Navajo-France - Exchange 2007

Today, we asked the students to create themselves a animated banner to support their local teams. We chose this subject because we thought it would be more interesting for the students. Indeed, everyone is the school is very fond of their sport teams, and if it’s not about footbal, it’s about volleyball or basketball. So, when they finish their banners they will put it on their blogs (like us) to support the KNIGHTS!

This weekend we went to the Grand Canyon for a hike with a teacher from greyhills.

Each of us had already seen numerous photos of the Grand Canyon, and we had been to the Coal Mine Canyon and to Monument Valley before. So we all thought we knew what was expecting us. But, on the road, when we saw this gigantic sinkhole between the trees, we felt the same impression than the one we felt when we arrived in Arizona… Minuscules, we are so minuscules! The vastness of the landscape and the relief is fabulous. The most impressive thing is that the relief appears bolt upright, which is not the case for mountains that you can see from far away and that becomes bigger and bigger as you get closer. You need to be in front of the Grand Canyon to see it.

Our day’s program : a 12 miles hike, with a 3000 feet altitude difference between the point of arrival/departure and our objective is at the bottom of the canyon : a viewpoint from where we can look at the colorado just a few feet under. Small curiosity of this place: squirrels! Unlike France’s squirrels who are very apprehensive with humans, the squirrels we saw all along the trail do not hesitate to approach you to claim food or to help themselves if you leave your bag!

The descent was easy but the way back was more difficult. That’s why it’s more dangerous to hike in a canyon that in mountains. Because if you want to climb a mountain and realize halfway that you’re unable to do it, it is easy to turn back. But in the Grand Canyon you must know yourself, your physical capacities and your limits, and be sure of your reserves of water and food to manage to walk back, which is much more difficult. For us, everything turned out fine but we were all worn out after this hike.

This week, we started with the students the software of animation for the Web: Flash.

As for Photoshop, the discovery of the software and its tools is done slowly. The differents levels of the pupils in the same group are important, so we have to be very reactive and to help as well as possible the weakest.

We approach with them the simple animations: motion tween, forms, motion guides… And very little action script (programming flash) because they should not be lost in too hard codes.

To maintain their attention waked up we animate with them “Bling-Bling” (first name written in the style jewel/gold/flashy/hip hop) already drawn on photoshop the last week. This fact they can imagine the many possibilities by using the 2 softwares: photoshop and flash.

It may be due to the fact that sport in school is important in US, but Greyhills high schoolers are very sporty and skilled. Unlike France’s, sports clubs here are part of the school. Near the gymnasium, you can admire in windows, articles of local newspapers and cups won by the school. Some teachers are very proud of the latest performance : the feminine volleyball team won 17 consecutive victories last year! It seems they particularly enjoy playing basketball, softball, volleyball and of course football.

We played a little with them, and we also had the chance to attend to a few games against other schools. There were a football game and two volleyball games played at home. The first one got disordered because of a big cloudburst and ended up as a loss. The cheerleaders kept supporting them till the end with their choregraphies though, their back turned on the field. As for the volleyball games, they are composed of three plays, the last one opposes the best level teams. Even though they were just high schoolers, the plays’ rallies were tight and captivating.

Too bad we won’t have the chance to see other games. They were all the more interesting since we could see our “pupils” in another field than the computer’s.

GO KNIGHTS!!!!!!

Before arrived at Tuba City, we had all the three the intention to visit it, the students of the preceding exchanges having caused our curiosity on this subject. It is of course about The Sin City, Las Vegas!

The first stage, most difficult, was the way. Tuba City being, “lost in the middle of nowhere”, we had to resort to a rather unusual option. It was necessary to leave the city by a taxi to go to Flagstaff to rent a car. The United States is really an amazing country: with five hours of road, the landscape changes a lot, and between two deserts, we can appreciate mounts, plains and forests. Palmiers in sight!!! We knew that we were not very far!

Las Vegas, city planted in the middle of the desert. It’s as hot during the day as it is in the evening and it only goes down very slightly late in the night. More than 40 celsius degrees on average… But what there are even the more amazing, it’s of course the casinos. They often do only one with the hotels, and you find inside a lot of machines and tables of play in a ceaseless hubbub. When we think about all of these players in each casino, we are quickly exceeded by the money sums spent everyday.

