Today was the crews first day off in nine days. Understandably the morning was spent with various people in bed, relaxing by the pool, eating lazy breakfasts and enjoying the fact that what had seemed like a ghost hotel all week was now buzzing with the energy of a very large family having a poolside reunion party! This friendly lot had laid on funky sounds and a big spread.

Open wide: Jon had an eventful morning of his own, as a toothache meant a trip to the dentists. Seems an American dentists is slightly more comfort orientated than a British dentists the potential trauma of the dentists chair over here is solved by a TV screen in front of you when you first sit in the chair and one directly above your head when the chair reclines back.. Jon had the pleasure of a ‘Changing rooms’ style program and a pretty dental nurse. It wasn’t a serious toothache, but he certainly feels much better now

And then there were six: Felix has other commitments for the next week so he spent the morning organizing a hire car and getting his stuff together.

By mid afternoon the new slimline crew of six (Jon, Nirit, Annabel, Murray, Gill and Lucy) set off destination South, towards San Manuel.

Lynchs’ land:

By mid evening we stopped at a roadside garage to ask for a recommendation for a nearby hotel. The place had a distinct David Lynch feel: gutted out race type cars lay like sculptures around the place, strange looking locals stopped by and two women sat like book ends on chairs outside a small shop and spoke to us about bizarre topics, from socks to Satan.

Sweet tooth: Wisely or not we did take the advice given at the garage and followed directions to a cluster of new motels a little further down the highway. We went for the first one we liked the look of. A good choice, the rooms were comfy and the guy working reception turned out to be a friendly Mexican, who is hoping to make his first film soon. Dinner was a place called the Cracker Barrel across from the motel.

The place was decked out like an old frontier restaurant: rocking chairs outside (where was that blues guitar) and an amazing assortment of pictures on the walls inside - from decidedly eerie paintings of people long gone, to classic Pepsi posters and bizarre signs.

The menu looked exciting to a crew whose stomachs have had more than enough of all the greasy, fired food that has been fed to us in the past two weeks (not that we didn’t like it, just too much of it!). We happily choose between vegetable plates, mashed potatoes and roasted (not fired) chicken, only to find that everything here is cooked in sugar. To say the ‘sweet’ baby carrots were sweet would be an understatement.

The shop, which led out from the restaurant, provided some after dinner amusement, classic American bits of nonsense. Back at the motel, the Mexican reception guy, Cesar, joined the crew for a drink later on.. we can’t disclose all that was said over drinks - but it got interesting and late.

Felix and Gill spent the day putting the finishing touches to NAT’s web site and Gill worked on further design to the REZ02 web site. Annabel edited the final cut of some of REZ news features with Brenalee: They cut a piece about a local fried bread stall, which has been on the same spot for the past five years and is known as the “Silver Bullet” and a sports report on what has turned out to be the game of the Rez - basketball. Some of the focus was on the trainers they wear around this area that are called, ‘AND1’. Apparently, the name is taken from a term used in the game when there has been a foul. Brenalee demonstrated a natural ability to edit.

Murray finished off the news jingles and interviewed George the local policeman about his efforts to keep the cultural heritage of this community alive. The stress of deadlines was eased during the day with a Fizzy rockets activity (involving sodium bicarbonate and water), which Anthony filmed. This activity went down so well and the film looked so good that Nirit, Anthony and Daniel worked on the fast edit to this in the afternoon and it was inserted as a fun ‘news’ item on REZ News. At the end of the day the work was shown to a room full of students, teachers and a couple of parents. All were impressed.

After packing up at the school a tired crew headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a while before most headed out to the karaoke bar next to the hotel. The bar manager apparently hates the karaoke as he has to put up with an assortment of people who think they can sing - three times a week. Tonight he had the pleasure of Felix crooning away. According to Annabel, the whole experience reminded her of a Denis Potter film. To finish the evening off the crew got chatting to the security guard who, naturally, asked where they were from? -England, replied Annabel, thinking that she would avoid being too specific, as he would not know where Hull is. To their surprise he replied that, when he was in the Navy, he had spent a great deal of time in Hull. Not only had he spent time there it is also one of his favorite places in the world. Just proves again that you never really know who you’re talking to.

Today was post production day for NAT films and further content creation for the internet site, NA Nirit and Annabel hooked up a projector and began editing the kids footage with them. Gill worked on more screensavers and downloadable desk tops with Chris and Felix and Lucy worked on creating some flash animated poetry with the other Chris (there are two in the class!) and Isaiah.

The poems and the images which will be flash animated (actually digital photos of paintings) have been donated to the Rez sites Poets corner and gallery by poet Mike the medicine man horse, governor of the school and full time artist.

Interviews:

In the afternoon, Nirit, Murray and Lucy were taken on a tour of the area by Mike. While he drove he talked to the camera about his community and his views on the culture, language, identity issues that they face. This is a community where there has been one culture or another trying to oppress them for eons.

