So it has been 2 months since I last updated my blog, and a lot has happened since then. I am currently living in a small village called Karadje, which is about 2 hours from the capital Bamako. Our village has no electricity, no running water and only about 15 families. Although this is a low number for families, the families are rather large and there are a lot of children. When we first arrived in our village, there were huge fields of corn and mill separating each home. Now that it is November, most of the mill and corn has been cut down. I can now see family homes of my team members across the field. My family is pretty great and the kids in my home love to play cards. I think I have played enough card games to last me a lifetime! In my family, there is only one mom and dad, where in some of the other homes, there are more than one wife for the dad. Its really great for me, as it is easier to remember the names, as there is less. Speaking of names, I had recieved a Malian name from my host family. My entire group recieved one as well. My new name is Awa Coulibaly, Awa meaning Eve, and Coulibaly is the last name of my host family and almost all the families in my village. It is neat just walking around, and having children shout my Malian name. Us Toubabous feel kind of famous, as everyone knows who we are. Toubabou if you are wondering, is a term used for a white person. This term is frequently used as well, and I find it ammusing.
While I have been here, my group and I have cut down a huge field of grass, dug up all the dirt, made garden beds with the dirt and are now growing vegetables for the village. I am really stoked for this, as this will be a great thing for the villagers to have. I have also finished and presented my educational day to my group, which was on the problems with water. It was great, and I did it all in French, which I was also stoked about. Another thing that our group has been up to is going to Sirakorola, which is the village 5 km from ours, where we go every thursday for the public market and to hangout with the other group who lives there. We also have been going there for Bilaphone nights, which is full of traditional african music and dancing. This is one of my favourite things about the culture, because it is so vibrant and exciting.
Since our group was in Karadje for Halloween, our group wanted to do something for the holiday. Instead of buying a bunch of candy for ourselves, we decided to buy a bunch for the kids around the village. During the afternoon on Halloween, my group walked around the village passing out candy to our host families and any child. We brought some of the Malians from our group with us to explain in Bambara why we were doing it. It was such a great expeience, because we had fun making other kids happy. That is the reason for Halloween of course.
Health wise, I have been pretty strong and have only seemed to catch a cold the first couple of weeks we were here. Over half of my group has managed to catch malaria as it is a strong season for it. Hopefully I dont catch it and stay strong and healthy. As for everything else, it has been great and I cant wait to get home to tell you all about my experience and show you all the pictures.
As we say in Mali,
Gumbay, which means see you soon.
Shelby
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Au Revoir!!!
This past week has been extremely busy with different types of activities with my group and with my host family. It was our last week in La Pocatiere/ Riviere Ouelle, so every second was precious. The week seemed to go by fast and I wish I had more time here to spend with my host family and new friends. Today I leave Riviere Ouelle/ La Pocatiere, and I am not looking forward to that. I am very excited to go to Mali and start a new adventure, but I will defiantly miss my new family here. Tomorrow I head to Mali with my group, and I am gradually getting more and more nervous for the change. I have had so many thoughts run in and out of my mind lately about the uncertainties that come with leaving everything and everyone that I have come to know.
As I’ve mentioned before, I have done a lot this past week, and have been using every minute to my advantage. I did a lot of packing and unpacking, as I was having trouble deciding what I’ll actually use and what I won’t. I really don’t like packing at all, and with the pressure of time, it became somewhat of a pain. Hopefully I don’t end up forgetting something that I really need, as certain necessities are hard to come by in Mali. Some of the other activities I have been up to this past week have mostly been with my group. On Tuesday, Adrien, one of the boys on my team, organized a movie night at the Cgept for our group, family and friends. The movie was made in Mali and was spoken in Bambara, with English subtitles I may add. It was called “Yeelen”, and had to do with the Malian folklore. It was interesting, although I did not enjoy the beginning when they sacrificed a chicken. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I may actually see this sort of thing in Mali on a regular basis. This will be hard for me as I absolutely love animals, but I am trying to be open minded and see it from their perspective. This is something I will have to work on within myself, so that I can fully experience the culture. Although there were some parts I did not feel comfortable watching, overall it was quite interesting learning about their culture through film and hearing some of their folklore.
This past Wednesday was really fun, as Rahama and I had the chance to go to Quebec City with our host mom and her two friends, Francine and Pierette. When we arrived in Quebec city, we went to the mall and walked around for a while. Rahama had never seen such a huge shopping centre before, so it was really neat for her. There was this one store that I was even amazed with because of its size. I am pretty sure this one store was "almost" the same size as my “big” mall back home. After we walked around for a while, we ate lunch in the food court and then left to drive around the city. We drove by the huge parliament building and beautiful homes in the older neighbourhoods. Afterwards we headed to what I and lots of people call “Old Quebec”, which is a big tourist spot. It has a huge castle, 500 year old buildings on cobblestone roads, and the authentic French look. One thing that I love about “Old Quebec” is the local people, as they interact a lot with the tourists. There are also plenty of local artists who sell beautiful artwork, and a lot of local music. It’s really a gorgeous place and it’s pretty close to being in France, without actually being in France. We hung out for the rest of the afternoon in “Old Quebec” just sightseeing and being a typical tourist. The day was really exciting as it brought back a lot of memories from when I was in Old Quebec two years ago for skating.
This past Thursday and Friday were spent with our groups at the Cgept just going over last minute information before we head to Mali. Friday was a really busy day for our group and for me. We did our group meeting all day at the Cgept and went to the company “Dynaco” for some information about agriculture. Afterwards we all headed to the city hall where we set up for our Au Revoir Party for our family and friends. During this time, Ocean and I practiced singing our song as we were singing for everyone. We sang the song “Big Yellow Taxi” and it went really well. Adrien in our group played a solo guitar piece and we presented thank you letters to our families. It was a blast hanging out with our families and friends just dancing and visiting. The night went really well and I enjoyed this last big party with our group in Canada. Later that night Rahama taught me how to tie a sarong (Kounabri in Bambara) Malian style and also taught me how to tie the traditional head dress (Misoro in Bambara) 3 different ways. It was a great way to end off our last week here.
This past Saturday and Sunday was spent doing some last minute shopping for our host families in Mali and of course packing. On Saturday night, Therese and Rogers entire family and all their friends came in from everywhere for a surprise 40th anniversary party for them. It was great and Therese had absolutely no idea. The party was in St. Roch Des Aulnaise at the old Manor that I toured a while back with Francine and Rahama. There was a lot of people and a lot of delicious food. I had a great time taking pictures and hanging out, as it was great being able to celebrate something so special with their family. On Sunday Sept. 12th we had a bunch of people come over to our home for a going away supper and the evening was spent with a lot of family and friends.
