Wonderful Weekends: One in the Wild, One in Winnipeg

My blog could never be a book, any wise publisher would tell me "There's no conflict, no problems, just more good news!" Which brings me to this update....


MORE GOOD NEWS!


Let me start with the 72 hour break. You may remember my voyage with Cody to Quebec City, that was my 48 hour break in Montreal. During each rotation we get a weekend break, and an extra 24 hours if you happen to find a long weekend. But what are we gonna do in Sioux Lookout? Where are you gonna go? We didn't even know until Thursday, when Sharon Yule suggested we ask our good friend, local historian, ex-librarian, and volunteer goddess, Peggy Sander about using her cabin for the time off. Peggy was absolutely delighted that we wanted to use her cabin for the weekend, apparently she loves having young people stay at her cabin. Yes, for free. The only thing she asked was that we sign the guest book. Which is an honour, because look whose been there before us...

Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.

Gordie Howe.

The weekend was a mish-mash of amazing, being on the lake, fishing, cooking in the fireplace, and sleeping in. Peggy's cabin is a beautiful structure on a beautiful piece of land. Her husband and her had built the cabins years ago because he owned the hardware store in town, and he must've been handy because the place is still standing. The main cabin is right on the water, with the boat house about 10 meters further in land. Peggy's personal cabin was just slightly down the shore line. Trees and shorelines made a curtain of privacy between any other escapees enjoy their cabins. There was no functioning plumbing or electricity, so it was much more  like camping then I had thought. We boiled water over the camp fire, and cooked the fish on the barbecue. It was a relaxing time, a time for us to just enjoy everything.

Francois, Landen, Cody, Andrew, and myself were the only one's who went to the cabin for the 72 hours, I like to think the rest of the group was jealous. I had a great weekend.

We struggled through the next week bouncing paperwork back and forth in an attempt to get our excursion protocol accepted. It must've worked because at 2p on Friday the Katimavan drove out of Sioux Lookout for a grueling 5 hour drive to Winnipeg! This venture made Katimavik history in that it is the most distance that has ever been traveled for an excursion. Usually you can only go within about 200km of your placement, but since we are so remote, we got a bonus. So much gas money....

 Weclome to Manitoba!!

 Lower Fort Garry provided much fun and a surprising amount of education. I found a new T-shirt for my collection featuring the face of Louis Riel with the caption "Keeping it Riel"

Lower Fort Garry, a settlement and trade hub for the Hudson's Bay Company.

 Our trip to the Royal Canadian Mint, we all got to hold the solid gold brick, worth half a million dollars.

 The Forks in Winnipeg was entertaining under the guide of our GPS tour.

 The famed Assinboine River, famed for it's flooding.

 Vertical Adventure Rock Climbing gym made for a cool taste of competency 5.

 So many group photos.

 The next day we volunteered at the 25th Teddy Bears Picnic in Winnipeg. Painting faces for 4 hours. For our nearly Japanese PL I decorated her face with sushi.

 Francois the Pirate.

 Andrew the Unicorn?

 Afterwards we crossed the road to visit the Zoo. You may now "Awww" at the Red Panda

 Peacock.

 For Oma: This zoo has much history with Winnie the Pooh, as it was the Home of the original 'Winnie'.

  Our group had a chance to meet up with the St. Boniface group, for dinner and zooing.

 

 Returning home we had some fun stops on the way. Here's us returning to Ontario!

 The chair!

 The fish.

The Yeti.

Coming up for this week... House managing!

Getting Back to Katimalife

 First thing is first, I'm not longer in billeting. I'm at home.

On Wednesday, May 11th, I had a nearly perfect day. It was Sharon's Birthday and we took the morning off to go golfing. Francois, Sharon, and I jumped in to Sharon's car and drove to the golf course to "Footloose" blaring out of the stereos. Those of you who know me know that the last time I went golfing I left in an ambulance, and I haven't been back since. This time I did not get smacked in the head, and I did not leave in an ambulance (the ambulance doesn't show up until later in this blog). Success!

Then we drove off to St. Andrews Church for a soup and sandwich luncheon. Lynne, my billet-mother, was there to serve soup! We also met up with Tiffany, who was billeting with Sharon, and we all indulged in soups and sandwiches. Amazing, amazing food!

Tiffany and Francois met up with me at Extended Care for Karaoke/Ice Cream Parlour. I even got a chance to play a game of crib with the crib legends of the Extended Care Facility, I won twice.