In one weekend, we have visited The Excalibur, The Circus-Circus, The Venitian, The Treasure Island and The New York - New York . Each one of these hotels are reproductions (faithful?!) of existing cities or places and strew for the majority the principal street. This street, commonly called “the Strip ” , is certainly the Las Vegas that everyone think about, the remainder of the city is rather banal. You only have to see the adjacent desert streets to realize it…

To conclude : ” What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas… “

Lorenzo Max, a Navajo Medecine Man and Lorenza’s friend, invited us to experience a sweat lodge yesterday. It is one of the most ancient and most spread ritual among the Native American’s. The sweat lodge is common to several tribes, including the Dine people. It’s like a steam bath.

According to Lorenzo’s explanations, this rite serves to purify the body and mind. The body purification is first performed by sweating, then you need to clean your skin with sand once you get out of the lodge so that the sweat won’t get in again. This purification enables you to be linked to the Navajo’s culture’s very important elements: fire, water, earth and air.

When we were in the lodge, the medecine man Lorenzo sang Navajo songs and explained us his culture was composed of singing in essence. There are thousands of songs, every word is related to a Dine song and each clan and family owns its own songs. Those songs are are not written down and they have been passed down from generation to generation vocally.

We remained inside by periods because of the sweltering heat. So it was hard for our bodies to stay more than twenty minutes inside each time. And we did it four times. It was an incredible experience that we will probably undergo once again before we leave the country.

Saturday August 25, we went to Monument Valley with Mr. Chomel, his wife and two American teachers who arrived in Grey Hills at the beginning of the week for their training period.

Monument Valley is one of the main tourist spot of the area with the Large Canyon. It is located in Utah, just at the border of Arizona, at about 2 hours of driving from City Tuba. Monument Valley was our final destination, but the road which took us to it was as awesome. Besides: each road, each turn in Arizona offers different and beautiful landscapes. We now understand the American bikers which travel miles on their Harley Davidson better.

Monument Valley … It looked so much to the postcards or farwest films we had seen. And it is indeed the case, many films were turned in this decoration; John Wayne and other realisators as well passed by there! Small disappointment: hiking is prohibited, we can only drive on one dirty road and stop at a few spots but in the end the landscapes were so beautiful as well.

Bilan of the classes and the project:
This week we mainly worked on Photoshop with the pupils, which seemed to interest them much more than the project of creation of the American website of the Navajo-France association. Indeed, we hoped to make them take part in the creation of the contents, thinking that they would have in heart to speak about their culture, but it was not really the case. They didn’t show reactivity when we asked them assistance for the translation of names of headings in Navajo. Therefore, we made the decision with Leclair (their Webdesign teacher ) to keep teaching them classes that interested them such as the use of Photoshop. As for the website, we will design it ourselves and will ask assistance to the highschool teachers for the parts about the Navajo culture and the translations.

Cameron Trading Post:
On Friday noon, we had the opportunity to go to Cameron, a town very close to City Tuba. We went in a trading post where we found many Navajo artistic items such as dreamcatchers, carpets, clothing and many souvenirs! We went there with Mr. Chomel (founder of our school HETIC ) and his wife who were on holiday close to Arizona. They arrived the day before at Tuba City. Back from Cameron, we were invited by Lorenza’s friend to attend a Navajo ceremony. We could not take pictures because it is rude. We only saw the first part of this ceremony which lasted all the weekend. It seems to heal people like soldiers from their psychological sufferings .

After thei have learned how to write on the Web, by using paragraphs, we make them discover Photoshop, the software of creations and images touch up. The students seem well justify by graphics and follow attentivements our classes. So that they handle the various tools like the selections, the shapes, the layers, the filters their let us make we draw an American flag. The following exercise was to write its name with the Web 2 style ! (reflections, shades, blur, styles…)

Here an example of the work of a good pupil: Leandra.

See all the photos taken in classes

Friday, the seventeenth of August, directly after school we go with our students for a field trip to the museum of Tuba City. We don’t take time to restore us with the canteen of Grey Hills, but make a halt at the free-market to taste with the local specialities (primarily containing sheep).

A very interesting visit, the museum seems very small at first sight but once inside, there are many things. Objects and informations concerning the culture, the language and the Navajo traditions. A room of the museum is also entirely devoted to the history of the “Code Talkers”, of Navajos which during the second world war played a dominating part in the victory of the United States over Japan, by using their language to make a code which Japanese never succeeded in deciphering.

This visit encloses for us our first week, whose assessment is rather positive. The majority of the pupils seem to be interested by our classes and we made fuller knowledge with many of them. This week was primarily devoted to the creation of their blogs and they discovered a lot of online-tools. Work on the site English-Navajo of association will start the next week.