These past three months have been amazing and I wouldn’t change anything. I have had a blast while here and have learned a lot about the language and about myself. I wish I had more time to spend with the people I have come to know. Hopefully I can return sometime soon in the next year or two, to visit my family here. Today I leave my town and head for the camp with our group and the other group for the day. We spend the night at the camp and then head out tomorrow (Tuesday) for the airport to go to Mali. We will finally arrive in Mali at 8:30pm on Wednesday. I am so excited, but really nervous to leave Riviere Ouelle. Soon enough I will be in Mali exploring a completely new culture, and unfortunately with that, comes a limited amount of internet access. That will be a good thing for me though, to get away from all the technology that I am so used to. This may or may not be the last blog from me in these next 3 months. I may have the chance to upload a big summary of what I have been up to while in Mali, but I can’t guarantee anything. Check in every once in a while to see if I was able to upload anything, but if I am not able to, I will do a big summary after I return to Canada. Until then, thank you for supporting me and taking an interest in my life by reading the blog. I hope I have written enough to inform you of everything I have done during these 3 months.
Here is a schedule of my trip to Mali for those of you who are wondering what it looks like:
On Tuesday Sept. 14th--> We leave Montreal at 7:30pm (For all of you back home, there is a 2 hour difference from S’toon to Quebec. Quebec is 2 hours ahead of Sask.)
-->We arrive in Paris at 8:35am on Wednesday Sept. 15th. Yes, this is an overnight trip, which I am not looking forward to. Getting enough sleep on a airplane or at least trying to, can be very hard to do. We are in the Paris airport for 8 hours. I thought it was only going to be 6 hours, but I forgot that there was another time change from Quebec to Paris. We are not allowed to leave the airport, because the Malians do not have insurance for France, so our day will be spent walking around inside the airport and looking out at what we can see of Paris. The exciting news for when we return is we most likely will be able to leave the Paris airport on our return to Canada and explore Paris for a couple of hours. Hopefully we can do something like this, as airports are extremely boring.
-->At 4:30pm on Wednesday, we leave Paris and head to Bamako (the capital of Mali) and arrive there at 8:10pm. It appears to only be a 4 hour flight, but is actually a 6 hour flight because of the time change again.
This is my schedule for the next couple of days, so hopefully everything goes well. I wish I could upload more blogs while in Mali, but considering my village has no power, running water or any necessities such as these, it will be unlikely.
Until next time (which may be a very long time)
Au Revoir!!!!! (Mali in 2 days!!!) :D
As I’ve mentioned before, I have done a lot this past week, and have been using every minute to my advantage. I did a lot of packing and unpacking, as I was having trouble deciding what I’ll actually use and what I won’t. I really don’t like packing at all, and with the pressure of time, it became somewhat of a pain. Hopefully I don’t end up forgetting something that I really need, as certain necessities are hard to come by in Mali. Some of the other activities I have been up to this past week have mostly been with my group. On Tuesday, Adrien, one of the boys on my team, organized a movie night at the Cgept for our group, family and friends. The movie was made in Mali and was spoken in Bambara, with English subtitles I may add. It was called “Yeelen”, and had to do with the Malian folklore. It was interesting, although I did not enjoy the beginning when they sacrificed a chicken. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I may actually see this sort of thing in Mali on a regular basis. This will be hard for me as I absolutely love animals, but I am trying to be open minded and see it from their perspective. This is something I will have to work on within myself, so that I can fully experience the culture. Although there were some parts I did not feel comfortable watching, overall it was quite interesting learning about their culture through film and hearing some of their folklore.
This past Wednesday was really fun, as Rahama and I had the chance to go to Quebec City with our host mom and her two friends, Francine and Pierette. When we arrived in Quebec city, we went to the mall and walked around for a while. Rahama had never seen such a huge shopping centre before, so it was really neat for her. There was this one store that I was even amazed with because of its size. I am pretty sure this one store was "almost" the same size as my “big” mall back home. After we walked around for a while, we ate lunch in the food court and then left to drive around the city. We drove by the huge parliament building and beautiful homes in the older neighbourhoods. Afterwards we headed to what I and lots of people call “Old Quebec”, which is a big tourist spot. It has a huge castle, 500 year old buildings on cobblestone roads, and the authentic French look. One thing that I love about “Old Quebec” is the local people, as they interact a lot with the tourists. There are also plenty of local artists who sell beautiful artwork, and a lot of local music. It’s really a gorgeous place and it’s pretty close to being in France, without actually being in France. We hung out for the rest of the afternoon in “Old Quebec” just sightseeing and being a typical tourist. The day was really exciting as it brought back a lot of memories from when I was in Old Quebec two years ago for skating.
This past Thursday and Friday were spent with our groups at the Cgept just going over last minute information before we head to Mali. Friday was a really busy day for our group and for me. We did our group meeting all day at the Cgept and went to the company “Dynaco” for some information about agriculture. Afterwards we all headed to the city hall where we set up for our Au Revoir Party for our family and friends. During this time, Ocean and I practiced singing our song as we were singing for everyone. We sang the song “Big Yellow Taxi” and it went really well. Adrien in our group played a solo guitar piece and we presented thank you letters to our families. It was a blast hanging out with our families and friends just dancing and visiting. The night went really well and I enjoyed this last big party with our group in Canada. Later that night Rahama taught me how to tie a sarong (Kounabri in Bambara) Malian style and also taught me how to tie the traditional head dress (Misoro in Bambara) 3 different ways. It was a great way to end off our last week here.
This past Saturday and Sunday was spent doing some last minute shopping for our host families in Mali and of course packing. On Saturday night, Therese and Rogers entire family and all their friends came in from everywhere for a surprise 40th anniversary party for them. It was great and Therese had absolutely no idea. The party was in St. Roch Des Aulnaise at the old Manor that I toured a while back with Francine and Rahama. There was a lot of people and a lot of delicious food. I had a great time taking pictures and hanging out, as it was great being able to celebrate something so special with their family. On Sunday Sept. 12th we had a bunch of people come over to our home for a going away supper and the evening was spent with a lot of family and friends.
These past three months have been amazing and I wouldn’t change anything. I have had a blast while here and have learned a lot about the language and about myself. I wish I had more time to spend with the people I have come to know. Hopefully I can return sometime soon in the next year or two, to visit my family here. Today I leave my town and head for the camp with our group and the other group for the day. We spend the night at the camp and then head out tomorrow (Tuesday) for the airport to go to Mali. We will finally arrive in Mali at 8:30pm on Wednesday. I am so excited, but really nervous to leave Riviere Ouelle. Soon enough I will be in Mali exploring a completely new culture, and unfortunately with that, comes a limited amount of internet access. That will be a good thing for me though, to get away from all the technology that I am so used to. This may or may not be the last blog from me in these next 3 months. I may have the chance to upload a big summary of what I have been up to while in Mali, but I can’t guarantee anything. Check in every once in a while to see if I was able to upload anything, but if I am not able to, I will do a big summary after I return to Canada. Until then, thank you for supporting me and taking an interest in my life by reading the blog. I hope I have written enough to inform you of everything I have done during these 3 months.