I met up with Andrew after work to grab some bikes from the King house, and then we got some ice cream. As we were on our way to the lake we went under the bridge the trains goes over, I look back. Where's Andrew? On his back on the ground. Turns out hee'd hit some rocks and crashed his bike. Andrew hasn't ridden a bike in years, let alone fallen off one. So an ambulance ride, a couple hours at the Meno Ya Win and a stitch later a dizzy Andrew finally got to go home to his billet house, and a nice bed.

The next day, Landen managed to continue the medical drama by having an accident at work with a razor blade. He got six stitches. Show off.

The weekend brought good times when we took off on a little boat trip courtesy of Sharon. I got to see a bit of Sioux Lookout from the water. What a day.

Billeting was fantastic. Nice relaxing time. I got caught up on sleep. I ate so well (including a lovely dinner at The Chicken Chef). Allen and Lynne are amazing people, and I will certainly see them again.

The reunion on Sunday night was pleasant, because our guardian angel, Anne, had stocked the house with delicious contraband food. Three dozen hot dogs and the corresponding buns we're anxiously awaiting our arrival. Sarah was not there however, and she will not be here until Tuesday. Astrid, of SLARC (Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee), will be acting as our PL. She's been doing a tip top job so far.

My reign of legendary hugs continues. From the former governor general of Canada, to the random little girl on the road. I was hailed into a lady's room from the hallways of the Extended Care Facility, "Nurse, Nurse!" I wandered in "I'm not a nurse, but can I help you?". She looked up "Yes! I need a hug!" I gave her a good hug, since this I've given her at least five other hugs. Nothing brightens your day quite like an unexpected hug.

Today marked the first real connection to the community for our Collective Community Project. We met with the Sioux Lookout Environmental Committee to discuss plans to build a composter for the community garden. Great success! They loved our idea, and seemed really excited about it.

That pretty much sums up life as I know it. Up coming excitement includes this weekends 72 hours off (to do anything! or nothing!). Then the return of Sarah on Tuesday.

Ready, Set, Sleep in!

This blog post is hereby dedicated to my fantastic fans, my G-parents.

This weekend, this wonderful weekend, where do I begin? When you listen to teenagers (sorry teenagers, I'm about to insult you) talk about the weekend it usually consists of brainless blabber about parties and/or getting wasted. This weekend was remarkable, this is the kind of stuff I enjoy.

The story of my billet experience starts on Thursday. I knew good things were coming my way when I caught word that Sarah made curry for dinner that night. That flavourful omen was indeed a good one, because I was then picked up by Lynne to come to my new home to watch the Canucks game on a 48 inch high definition television.

Now, some people who know me are gonna question two parts of that sentence. The first being "Niki, you don't watch hockey" and the second being "Niki, you have never cared about television size or definition.". To correct the first, I watch hockey when I know it's on, and on Katimavik I felt more connected to watching hockey because it's something we can all be represented by. Of course, it's got to be an amazing season for the Canucks and I'm not in Vancouver to witness the excitement, so watching the games are as good as it gets. Then there's the television quality thing. I think bears appreciate trees like I appreciate television, we don't really care, because it's part of our environment, we don't like it when you take it away, but we can still live without it. When you spend 5 months "out of the loop" you have a renewed sense of appreciation for these kind of things. So, I'm really just mentioning the high definition to get you guys, the bears with trees, excited, I'd be happy with a black and white television right now.

This being out of the loop things is only really making itself clear now. Watching the television, I realize that I don't recognize any of the commercials, and I'm the kind of person who could easily recite a commercial jingle I've only heard a couple times. It's not just TV either, reading the magazines in the gift shop made me realize I have no idea what is going on, because by the time gossip is printed, it's changed. I don't even want to make an effort to catch up on any of this stuff. I don't pour ever last drip of my time into Hollywood drama, but at home I just kind of, knew this stuff, never looked into, just knew what was, well, new. I have no attachment to the celebrities that they mentioned in any of the magazines. Once I took the afternoon to purchase two copies of Portal 2, one for me, and one for my dear brother (Who is 20?! How did that happen?!) for his birthday. While I was stumbling around the steam store I realized once again, time has passed without me. Games came out, updates happened, people are playing games I haven't heard of. What is going on?! Niki isn't up to date on video games?! Panic mode! I was looking at these games people are excited about that I have no idea about. By the time I get home everyone will have beaten Portal 2 and I'll have just started. Maybe I'm not thinking with portals, but I'm thinking life is gonna be a little weird when I get back.

Enough about that, for now.

