Crystals, Mountains and the Blazing Sun.

Well. What a jam-packed week it has been and now I have a cold. It was bound to happen, what with all that air con. When you walk into a building you get blasted with cold air, when you step outside it's like walking into the fire of Hades...

Wednesday was half-day at school so I had a bit of a butchers round the Navajo Culture Museum.

This is called a Hogan. A traditional Native house - the floor is made out of sand and usually there is a fire pit in the middle for cooking and rituals.

I got talking to the man who runs the museum and turns out he's an artist and will be displaying his paintings at Highgate Gallery in London next June! His name is Troy Whitethorne and he is incredibly talented so I shall be checking out his exhibition and initiating him into the craziness that is London -the poor guy rocks up right in the middle of the Olympics...deary me. I don't think any of us are prepared for that.

I watched a video in the museum about the Navajos during the second world war. After Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, plenty of Natives signed up to fight. Apparantly the Japanese could understand English perfectly and could therefore decode commands on the radio. The US army decided to use the Navajo language as a code as it is incredibly complex. They called these Navajos The Codetalkers...


Although, no matter where you are, war promotion is always dissapointing to see. This poster was quite out of place in a Navajo museum...and quite frankly, it is distasteful to be pinned up anywhere in my opinion.

Keith was not impressed.

Aside from Native history, I have been learning how to perform a Navajo smoking ritual and how to weave a rug! I even helped John feed the cows and horses. He said that if we have time, he'll saddle up a horse for me to try and ride.

On Friday, Sina and I took the afternoon off from work and went to the flea market they have here once a week. I bought a Cedar seed bracelet. The Cedar tree is considered sacred; they say their prayers to it. We then drove about an hour out of the reservation to a place called Sedona. It was my first time driving up a mountain...the views were stunning. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any pictures from the moving car.


Sedona is like the Glastonbury of Arizona. It supposedly sits on top of ley lines and is a vortex of energy. It's full of crystal shops, art galleries and Yoga centres. I was in my element. A hippy town built in the mountains? My kind of place.

After Sedona, we drove over to another town called Williams where Sina's son, Wilson was playing an away game at Williams High School. American football that is. It was fun to watch although I'm not keen on all that stopping and starting. If you blink you miss the tackle and then they huddle up again. I say the word 'soccer' through gritted teeth when they ask me what it's like over there. It's football and that's that. There are no hands involved.

But in exchange for all this culture soaking, I have been making tea for the family. I managed to find some PG tips -result! Although, it's not me usual cup of cha. They don't have kettles over here so you have to heat it up the water in the microwave, a bit of a fail but Talisha, Sina's 8 year old is hooked on it. She makes about three cups a day. Yesterday morning I made pancakes for breakfast, Shrove Tuesday style, with lemon, sugar an' all. Tonight I'm cooking Cottage Pie for dinner...we shall see how that goes down.

On the radio the other night, London Calling by The Clash came on...nostalgia hit me hard.