Here is a schedule of my trip to Mali for those of you who are wondering what it looks like:
On Tuesday Sept. 14th--> We leave Montreal at 7:30pm (For all of you back home, there is a 2 hour difference from S’toon to Quebec. Quebec is 2 hours ahead of Sask.)
-->We arrive in Paris at 8:35am on Wednesday Sept. 15th. Yes, this is an overnight trip, which I am not looking forward to. Getting enough sleep on a airplane or at least trying to, can be very hard to do. We are in the Paris airport for 8 hours. I thought it was only going to be 6 hours, but I forgot that there was another time change from Quebec to Paris. We are not allowed to leave the airport, because the Malians do not have insurance for France, so our day will be spent walking around inside the airport and looking out at what we can see of Paris. The exciting news for when we return is we most likely will be able to leave the Paris airport on our return to Canada and explore Paris for a couple of hours. Hopefully we can do something like this, as airports are extremely boring.
-->At 4:30pm on Wednesday, we leave Paris and head to Bamako (the capital of Mali) and arrive there at 8:10pm. It appears to only be a 4 hour flight, but is actually a 6 hour flight because of the time change again.
This is my schedule for the next couple of days, so hopefully everything goes well. I wish I could upload more blogs while in Mali, but considering my village has no power, running water or any necessities such as these, it will be unlikely.
Until next time (which may be a very long time)
Au Revoir!!!!! (Mali in 2 days!!!) :D
Monday, September 6, 2010
I ne Sogoma!
When I began to write this blog entry, I was having a lot of trouble getting started. I think it was difficult for me to get all my thoughts organized into something that made sense. I have only 8 days left before I head to Mali, and although that is just over a week, there is really no time for me to get everything I want done. I have a lot of activities with my group in the upcoming week, and that will take away a lot of my free time. As the date to leave gets closer and closer, time here is becoming more and more precious, and I’m trying to soak in whatever I can before I’m gone. Before I know it, I will be in Mali living a completely different lifestyle. I have been told a lot about Mali since I have been here, and what to expect when we actually get there. Although I have been given all this information, I know what I have been told will be completely different from what I’ll experience. The culture appears to be so vibrant in more ways than one, and I am looking forward to the experience. The village that I will be staying in is called Karaje, with maybe 20 to 30 homes. This will be a big change for me as I’m used to a big city, or even a big town such a Riviere Ouelle. There will be a lot of differences and I’m excited to get started and explore everything.
Since I have been here in Quebec, I have had the chance to experience so many things that I may never get the change to do it again. For example, milking a cow probably won’t be in my future, considering I wasn’t that great at it. I think I’ll leave that job to those who know what they are doing. Rahama and I finished lifting our last huge load of hay for our family, in fact, it was the last load for the family this year! I also would like to inform you that I actually have muscles from all the lifting I’ve done. I have also planted around 170 trees with my group for one of our group’s presentations. It took us two days to do this and we completed what we wanted, even in the rain. We had a blast doing it and goofing off during the day, taking lots of pictures as we went along. I have also learned some Bambara from my counterpart and I think it’s great. They have 4 greetings during the day and the first is "I ni sogoma" (Bonjour in Bambara, and also the title of this blog). I know quite a bit of Bambara, not enough to have a conversation at all, but I think it’s neat what I do know. I made a mental note to learn some words such as Buntani (which is scorpion in Bambara), as my counterpart has informed me there are a lot of those in Mali. Some words are essential to learn, and I truly think that a word such as "Buntani" could be good to know. When I get there, hopefully I will begin to pick up the language more as we will be merged into a community that mostly only speaks Bambara. It may be a little difficult as I am trying to learn two languages at once, but I’ll have my team who will be going through the same thing, which will defiantly help.
One of the responsibilities of the volunteers is to present a project within Canada and one in Mali to our group for an entire day. Rahama and I had the topic of Recycling and composting, since our program is in agriculture. We presented Friday (August 27th) and I had to speak in French the entire time. It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do so far, but I think it was also quite rewarding as I pushed my limits. One thing for sure is that I couldn’t have been happier when I finished our presentation day. I defiantly mis-pronounced a lot of words, but at least I tried! The best way to end the day off was going to Andrea and Ya’s farm for Ya’s birthday. We celebrated her birthday with a lot of food and dancing! It was a great night and a great way to spend some time with the entire team. On the following Saturday we all went to the Public market and spent the day talking about Mali at the table our supervisors set up. We gave out tea that they make in Mali from this special flower, and had a lot of pictures and jewellery on display. It was sweet, because it got all the Canadians more amped to head to Mali, seeing all the pictures and hearing all the information.
I only have 8 days until I leave, and I know that it will go by so fast, especially since I will be so busy this week. I know that I am leaving for Mali in 8 days, but at this moment it just seems so surreal. Once I get on the plane, it will begin to sink in that I am actually leaving Canada for 3 months. I have some fears about going to Mali, but those are just fears of the unknown. I will overcome those fears and learn from what I experience. I know it’s been a while since I blogged last, and this hardly seems like enough writing to express all that I have been doing. Trust me I feel the same way, but as I have mentioned before, it was difficult for me to write this blog entry with so many thoughts about everything running through my mind. I promise that I will get in one more blog entry before I head to Mali, so keep looking back as my next one will be up really soon. I have no choice this time, I’m leaving for Mali in 8 DAYS! :)
Since I have been here in Quebec, I have had the chance to experience so many things that I may never get the change to do it again. For example, milking a cow probably won’t be in my future, considering I wasn’t that great at it. I think I’ll leave that job to those who know what they are doing. Rahama and I finished lifting our last huge load of hay for our family, in fact, it was the last load for the family this year! I also would like to inform you that I actually have muscles from all the lifting I’ve done. I have also planted around 170 trees with my group for one of our group’s presentations. It took us two days to do this and we completed what we wanted, even in the rain. We had a blast doing it and goofing off during the day, taking lots of pictures as we went along. I have also learned some Bambara from my counterpart and I think it’s great. They have 4 greetings during the day and the first is "I ni sogoma" (Bonjour in Bambara, and also the title of this blog). I know quite a bit of Bambara, not enough to have a conversation at all, but I think it’s neat what I do know. I made a mental note to learn some words such as Buntani (which is scorpion in Bambara), as my counterpart has informed me there are a lot of those in Mali. Some words are essential to learn, and I truly think that a word such as "Buntani" could be good to know. When I get there, hopefully I will begin to pick up the language more as we will be merged into a community that mostly only speaks Bambara. It may be a little difficult as I am trying to learn two languages at once, but I’ll have my team who will be going through the same thing, which will defiantly help.
