Personal Narrative: My Experience At Tsaile Arizona

I saw only darkness, save the faint glow of lava rocks in a small hole dug in front of me. I breathe in what should be steaming hot air, but it is dry, yet so hot. Even growing up in Tucson where the summer heat can reach 110 degrees, I’ve never experienced something quite like this. I wished I was playing out in that summer heat, this felt like I was being cooked in an oven. I breathe in again, more dry air. My head felt light, yet I’d been in this hole for only about 5 minutes. This was my first dry sweat that my uncle up in the Navajo reservation had set up for me. At least I had my dad with me, which gave me a small measure of comfort. If I didn’t give into the heat, I would be considered to have matured, ready to grow up into an adult in the community.
I had gone up to the reservation, in Tsaile Arizona where the Navajo side of my family lives. It’s much colder there than Tucson, despite the summertime heat. It is almost always a unique experience to visit my family on the reservation because the lifestyle is so vastly different than ours. The first time I went it was a bit of a culture shock because they lived …show more content…
When we carried them into the “sweat”, my uncle brought water which was poured on the hot lava rocks. The initial feeling was a bit overwhelming, the sudden moist heat of what was a seemingly endless amount of steam in that moment. As minutes passed by, the overwhelming heat got to me and I felt that it might get too hot for me to handle. Then, I suddenly found myself extremely relaxed, despite the intense heat, my lungs filled with hot air as my body adjusted to the heat. Finally, after about 15 minutes or so, my dad brought in a large jar of water for me to cool myself off, despite the water being somewhat warm from being outside, it felt shocking, as if I was taking a cold