Friday was busy at the Meno-Ya-Win. I got there in time to bring up tables for the big bake sale. I've always seen bake sales as an opportunity for individuals to pity people who sit behind a table of soggy pastries and if they feel generous, they actually buy something. But I had never had June's baking. June is the interpretor at the Extended Care Center, despite her knowledge of Ojicree, she's best know for her magic ability to make the most wonderful food you ever had the fortune of eating. This bake sale happened in about 25 minutes, there was a line up. The gift shop was full, everything was sold, and we made about 200 dollars in this short time. It was like a sugar-hungry tornado.

Later we held a "Pitch In" for cleaning up the area around the Meno-Ya-Win, so it was my job to hand out the garbage bag, and gloves. After this Francois, my wonderful boss Sharon, and I went to downtown Sioux Lookout (Front st.) to collect donations for the hospital auxiliary and offer flowers for mother's day. During this event I spotted a unique van, a Katimavan, and who jumped out of it? Not much of a question actually, it was obviously Sarah, no one else has the keys. She didn't see us, so we left a note and a flower on her windshield. When she got back to the car, she saw it, saw us, waved, and walked over.

While talking with Sarah, a familiar friend came up. Author, British Columbian, and Wilderness expert, Roy* was ripping around town in his new wheel chair. Ryb had been staying at the Meno-Ya-Win for, in his words, "too long". He frequented the gift shop were he'd explain pages of his wilderness survival guide, or just tell us the most entertaining stories of his life. This man has been stabbed in the neck by his girlfriend, bad mouthed by a former premier, stalked by a bear, built his own alcohol still, and lived of the land. Long before my time, Roy even worked as the blacksmith in Barkerville, he's an amazingly knowledgeable guy, a storyteller and a cowboy of sorts. I hadn't seen him since he left the hospital, so it was neat to catch up with him. He mentioned he would be constructing a wooden leg to replace the wheelchair, in fact he'd already tried dancing on one leg.

Francois and I finished the day at extended care with three games of crib against the crib champions of extended care. At least we won one game.

Friday night, Lynne and Allen took me out for Chinese food with the rest family. Sioux Lookout has Chinese food? Another dumb question ...YES! New Kowloon restaurant serves the finest westernized Chinese food. Tasty tasty tasty Honey Garlic Spare Ribs....


Saturday was fun too, and not just for the sleep in, but for our trip to DRYDEN. Where's Dryden? About an hour and a half out of Sioux Lookout, Dryden is a "big" town,  "big" by Sioux Lookout standards refers to a couple things. Such as number of grocery stores, fast food outlets and what not.

 The arnea in Dryden is named after NHL player Chris Pronger, who grew up in Dryden.

 Sandy Beach outside of Dryden taught me that even lakes have beaches.

Finally figured out the panorama mode on my camera. Cool, eh?

Allen referred to this Moose as "Buster" but apperently his real name is "Max". To me he will be Buster.

We had a fancy dinner at the Pizza Hut in Dryden. Here, the Pizza Huts are more like Boston Pizzas, where you sit down and order and what not.

 

Ran into this little fox friend on the way hoe, he even posed for me.

Sunday, Cody invited me to go to come over to his billet house to try out the sauna. When I got there, Jessica was on her way, and we made some phone calls and before you know it, practically the whole group was there (Sorry you couldn't make it, Francois). We zipped back and forth between sauna and jumping in the lake. That lake was COLD. Cold cold cold. But we had lots of fun.

The night we had a little mothers day dinner, with food that was all to tasty. I love the food here, I'm eating so well.

I luckily had the chance to call Mum and Grandma today to wish them a happy mothers day. There was one thing Grandma wanted for mothers day, and that was a new blog post. So that was it G-ma I hope you enjoyed that!

"I told you I was working on competency 8, which is basically preparation so that life after Katimavik isn't like jumping from a sauna to a freezing cold lake. Wait! Forget that I said that! That was witty, I'm gonna put that in the blog!"

-Me while on the phone with the family

*Just calling him Roy because I signed some confidentiality agreements. Knowing him, he'd tell me to just quit worrying and use his real name, he'd probably say something like "Use my name, use my full name, hell give 'em my home address! If they want me, they know where too find me!" But let's play it safe.

Call Me 'Kitchki Genoojay'

I would love to use the words "winding down into the last quarter of the program" to begin, but that only sounds good in my head, it's not necessarily true. While this is the last quarter of the program coming up, some say "it's gonna fly by" but are calendar is full, we are unbelievably busy in every aspect of life. There is much to be done.