One of the responsibilities of the volunteers is to present a project within Canada and one in Mali to our group for an entire day. Rahama and I had the topic of Recycling and composting, since our program is in agriculture. We presented Friday (August 27th) and I had to speak in French the entire time. It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do so far, but I think it was also quite rewarding as I pushed my limits. One thing for sure is that I couldn’t have been happier when I finished our presentation day. I defiantly mis-pronounced a lot of words, but at least I tried! The best way to end the day off was going to Andrea and Ya’s farm for Ya’s birthday. We celebrated her birthday with a lot of food and dancing! It was a great night and a great way to spend some time with the entire team. On the following Saturday we all went to the Public market and spent the day talking about Mali at the table our supervisors set up. We gave out tea that they make in Mali from this special flower, and had a lot of pictures and jewellery on display. It was sweet, because it got all the Canadians more amped to head to Mali, seeing all the pictures and hearing all the information.
I only have 8 days until I leave, and I know that it will go by so fast, especially since I will be so busy this week. I know that I am leaving for Mali in 8 days, but at this moment it just seems so surreal. Once I get on the plane, it will begin to sink in that I am actually leaving Canada for 3 months. I have some fears about going to Mali, but those are just fears of the unknown. I will overcome those fears and learn from what I experience. I know it’s been a while since I blogged last, and this hardly seems like enough writing to express all that I have been doing. Trust me I feel the same way, but as I have mentioned before, it was difficult for me to write this blog entry with so many thoughts about everything running through my mind. I promise that I will get in one more blog entry before I head to Mali, so keep looking back as my next one will be up really soon. I have no choice this time, I’m leaving for Mali in 8 DAYS! :)
Friday, August 20, 2010
Mali in less than one month!! :D
My time in Quebec is slowly coming to an end and I know I will miss my home here very much. I have become very comfortable in my new home and with the people in my community. In less than one month I will be heading to a foreign country, where I will be residing for 3 months, living and learning about the African culture. My time will be spent much like it is here in Quebec, working on farm land and learning more as I go along. I have had a lot of thoughts run through my mind lately about what I’ve experienced and what I am going to experience. I have to admit, I am a little nervous about living in a country where running water is considered a luxury and in the village I’ll be staying, nonexistent. Although there will be many challenges heading my way, I know that those challenges will be easier to overcome knowing I have God on my side. This experience is going to teach me many things about myself that I have yet to discover. I have already noticed some positive changes within myself that will help me grow into the person I think I’m meant to be. I know when I return to Canada, I will have a completely different perspective on life and I’m willing to make the efforts to do something positive with it. I believe everyone is given different experiences in their lifetime for a reason, and this one will and has already started to change my life in a positive way. I have made really good friends that I know I will keep in contact with for years to come. The program has been great so far and I have enjoyed my time here. There have been some difficulties along the way, but if everything was perfect it would get kind of boring. Not everything is going to work out perfectly and I know in Mali that will be the case for a lot of things. Thankfully I have a great team that I can turn to when I need them.
During my free time when Rahama and I are not working, we have the tendency to go for long bike rides or walks around Riviere Ouelle. This in my opinion is great, because I love exploring new areas and learning more about the community I’m in. There is this one place I like to go which is located down by the water in Riviere Ouelle. I like to sit on this piece of cement that overlooks the water and watch the sunset while I think about things. I really enjoy this simplicity and the laid back lifestyle. Although there is a lot of work to do on the farm, I always have the much needed time for myself. The other place that I absolutely love going is to the camping grounds as I have previously mentioned in my other blogs. The long bike ride is great for me and it allows me to clear my head and get little frustrations out. Yes, life here is great and hopefully Mali will exceed even my highest expectations as well.
I have always been one who has enjoyed going to new places and exploring everything. Rahama and I seem to go lots of places with our host mom and her friends, as they enjoy showing us around Quebec. We have gone to Kamouraska and St. Denis to tour the churches and the old shops. These are the more touristy areas and remind me of some touristy lakes back in Saskatchewan. This past weekend was a pretty exciting one as we did a lot. On Sunday August 15th, Rahama and I went with our host mom’s friend Francis to a church in a small village called St. Roch Des-Aulnaies. This church was absolutely gorgeous as every church seems to be with all the amazing old architecture. We happened to go to the one service a year where the community is allowed to bring their pets to the service. It was pretty neat seeing dogs and cats in the church while the priest gave his sermon. Even the priest himself had his dog with him up at the altar. Even though the service was in French, I enjoyed listening to the music and was able to understand all the prayers as it was a Catholic church, and I myself am Catholic. After the church service the priest went outside with all the pets and their owners to bless the animals and the bigger animals, like horses that were not able to enter the church. The Saint who this church is named after was very fond of animals. After we watched a little bit of the blessing ceremony, we went with Francis to the basement of the church. She took us under the church where there was an old graveyard that the church was built on top of in the 1700’s. It was very neat and a little creepy seeing all the old gravestones go far under the church, where we could not even walk. Rahama and I thought it was pretty cool, so we took some pictures and looked around for a bit. Afterwards we went to and old mill, that still makes different types of flour today. On the lot, there was an old manor that you could tour called the “Manor of Des-Aulnaies”. We went on the tour and toured the gorgeous Victorian home and the beautiful gardens. The tour was very neat, as I enjoy looking at old things and seeing how people lived in the past. Afterwards we toured the old mill and saw how they make the flour with the huge water wheel. If you ever have the chance to come to Quebec and tour around the Des-Aulnaies area, I suggest you do as there is a lot of interesting history to it. To end the long day, Rahama and I went with Francis and her son on a car tour through the mountains. It's so beautiful here and I absolutely love the scenery!
