Thursday, February 15, 2007
10:48:29 PM

Today we were up for 5:45 to be to the staff hotel for 7 am. We headed out to the Pascua Yaqui Native Reservation for some regional learning and community impact. In the morning however, myself and the next batch of advanced people started our prep work for our upcoming cities. I, along with Kaylee DeGraff are responsible for setting up Utrecht in the Netherlands. There sure are a lot of things that go into the planning of a single week for 70+ people. We had our meeting at the native owned and operated "Casino del Sol"; the casino of the sun. The Casino is what got the tribe to where it is today; the third largest tribe in the US from what was one of the poorest. The Casino provides funds for everything from their own medical clinic to housing and sanitation. Usually I wouldn't have been allowed into the casino because, like with many things in the U.S., I am underage. I was however tagged with a bright green wrist band so I could be easily tracked on the security cameras to make sure I wasn't doing any illegal gambling. Over lunch near the outside amphitheater where our concert is to be held on Saturday I talked to a teacher from one of the high schools that some of the other students had community impact sessions with in the morning. We also had guest speakers from the Band Council of the Pascua Yaqui Nation and some of the senior administrators and head of security of the casino. They explained how their nation was the first to fight the US government in court for the right to operate their own gambling facilities; and win. Its amazing how far they've come since 1994 when their first bingo hall opened. The revenues are on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars; if not billions. In the afternoon we had fitness time which for me meant hitting the playground and playing on the swings, slides, and monkeybars. I even managed to get a sunburn; in February! In the latest part of the waning afternoon we rehearsed out mini show for the U of A faculty tomorrow.
Back with my host family, we had salmon baked in butter, rice, and mixed vegetables in cheese for supper. It was really good; especially with fresh squeezed lime juice drizzled over it. Tomorrow is a long day, we're heading to the Mexico border for some more regional learning activities. Its all Goodª

Tucson before dawn
Downtown
Arizona Sun rise
Aren't all areas supposed to be drug free?
Sierra Madre Mountains
Casino Del Sol
The Amphitheatre
A Cheryl Crow autographed guitar, we're performing on the same stage as many musical greats


A typical Arizona garden

Fun on the swings!
Gabe volunteered to instuct aerobics at the rec center fort he afternoon
the Pascua Yaqui tribe flag

More to come tomorrow!

Check out the link to see our showtimes here.

Also, I am over 19,000 photos in my library as of today. (that's about 22GB, I'm soon going to need a drive just for pictures!)

FEBRUARY 17 - UP WITH PEOPLE

Recognized as one of the most extraordinary multicultural education programs in the world, Up with People exists today to spark people to action in meeting the needs of their communities, countries and the world while building bridges of understanding as a foundation of world peace.

Tickets:

$20 reserved, $10 general

Where:

AVA Amphitheater

Time:

Call 838-6700

Tickets can be purchased at AVAconcerts.com


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