group of us, ten students, and two chaperones, which was a married couple (their son joined as well). I was the only senior, which was fine with me, we were a really great group, we got along very well. This was my first time going to western part of the U.S, so I was very excited to go. We all fell in love with the “desert” vibe as soon as we landed. Before going to the reservation to begin our service, we stayed with a local family to go sightseeing for a few days. They were a married couple with 14 children (for all the technical people, some were adopted, some were not). Their house was so huge, we called it the 8th wonder of the world. One of the first places that we went to visit was the Grand Canyon. It was a worthy, five hour drive. It was early April, I was surprised on how cold it was. I can see why the Grand Canyon is considered a wonder of the world. I was on “Cloud 9”. The next day, we went to the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson. I’m not a big fan of zoos, but this one was really nice, and it was such a positive environment.
It was finally time to go to the reservation site. We actually stayed with the local “ministry” in the town of Globe, close to the Apache Reservation. It was this trip that I realized, the real reason that I went on these “missions trips” in the first place. I went to these missions trips every year because, I simply love to travel. I didn’t really care about the “missions” part. I never agreed with forcing a belief, or opinion on others, especially after this specific trip. During our welcome meeting with one of the directors, we did an excercise, that focused on how we would someone and tell them the “Good News”. All I have to say is, that specific excercise made me second guess if I wanted to continue to do Missions. Then I got older, and learned more about myself, and the root of missions, and I realized that I was a fool.
The first day we drove through the Apache Reservation. It was heartbreaking. During our preparation, we were constantly told “It’s like you’re no longer in America”. It wasn’t the America that we knew, it was the original America, the way it’s supposed to be, minus the issues of alcoholism, violence and poverty, which stems from the beast called White Supremacy. We saw a dead horse in the mini farm, and a mother killed her five year old child a few months before. We built homes every morning, and interacted with the children in the afternoon. I remember the children being so sweet, I had so much fun playing basketball with them. Not many black people visit Native American Reservations, out of the 12 people in our group, six of us were black, including one of the chaperones. It seemed to me that the children were more open with us, than the other students in the group, it was actually touching. It’s beyond sad how the First Nations are completely forgotten in their own land. They shouldn’t be suffering from alcoholism, violence and poverty. And who are we to try to continue to force them to conform to this society not built for them….or us? I continuously thought, “White Supremacy is a Beast” during this entire trip. I enjoyed seeing the people happy with their new homes, and the kids being kids despite the trauma that they go through everyday. I enjoyed learning about the First Nations, and I continue to enjoy it. However, this trip was just a continuation of my journey of self.
Sending love and good vibes to the First Nations!
Loray’s Journeys 