My group has been really great so far, and I am enjoying getting to know them more and more each day. Our new group member Liam from Ontario had arrived last week and we were able to get to know him as a group last Friday. He is very nice and is Anglophone, but knows some French which is good for him as he is starting the program a little late. He seems to be very laid back and easy to talk to. He had done a similar program to Jeunese Canada Monde called Yitimivik, which is also a governmentally funded program, but they don’t leave Canada. Today (Friday) our group went to some of our team members work project to plant trees. We are planting 150 trees in two days to make up for our carbon footprint that we will be making on our way to Mali. This was for 4 of our group member’s project called “Green Miles.” It was really fun, but extremely hot! There was lots of pictures taken and I’m sure that some of them are laugh worthy. Next Friday is my and Rahama’s project that we have to present to the group for the entire day. I am getting a little nervous for it as don’t know how I’ll do with talking to the group in all French. I know it will go fine though, so all I need to do is keep working on my French and planning out the day. Other than that, my group is great and I am having a blast getting to spend time with them. I hope to upload my blog sooner the next time, but I just get so busy! I know I’ve said it before that I would do it sooner, but I have come to the conclusion that I suck at uploading it when I say I will. Anyways, I hope to get at least a couple more up before Mali, but until then,
Au Revior!
During my free time when Rahama and I are not working, we have the tendency to go for long bike rides or walks around Riviere Ouelle. This in my opinion is great, because I love exploring new areas and learning more about the community I’m in. There is this one place I like to go which is located down by the water in Riviere Ouelle. I like to sit on this piece of cement that overlooks the water and watch the sunset while I think about things. I really enjoy this simplicity and the laid back lifestyle. Although there is a lot of work to do on the farm, I always have the much needed time for myself. The other place that I absolutely love going is to the camping grounds as I have previously mentioned in my other blogs. The long bike ride is great for me and it allows me to clear my head and get little frustrations out. Yes, life here is great and hopefully Mali will exceed even my highest expectations as well.
I have always been one who has enjoyed going to new places and exploring everything. Rahama and I seem to go lots of places with our host mom and her friends, as they enjoy showing us around Quebec. We have gone to Kamouraska and St. Denis to tour the churches and the old shops. These are the more touristy areas and remind me of some touristy lakes back in Saskatchewan. This past weekend was a pretty exciting one as we did a lot. On Sunday August 15th, Rahama and I went with our host mom’s friend Francis to a church in a small village called St. Roch Des-Aulnaies. This church was absolutely gorgeous as every church seems to be with all the amazing old architecture. We happened to go to the one service a year where the community is allowed to bring their pets to the service. It was pretty neat seeing dogs and cats in the church while the priest gave his sermon. Even the priest himself had his dog with him up at the altar. Even though the service was in French, I enjoyed listening to the music and was able to understand all the prayers as it was a Catholic church, and I myself am Catholic. After the church service the priest went outside with all the pets and their owners to bless the animals and the bigger animals, like horses that were not able to enter the church. The Saint who this church is named after was very fond of animals. After we watched a little bit of the blessing ceremony, we went with Francis to the basement of the church. She took us under the church where there was an old graveyard that the church was built on top of in the 1700’s. It was very neat and a little creepy seeing all the old gravestones go far under the church, where we could not even walk. Rahama and I thought it was pretty cool, so we took some pictures and looked around for a bit. Afterwards we went to and old mill, that still makes different types of flour today. On the lot, there was an old manor that you could tour called the “Manor of Des-Aulnaies”. We went on the tour and toured the gorgeous Victorian home and the beautiful gardens. The tour was very neat, as I enjoy looking at old things and seeing how people lived in the past. Afterwards we toured the old mill and saw how they make the flour with the huge water wheel. If you ever have the chance to come to Quebec and tour around the Des-Aulnaies area, I suggest you do as there is a lot of interesting history to it. To end the long day, Rahama and I went with Francis and her son on a car tour through the mountains. It's so beautiful here and I absolutely love the scenery!
My group has been really great so far, and I am enjoying getting to know them more and more each day. Our new group member Liam from Ontario had arrived last week and we were able to get to know him as a group last Friday. He is very nice and is Anglophone, but knows some French which is good for him as he is starting the program a little late. He seems to be very laid back and easy to talk to. He had done a similar program to Jeunese Canada Monde called Yitimivik, which is also a governmentally funded program, but they don’t leave Canada. Today (Friday) our group went to some of our team members work project to plant trees. We are planting 150 trees in two days to make up for our carbon footprint that we will be making on our way to Mali. This was for 4 of our group member’s project called “Green Miles.” It was really fun, but extremely hot! There was lots of pictures taken and I’m sure that some of them are laugh worthy. Next Friday is my and Rahama’s project that we have to present to the group for the entire day. I am getting a little nervous for it as don’t know how I’ll do with talking to the group in all French. I know it will go fine though, so all I need to do is keep working on my French and planning out the day. Other than that, my group is great and I am having a blast getting to spend time with them. I hope to upload my blog sooner the next time, but I just get so busy! I know I’ve said it before that I would do it sooner, but I have come to the conclusion that I suck at uploading it when I say I will. Anyways, I hope to get at least a couple more up before Mali, but until then,
Au Revior!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Farm life in the eyes of city Girl
Okay so once again I left my blog vacant for a while, but I promise it won’t happen again. I have just been so busy that I haven’t had enough time to work on my blog. The good thing is I’ll be able to post much more often. I can bike to the camping grounds which are only a short 15 minute bike ride from my home. It’s gorgeous there, and I love going for a walk along the beach when I’m finished and watching the sunset over the St. Laurent River. Quebec’s scenery is quite beautiful and I’m taking as much of it in as I can.
Life here in Quebec has been a little crazy lately. My time here is slowly ending and soon I will be venturing off on another crazy 3 month adventure in Africa! Since my last blog I have done some exciting things that I will most likely never do again after this experience is finished. I learned how to milk my first cow and yes, I actually thought it was quite fun. I like to think of it as my official initiation into the farm life. Even though I’ve been here for a little over a month, I couldn’t leave the farm without milking one cow, as that is a part of my family’s everyday life. When I was milking the cow, I have to admit I was a little scared of having a 1500 pt animal above me, but I got used to it after a while. The one thing I did not get used to or appreciate very much was having the cow’s tail in my face. I was quite disgusted, but found it really funny when Rahama was taking pictures of me and my attempts to keep the tail away from my face. My family has a sweet setup for milking the cows, and cool machines that carry the milk from the cows to the churner. They sell the milk and save some for the family, as there is plenty. Speaking of cows, my baby calve that I named Lucy has been sold, so in her place is a new baby calve which I named Annabelle! I finally found a cute calve that suites the name well, and I assure you this time she is a female. I also found a cat on the farm that I have fallen in love with and I named her Rajah. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a dog over a cat any day, but this cat is absolutely adorable. One of my favourite things about the farm is the animals, and I love working with them. But my absolute favourite thing that I have had the chance to do on the farm was learn how to drive a tractor! I drove it for quite a distance, and I loved it! I am getting quite used to this new lifestyle, but don’t plan on becoming a farmer in the future.
