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Hello. My name is Lisa Robbins. I am from Northern Arizona, USA. I was born and raised on the Navajo Nation.
The ultimate dream is to make contributions to my family and community. What do I mean? I come from a community and family who has been contaminated by uranium mining. We are currently fighting future threats of potential mining and poisoning. We are fighting for our lives, land, people, culture, beliefs, and everything we hold sacred.
Living on the reservation is hard but it is the best thing that could've ever happened. For sometime I used to not have running water. I was 12 when we first connected to the water line. My mom has had our house for 24 years, longer than my life, and we never got power. And it doesn't just start with me. My parents, their parents and past generations, we have never had power. We use a generator but for only 3 to 5 hours per day. Winters and summers are difficult. People complain about 90° weather, power outages, sucky AC, no internet, but I grew up with that. But not everyone in the rez lives like that.
Hopefully you'll be able to have a look into my life with the future posts.
The No Electric Life
Jul 28, 2019 4 years agoFor generations my ancestors, great grand parents, parents and me, we have never had electricity. In the summers, we spend everyday trying to get comfortable in 90° plus weather. Most times temperatures are in the 100s. But we somehow never get heatstroke. As I am writing this post, I am currently sitting by the window, the temp is 100°, there is a burning breeze, but it's keeping me from sweating. We usually run our generator 3 to 5 hours a day. In those times we scramble to beat each outher to the power outlets to charge phones, laptops, tablets, portable charges, rechargable fans. We also load the freezer with bottles of water in the summertime. Our "power" system is a little weird. We used to have a strong solar system but it's been 10 years and it's going down. So we have to connect the generator to it for the power to run through the whole house. Since our solar is weak, it doesn't work when the sun goes down. So the generator gets turned on before sunset. The next steps to ensure power at night is to, 1 turn the fridge off, two leave a light on, 3 turn off everything else. Sometimes we will forget and lose track of time and the sun has gone down. When that happens we have to run a cord from the generator to a outlet inside. We will usually have to do this when it's to cloudy. Growing up without power has had a lot of set backs. No internet, no light. In highschool, completing homework was hard. I was taking a lot of honors and AP courses, and was in a lot of clubs. Since school was located in the next town and I lived 2 mi. off the main highway on a dirt road, I was the first one on the bus. I woke up at 4 am everyday, went to school and came back at 7 pm. Sometime I stayed because I was a volleyball practice, tutoring, finishing projects, clubs and other things. But as soon as I got home, chores. That was at least a hours worth. Then the rest of the night for homework and projects. But the generator was always turned off at 9. After the lights went out, I did as much as I could with a kerosine lamp. Homework usually consisted of AP US History, AP Calc, American West, Cancer Research, Uranium Research, Biology Teacher Assistant work, Senior Class work, Student coucil work, AISES and Science club projects. Nights usually ended at 11pm or 1am and partially done work. At the time I had no phone, a broken iPad, a school laptop and no internet connection at home. Everyone always wonders why I didn't apply to college. I didn't have time and any resources. That was school life with no electricty. Now electricty and family. Basically my whole family has medical problems, ranging from highblood pressure, heart murmurs, enlarged heart, no thyroid gland, autism, skin disease and stomach cancer. We need to keep our medicine cold. [To be continued.]
Introductory
Jul 22, 2019 4 years agoYa'ateeh shí eí Tódíhił Adzaan yinishyé. Tsédeeshgizhnii nishłí. Haashk'aanhadzohí baashishchíín. Tłaashchí'í dashicheii. Dóó Naakai Dine'e dashinaalí. Akó teégó Diné Adzaan nishłí. Hi, my name is Lisa Robbins. I was born and raised on the Navajo Nation and still currently reside there. I am Rock Gap clan born for Yucca Fruit Strung Out On a Line clan. My maternal grandfathers clan is the Red Bottom Clan and my Paternal Grandfather clan is the Mexican People clan. That is how I identify my self as a Navajo Woman. I was raised by Navajo Traditional parents. I currently am working a fellowship under DigDeep water. I just enrolled in college. I am filming a documentary about how uranium affected my family and communty. I travel a lot and am sometimes never home and always at home. Doesn't make sense? In the next few post you'll see. I had second thoughts about writing about myself here. I am a very self-conscious and private person, but why not?
