The Sweat Lodge

So, here is my interesting thing of the week. We went to a Navajo Sweat Lodge yesterday! Apparently it is not traditional for women to do and is looked down upon by the really tradition-keeping Navajos, but we went anyway. Here is a picture:We were probably in there for an hour and a half or so. The great thing is we managed to fit all 11 people in the BYU nursing group and then six Navajo women in there too! It was really cramped. They had four phases that we went through and we had to focus on a different phase each time. They were 1) thinking about your problems, 2) thinking about how to solve your problems, 3) Planning and 4) Giving thanks. The first time they brought in six rocks that had been baking in a fire all day, and the Navajo lead lady of the ceremony told us a creation story, sprinkled cedar on the rocks and then water too. Then they closed the flap and had us all introduce ourselves and then the first phase began where we were supposed to think about our problems. Then the Navajo women said a prayer and sang a song in Navajo and we were supposed to be praying while she did it. The other Navajo women were singing along, either that or praying out loud, but we white people were all pretty quiet. The first phase was about half an hour long and then they finally opened the flap again. We lost a few people at that point because they were claustrophobic so we had more room and it was good. Then, after maybe five minutes, they brought in more rocks and closed the flap again. The Navajo women did the same thing each time and we were supposed to be praying too but that is hard when someone is singing in Navajo right next to you. Luckily, each phase got shorter each time as far as how long we were in there in the dark with no air which was good because they brought more rocks every time too so it got way hotter too.

Us with the Lead Lady of the Sweat Lodge (that really is her title)

Halfway through, after the 2nd phase, they brought this home depot bucket filled with water and passed around this buffalo horn to drink out of. First of all, we aren't supposed to drink the water down here because it has uranium and other chemicals that the hospital people told us not to drink, and then its a nasty hairy horn thing in an old home depot paint bucket and then all these other strangers have just drunk out of it. They handed it to me, the first white person to get it, and the Navajo lady next to me whispers to me that I have to drink it all. So, thinking I would be in trouble if I didn't, I tried to but wasn't really getting too far and then the head lady told me I didn't have to finish it after I had already gotten through about half of it. The Navajo lady was probably laughing at me later because I listened to her, but I haven't died from it so that is good.
Then they brought out a peace pipe and we were all supposed to smoke it, but we got the ceremony modified so we only had to do a Catholic cross thing with it instead. Anyway, it was an interesting sauna-like experience. It was really kind of fun.
As far as nursing stuff, this week I got to start a lot of IVs in the ER and spend one day doing nothing on L&D. The first week here has gone pretty past and been mostly fun. Tomorrow we are going to a Rodeo. We'll see if it is any better than the one I went to in the past in Burley, Idaho. Apparently it is a big thing around here so we'll see.