While in Quebec I have spent a lot of my free time getting to know the community and the people who live in Riviere Ouelle. One of my host mom’s friends started a youth group in Riviere Ouelle, so that the kids and teenagers would have something to do. It’s great because there are a lot of people involved and a lot of the teenagers are around my age. We get along really well and they meet every night for about 3 hours except on Sundays. They play football games, basketball games, etc. They also have a cool place to meet when it’s ugly outside filled with a pool table, basketball game, WII setup, Xbox, a computer, etc. It’s a really cool place to hang out, and get to know everyone. The group also does 6 big trips/ activities a summer where everyone who wants to participate can. Rahama and I were lucky enough to have been invited on a trip to the biggest water park in all of Quebec located at Valcartier Village Vacances. We went on a gorgeous day with about 45 other kids and teenagers. The park had huge tube slides, tube rides, pools and around 5000 people. It was crazy packed the day we went as it was absolutely beautiful out. One of my favourite things at the park was a tube ride that was designed around a 1600th century style castle. It was really neat and full of rustic, ancient architectural designs. There were two slides that would take you down into the underground tunnel, where you would ride for about 8 minutes. There was another ride like this called the “Amazone”. It was designed to look like it was from an Indiana Jones movie, which made it really exciting to go through on the tube. You could grab ropes and if you grabbed the wrong one, it would spill a bunch of water on you. The park was a great way to spend the day with new friends and my counterpart.
My group has been great so far and I have had great times with them. We have had two more presentations done by Jon and Djbril and Simon and Yamadou, where we learned a lot about their topics. On Friday July 23rd, our entire group was introduced to our new member from Nova Scotia. His name is Kyle and he is Anglophone! This makes us Anglophone’s in the group, a group of four again! He is very nice and has been picking up French quite fast. Unfortuantly, our group was just informed that one of the Canadians, Simon, is leaving us on Sunday. He doesn’t like it here anymore and wants to go home. Our group was really surprised to hear this news and are now wondering who is going to replace him. The rest of the Canadians love it here, and don’t have any plans to leave. Of course there are hard times with the cultural differences and such, but it gets better eventually. I hope that the new member fits in well and that everything works out fine. This past weekend, our group travelled to a place called Riviere De Loup for a weekend full of activities and hanging out with each other. We stayed in a hostel, which was really nice and comfortable. We had a lot of time to discuss important topics in our group and to just hangout. On Saturday, our entire group went to a club and danced all night. We had so much fun just dancing and the Malians loved it. I was really glad that the Malians had a good time dancing and hanging out. This past week has been full of hard labour. My host brother estimated that Rahama and I had lifted over 800 bales of hay just this past week! Crazy to imagine, but it’s slowly getting easier. I have also lifted and cut more wood and have noticed I’m getting some muscles! The work on the farm has been hard, but it’s been a lot of fun also and a good way to bond with my family and counterpart.
I know this blog doesn’t seem that long for the time I haven’t written, but I summarized everything that I figured was important. A lot of the work on the farm is repetitive and I don’t think that you would want to read the same thing every time. I will be blogging more often as I have already mentioned, so keep looking in for more news on my new life in Quebec! Until next time,
Au Revoir!
Life here in Quebec has been a little crazy lately. My time here is slowly ending and soon I will be venturing off on another crazy 3 month adventure in Africa! Since my last blog I have done some exciting things that I will most likely never do again after this experience is finished. I learned how to milk my first cow and yes, I actually thought it was quite fun. I like to think of it as my official initiation into the farm life. Even though I’ve been here for a little over a month, I couldn’t leave the farm without milking one cow, as that is a part of my family’s everyday life. When I was milking the cow, I have to admit I was a little scared of having a 1500 pt animal above me, but I got used to it after a while. The one thing I did not get used to or appreciate very much was having the cow’s tail in my face. I was quite disgusted, but found it really funny when Rahama was taking pictures of me and my attempts to keep the tail away from my face. My family has a sweet setup for milking the cows, and cool machines that carry the milk from the cows to the churner. They sell the milk and save some for the family, as there is plenty. Speaking of cows, my baby calve that I named Lucy has been sold, so in her place is a new baby calve which I named Annabelle! I finally found a cute calve that suites the name well, and I assure you this time she is a female. I also found a cat on the farm that I have fallen in love with and I named her Rajah. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a dog over a cat any day, but this cat is absolutely adorable. One of my favourite things about the farm is the animals, and I love working with them. But my absolute favourite thing that I have had the chance to do on the farm was learn how to drive a tractor! I drove it for quite a distance, and I loved it! I am getting quite used to this new lifestyle, but don’t plan on becoming a farmer in the future.
While in Quebec I have spent a lot of my free time getting to know the community and the people who live in Riviere Ouelle. One of my host mom’s friends started a youth group in Riviere Ouelle, so that the kids and teenagers would have something to do. It’s great because there are a lot of people involved and a lot of the teenagers are around my age. We get along really well and they meet every night for about 3 hours except on Sundays. They play football games, basketball games, etc. They also have a cool place to meet when it’s ugly outside filled with a pool table, basketball game, WII setup, Xbox, a computer, etc. It’s a really cool place to hang out, and get to know everyone. The group also does 6 big trips/ activities a summer where everyone who wants to participate can. Rahama and I were lucky enough to have been invited on a trip to the biggest water park in all of Quebec located at Valcartier Village Vacances. We went on a gorgeous day with about 45 other kids and teenagers. The park had huge tube slides, tube rides, pools and around 5000 people. It was crazy packed the day we went as it was absolutely beautiful out. One of my favourite things at the park was a tube ride that was designed around a 1600th century style castle. It was really neat and full of rustic, ancient architectural designs. There were two slides that would take you down into the underground tunnel, where you would ride for about 8 minutes. There was another ride like this called the “Amazone”. It was designed to look like it was from an Indiana Jones movie, which made it really exciting to go through on the tube. You could grab ropes and if you grabbed the wrong one, it would spill a bunch of water on you. The park was a great way to spend the day with new friends and my counterpart.