Their language is dying and a great deal of their cultural roots have certainly been up rooted. Therefore these issues loom large. Mike is both optimistic while realizing the enormity of the problems. A charismatic man, Mike even took us to his house, in the village where he was chief for a while, stopping off to show us his workshop, where he paints.

Though not so much in the summer because of the oppressive heat and dust storms. No air conditioning in there! The streets were quiet, no-one out in the afternoon heat. As Mike rightly pointed out, only mad dogs and Englishmen step out in the afternoon sun. Although we met a few Rez dogs, it seemed to us that even they were smart enough to be in a cool shade somewhere.

A taste of India:

Jon, Murray, Felix, Nirit and Lucy were treated to another special evening meal by the school tonight. Jagdish invited us to his favorite Indian restaurant. Annabel and Gill were invited too of course, but were tired and stayed in the hotel.

Kate was there and Mike and his son came too. The food was fine, the English in the crew enjoying what is apparently now the national dish of England, an Indian curry. Table talk revolved around future plans to link up between Jon’s education projects in the UK and the projects running over here. Lucy, Murray and Isaiah (Mike’s son) discussed music, games and world politics (this 11 year old is tuned in) and on the drive back Nirit and Lucy drove with Kate where the talk turned to Hip Hop in the Arizona area and where the cheapest music stores are. A tired crew went back to the hotel around 10.30. So well behaved!

Project development: Today was a momentous day in one respect - the crew arrived early!

The reason for such an occurrence was that Felix and Jon were giving Jagdish a course in the software.

Rez news from NAT Films: The group of students led by Nirit and Annabel have decided to create a news program, “Rez news” Today was shoot day. At 9.30 the team left to

NAT (Native American Technology) design: The team led by Gill and Felix are creating a web site. They are mimicking a design company, so their site will show: their services and company profiles and have content such as downloads, games reviews, links, and a space to showcase NAT films. The NAT films content is coming through from Nirit’s and Annabel’s team.

Back at the hotel it was an evening of much needed rest and recuperation for the team. Not a lot to report really; laundry was done while chillin’ by the pool; pizza was eaten on the balcony while the tunes were provided through the crews portable speakers. All followed by an early night.

Diary note: Seems we forgot to mention that Nirit’s luggage was indeed returned to her after the airline lost it at the beginning of the trip. She has been receiving some concerned e-mails. She thanks all for their concern!

Gila Crossing North Campus location

Sticky politics: The crew arrived a little later than planned after getting lost due to starting off in the wrong direction. Well, it is a different building , the Gila Crossing North Campus location not the Gila Crossing Community school we had been to yesterday! Blame it on UK drivers trying to negotiate a maze of American highways and driving on the “wrong” side of the road. Breakfast was very sticky cakes on the library.

This was an immediate introduction to the apparently typical eating habits of a community that has the highest concentration of diabetes of any community worldwide. Of course there are many reasons their diet has become so bad, not the least of which is the fact that their river had a dam built on it in X, taking away the livelihood of the whole community. We knew a little of this before arriving and the information was supplemented by Mike, who

Gave a talk, briefly introducing us to the Gila River community and their cultural and political issues. He is a colorful character, a man of many guises: ex narcotics cop, community leader, school governor and lifelong artist.

Project beginnings: The kids were a little reserved at first, perhaps checking us out. However, Felix’s newspaper icebreaker again did it’s job. This was swiftly followed up by a mind mapping brainstorm session where we all mapped out our likes and dislikes, eventually connecting everything up to the idea of telling a story through computers, the web, photography and video. Following this the kids split into two groups: web and design, led by Felix and Gill and film, sound, photography led by Annabel and Nirit. Lucy floated between groups and continued with content for the web site with Jon.

The Kids: Aged between 13 and 16, again it’s a bright bunch of kids. They seem less aware of their cultural heritage than the Hopi group we worked with. As Mike explained, this is a community that is much more of an inner city community in nature. Despite living on the rez, they are situated in the suburbs of Phoenix, and they have been assimilated into Anglo culture much more strongly. People like Mike are working very hard to fuel a stronger sense of who they are and where they come from in this youth, yet they live in a community where drugs and gangs are very real issues.

The heat: Humidity rising as the skies become cloudy. Heavy.

Birthday toast: It was Annabel’s birthday. Kate treated us to a fine Mexican food and Margaritas. Happily, we’re slowly getting geographically closer to the true taste of Mexico. Dinner was followed by a wonder through the streets of Tempe to the Bamboo club, where we sat on a rooftop balcony to toast Annabel with a bottle of champagne. We looked out over Lego land rooftops and scattered neon lights. Somehow Felix found room for some sushi. The night time heat eventually got the better of us up there, the humidity was surely still rising, so we walked, pausing to observe some street spray can art. Pots and pans and a spray can, producing finished pieces of the solar system canvases. Last stop, an all American Hooters bar!