The past week or so has been another interesting one, every week seems to have a different set of moods associated with it. This past week included my being house manager, the menu included ribs, shisk kabobs, and a turkey dinner.

On Saturday the 23rd we met with  local historian and night owl, Peggy Sanders. Peggy is the person you go to to learn everything about Sioux Lookout. Once a  librarian her home still reflects her old career with wall to wall books. When Peggy speaks, people listen, so this was an interesting evening. Peggy is famed in the community for this and her ability to stay up past 2am. She loves to remind us that, in her words, "Katimavik is a dream come true." When she was young she join the air force and was station in Victoria, where she met other young women from around Canada and they used to discuss how they needed a program that could introduce young people to their country during the peace time. Now every time Peggy spends time with a Katimavik group, she likes to call her friend in Vancouver, and her friend in New Brunswick to remind them of the dream come true.

On Monday the 26th there was great excitement for the women of the house who had the unique opportunity to receive their name. But not just any name, your spirit name. Again Victor and Charles brought over the drum, and their friend Nick, to lead us in a Receiving Ceremony. In addition to several songs we each took a few moments to speak about the connections we have with nature and animals. We also made offerings of tobacco and fruit to give to the spirits in our lives. I was given the name "Kitchki Genoojay" which is  Ojicree for Whale, the literal translation being, "Big Fish" because they don't have a lot of whales out here. The Ojicree language has no set spelling, it's all phonetics, and Ks and Gs are interchangeable, same with Ps and Bs. So I might actually be "Gitchki Kenoojay". My clan is the MaHingan Clan, or Wolf Clan. This is based on the idea that spirits go west to die. There was a story of an old wolf spirit who travel west to die, and when he reached the Pacific Ocean he stepped out and became a whale, the last paw mark is left on the Orca whale. Part of the ceremony came into play afterwards, where you go to make your offering. Nick told us that in times where you feel troubled you should go into nature and offer tobacco to an animal. He told us amazing stories of interactions with bears and wolves and eagles. But when you're really lost, scared, or troubled, you should go into the forest and call you name out in each direction and the spirits will come find us. So, I laid down my bark basket of oranges and tobacco and called out "Kitchki Genoojay Iquay Indigo MaHingan Dodem" in each direction. It's gonna be a while until the whales get here, they got a long way to go and there's a lot of land in the way.

Thursday the 28th was the final installment of the entertainment series at Queen Elizabeth High School. We help set up and take down for the concert, and we got to actually watch it too! Andrew Craig Trio was playing and it was a real treat, I would encourage you all to see what you can find out about it music, he is an excellent performer.

During this week I also received a wonderful package from Gma and Gpa along with a postcard from Oma. To my G-parents, thank you, you had the rest of the group hungering after my Nanaimo Bars.

That weekend we attended a Pow-wow at Pelican High School, about an hour outside of Sioux Lookout. There was drumming virtually the whole time we were there. They may have stopped when the food came out, but I didn't know I was too busy eating. Then I got to add a new item to my list of 'Weird Things I've Consumed': Moose Tongue.

On the way back this moose stopped are Katimavan. Didn't say much to us, maybe he lost his tongue?

On Monday night I was homesick. Homesick for Montreal that is. We had a Skype date with Etienne to catch up. He got a job as a PC in Moncton, New Brunswick. When we were writing his performance review we all made sure to add "would make an excellent Project Coordinator" in the comments section. Guillaume had mentioned that Etienne was applying for a job as PC and that they'd be reading our comments. I'm glad they did.

Again in group news, we've lost another. That's right on Wednesday the 27th Val boarded a train to take her home to Guelph. This was easier to handle because she'd been talking about it since Montreal, she's traveling to Ireland this fall and she needs to get some money for the trip. Val was a great part of the group, especially musically, it's still really weird to not hear her mandolin. We'll miss you, Val!

Therefore testosterone takes over as our girl count drops to four, including Sarah and myself. No changes have been made to the houses so far as Tiffany rules the attic at Prince. It will be awhile until any of that is taken care of, cause were going into BILLETING! Yes, on Tuesday we met with our billet families for a little tea and cookie evening before we move in on Thursday night. I'm more than thankful for my family, Lynn and Allen, in addition to their 48 inch television and 5 minute commute to work, they are very friendly and welcoming. We're going out for Chinese food this week, I am so happy. I've grown more and more tired of Katmalife here. We work all day, there's hardly any food, were constantly worrying about protocols,meetings, calendars, competencies, applications, projects, and paperwork, and to top it off my room is SO cold at night, I don't even sleep. So, billeting? Bring it on!