My group has been great so far and I have had great times with them. We have had two more presentations done by Jon and Djbril and Simon and Yamadou, where we learned a lot about their topics. On Friday July 23rd, our entire group was introduced to our new member from Nova Scotia. His name is Kyle and he is Anglophone! This makes us Anglophone’s in the group, a group of four again! He is very nice and has been picking up French quite fast. Unfortuantly, our group was just informed that one of the Canadians, Simon, is leaving us on Sunday. He doesn’t like it here anymore and wants to go home. Our group was really surprised to hear this news and are now wondering who is going to replace him. The rest of the Canadians love it here, and don’t have any plans to leave. Of course there are hard times with the cultural differences and such, but it gets better eventually. I hope that the new member fits in well and that everything works out fine. This past weekend, our group travelled to a place called Riviere De Loup for a weekend full of activities and hanging out with each other. We stayed in a hostel, which was really nice and comfortable. We had a lot of time to discuss important topics in our group and to just hangout. On Saturday, our entire group went to a club and danced all night. We had so much fun just dancing and the Malians loved it. I was really glad that the Malians had a good time dancing and hanging out. This past week has been full of hard labour. My host brother estimated that Rahama and I had lifted over 800 bales of hay just this past week! Crazy to imagine, but it’s slowly getting easier. I have also lifted and cut more wood and have noticed I’m getting some muscles! The work on the farm has been hard, but it’s been a lot of fun also and a good way to bond with my family and counterpart.
I know this blog doesn’t seem that long for the time I haven’t written, but I summarized everything that I figured was important. A lot of the work on the farm is repetitive and I don’t think that you would want to read the same thing every time. I will be blogging more often as I have already mentioned, so keep looking in for more news on my new life in Quebec! Until next time,
Au Revoir!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Work Projects so far/ Events
Second addition to my last blog:
Canada Day was just like any other day here, as it’s not a big celebration for most in Quebec. It defiantly wasn’t like home, where I am used to being with friends and watching the fireworks. Even though Quebec is in Canada, the culture is completely different and something I’m still getting used to. While here I have experienced a lot in such a short period of time. I was able to watch a baby calve being born (Gross, yes, but it is defiantly a cool experience and something I suggest you to see if the opportunity ever arises).Gardening has been pretty sweet and I’ve also lifted and cut more wood in a day then I ever thought I would in a lifetime. I lifted a lot of hay as well, and those little hay bales are deceiving. You pick up one thinking it’s going to be lighter than it actually is and you almost throw out your back. I got these epic bruises on both sides of my right knee slipping through the gap of the platform and the trailer. Yes, only I could do that even when I made a mental note of the gap. It was funny though, but defiantly not graceful. Lifting hay isn’t all that bad though, I may come back with some serious muscles! I’ll leave that to your discretion though haha. I learned many things so far, but one thing I’ve learned is that I don’t think professional painting is in my future, but who knows? I have painted so much wood and one heck of a dog house, that I may be the next Picasso. Okay, that’s not going to happen, but I know by the end of this I may never want to paint anything red again! There is defiantly not a lack of travelling with my host family as I’ve already travelled to Quebec City and to smaller towns. I know Quebec City may not seem that exciting, but it’s actually very beautiful. We recently went to Quebec City for my host family’s granddaughter’s 3rd birthday and for a baptism. We’re going to go back soon to look around the city and explore. I have also been to the beach that is on the St. Laurent River. It’s across the road from a very large and popular campground, where we met 3 out of 6 guys who are doing something called the “Tandem Tour”, where they are biking across Canada. They started in British Columbia and are going to Halifax on a 4 person bicycle. There are lots of bonfires and hanging out and there is internet connection! It isn’t a beach that I’m used to with only sand, it’s full of huge rocks and seaweed/plants where the tide comes in every 7 hours. Roger (our host dad) took us to one of the barns and found us some bikes to use. We washed them, put some air in the tires and they are good to go! Ocean and I are going to start biking there when we have free time and just relax and take in everything around us. It is only a 15 minute bike ride from my home so I think I’ll be going there quite a bit to swim and have some time to myself. Ooooh, exciting news! One of the huskie dogs (Chinook) had a puppy and it’s so tiny and so cute! I was able to hold it the other day and I fell in love with it! Her eyes aren’t opened yet as she is only a week old, but I get to name her. Not sure what to name it yet, but when I do I’ll let you know. Oh, when I have time I will be uploading some much needed pictures to facebook , so that you can see what my experience has been like. I’ll try and post some on my blog as well.
Quebec so far has been exciting and frustrating. Frustrating only because of the language barrier, but I’m learning and trying, eventually it will be easier. Everything is great here, but I do miss Saskatoon. I’m far from home and wish I could see everyone that I miss, but when I get back In December, every hug and hello will be worth the wait. I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve been gone! It seems like such a long time and it has gone pretty fast. Before I know it, I’ll be in Africa living a life so different from anything I’ve ever known. I’ll get to play some real African soccer and play with wonderful kids in the villages and orphanages. I’ll also most likely burn, even with SPF 60 sunscreen. Knowing me, I won’t be pasty white when I return, but a nice dark shade of red. Well I hope everything is going great for everyone back home, and until next time, which hopefully won’t be that long!
Au Revoir!
Canada Day was just like any other day here, as it’s not a big celebration for most in Quebec. It defiantly wasn’t like home, where I am used to being with friends and watching the fireworks. Even though Quebec is in Canada, the culture is completely different and something I’m still getting used to. While here I have experienced a lot in such a short period of time. I was able to watch a baby calve being born (Gross, yes, but it is defiantly a cool experience and something I suggest you to see if the opportunity ever arises).Gardening has been pretty sweet and I’ve also lifted and cut more wood in a day then I ever thought I would in a lifetime. I lifted a lot of hay as well, and those little hay bales are deceiving. You pick up one thinking it’s going to be lighter than it actually is and you almost throw out your back. I got these epic bruises on both sides of my right knee slipping through the gap of the platform and the trailer. Yes, only I could do that even when I made a mental note of the gap. It was funny though, but defiantly not graceful. Lifting hay isn’t all that bad though, I may come back with some serious muscles! I’ll leave that to your discretion though haha. I learned many things so far, but one thing I’ve learned is that I don’t think professional painting is in my future, but who knows? I have painted so much wood and one heck of a dog house, that I may be the next Picasso. Okay, that’s not going to happen, but I know by the end of this I may never want to paint anything red again! There is defiantly not a lack of travelling with my host family as I’ve already travelled to Quebec City and to smaller towns. I know Quebec City may not seem that exciting, but it’s actually very beautiful. We recently went to Quebec City for my host family’s granddaughter’s 3rd birthday and for a baptism. We’re going to go back soon to look around the city and explore. I have also been to the beach that is on the St. Laurent River. It’s across the road from a very large and popular campground, where we met 3 out of 6 guys who are doing something called the “Tandem Tour”, where they are biking across Canada. They started in British Columbia and are going to Halifax on a 4 person bicycle. There are lots of bonfires and hanging out and there is internet connection! It isn’t a beach that I’m used to with only sand, it’s full of huge rocks and seaweed/plants where the tide comes in every 7 hours. Roger (our host dad) took us to one of the barns and found us some bikes to use. We washed them, put some air in the tires and they are good to go! Ocean and I are going to start biking there when we have free time and just relax and take in everything around us. It is only a 15 minute bike ride from my home so I think I’ll be going there quite a bit to swim and have some time to myself. Ooooh, exciting news! One of the huskie dogs (Chinook) had a puppy and it’s so tiny and so cute! I was able to hold it the other day and I fell in love with it! Her eyes aren’t opened yet as she is only a week old, but I get to name her. Not sure what to name it yet, but when I do I’ll let you know. Oh, when I have time I will be uploading some much needed pictures to facebook , so that you can see what my experience has been like. I’ll try and post some on my blog as well.
