As I mentioned yesterday, Phoenix is hot.  At that time I did not realise quite how hot, til I looked at the weather report today.  The temperature yesterday as a staggering 43C/110F.  At this temperature, the breeze does nothing to cool one, it's simply like opening an oven door and being blasted with hot air.

I had a fairly lazy day because of that, involving buying a new camera, driving around downtown, and an afternoon in the Heard Museum.  This is a private collection detailing the plight of Native Americans in the area over the years.  The content and the material were nothing ground-breaking, but the presentation was first class.  A really well-designed museum that kept my attention.  I even had the time to complete all the children's activities, such as cutting-and-glueing to make an Apache basket or a Hopi-style garment of woven beads.

I was not aware that one solution to the 'Indian Problem' was to destroy Natives' culture through strict military-style education.  Children were removed from families and sent to boarding schools for 5 years, where they were fully Americani'z'ed though ridicule, dogma, and routine.

In the evening I chilled in the hostel garden, with some cheap cold beers and a wet towel over my shoulders.  After dark I went to a bar with a French girl, Solenne, and listened to some jazz among some very cool cats.