Quebec so far has been exciting and frustrating. Frustrating only because of the language barrier, but I’m learning and trying, eventually it will be easier. Everything is great here, but I do miss Saskatoon. I’m far from home and wish I could see everyone that I miss, but when I get back In December, every hug and hello will be worth the wait. I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve been gone! It seems like such a long time and it has gone pretty fast. Before I know it, I’ll be in Africa living a life so different from anything I’ve ever known. I’ll get to play some real African soccer and play with wonderful kids in the villages and orphanages. I’ll also most likely burn, even with SPF 60 sunscreen. Knowing me, I won’t be pasty white when I return, but a nice dark shade of red. Well I hope everything is going great for everyone back home, and until next time, which hopefully won’t be that long!
Au Revoir!
I finally found the Internet! :)
Bonjour!
I apologize for leaving my blog vacant for so long, but when Rahama (my counterpart) and I were transferred to our new family, I found out very quickly that they did not have the internet. This of course was a shock to me, as I was hoping to be able to keep in contact with everyone back home. As you may have noticed, I found internet in a small cafe close to my home, where I am able to go during my free time (which doesn’t come all that often as I’m always doing something). Well I am defiantly not going to do a day by day addition to my blog this time as it has been two weeks and that would be way too long for me to write and you to read! I promise I will not put you through that torture haha.
My last blog entry left off with me informing you that Rahama and I were in between homes and were on our way to meet our new family. My new host parents are Terese and Roger, whom I might add are extremely wonderful! They are an older couple who live on a dairy farm in Riviere Quelle (a small village, much like a suburb, but with mostly farms and Quebec has lots of these!) Riviere Quelle is about a 8 minute drive to La Pocatiere, so it doesn’t take long to get there for our team meetings every Friday. They have 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls, but only Andre, 1 of the boys lives at the home. He works on the farm and does a lot of the work for his parents. He reminds me of having an older brother as he is much older than me and he likes to bug Rahama and I. Fortunately, he can speak English as my host parents and Rahama cannot. The farm has lots of different kinds of animals and I absolutely love that! They have 3 husky dogs, which are absolutely adorable and very friendly. They have lots of cows of course as it’s a dairy farm and some baby calves. I named two of the baby calves, one is Lucy and the other was Annabelle. Annabelle is now a Ricardo, as I recently found out that it was a male. They all look the same and I wasn’t getting into the crate to check which sex it was haha. I do wish Ricardo was a girl as the name Annabelle suited it very much. If you have ever seen that Christmas movie about the cow named Annabelle, then you would understand. (Yes, that was kind of random, once again, there will be random things in my blogs) There are lots of cats, but 3 of them live in the home, they have some horses and a rabbit, which recently had 6 babies. The rabbits are absolutely adorable and are like little fluff balls that hobble around as they can’t really hop yet. Rahama and I were able to hold them when they were only 3 days old and their eyes weren’t even opened yet! Rahama and I share a room, but it’s fairly large and we have lots of space to put our stuff and make it our own for the 3 months. The home is quite quaint and I am falling in love with its surroundings more and more each day. There is a small river across the road from my home and Rahama and I have gone on many long walks already, getting to know our new neighbourhood and village. Ocean and Daoule (two of the girls in our group) home is now only a short 15 minute walk from where we live, and that is nice as we visit each other when we have free time. I like to walk around the farm and explore everything. I quite like being around the cows and the other animals, and don’t even mind the smell all that much. Yes, that is a little weird coming from a city girl who had never lived on a farm before or anything that resembled a farm in any way. It is possible to go out of your comfort zone and actually like what is being handed to you. I am very pleased with my new home and I assure you I am extremely happy here.
One of the ways Rahama and I bond really well is through our long walks, as it is just us and natures beautiful surroundings. There is a lot more to look at on our walks then there is in Saskatchewan. There are actual mountains and small river streams that seem to appear every 25 minutes or so (While walking). I am getting along very well with my counterpart and we have lots of laughs. She is teaching me new words and phrases in French, even though she cannot speak English. I am starting to understand more and more each day and am able to form small sentences and communicate somewhat. I am happy with what I know, considering I knew absolutely no French when I came here. I will not be fluent for a while, and I defiantly won’t come home being fluent, but my hopes are that I come home with a great understanding of the language. My counterpart is 20 and will be turning 21 on August 8th. She is married and was married when she was only 14! For them that is normal in Mali, but to me that is so young, I can’t even imagine being married at 19! Haha.
My team is awesome and we have had a lot of good memories already. We hang out whenever we can and when we do we always have a good time. Every Saturday there is a public market, where some of the people in my group work with their host families. When a bunch of us are free we usually go to the public market and hangout. Every small town has a hangout spot and in La Pocatiere, the public market seems to be ours haha. Unfortunately, our group is short one Canadian for a while as Nigel from Alberta decided to go home. He didn’t think the program was for him, and everyone misses his humour. Fortunately, they found someone to replace Nigel’s spot and to be Kone’s counterpart. The new addition to our team is Kyle and he is from Nova Scotia. We have not met him yet as he doesn’t arrive until July 19th. Our group is anticipating his arrival and we are all excited to meet him and welcome him. Hopefully he adapts well to our group, but I am positive that he will fit right in. Every Friday we get together for our weekly meetings at the college in La Pocatiere, and we discuss our families and other topics. Recently we started our group presentations where we have to inform everyone on our topic. We have to do 2 presentaions, one in Canada and one in Mali. Each Canadian and their counterpart are considered a group, and Rahama and I have the topic of recycling/ compost. The Malians don’t really know much about recycling and composting, so this shall be interesting. So far three groups have gone and we have been able to tour a ferme ecole (A school for agriculture). The ferme ecole had so many sheep and goats. It was pretty interesting even though half of what was being said made no sense to me as it was all farm terms and in French. We were also able to tour the Ferme Cybelle, which is little shop set up for ice-cream treats, frozen yogurt and they have a huge strawberry/raspberry field in the back. They use what they grow for a lot of the products they make and they have days where people can pick their own. We did that one day and it was a lot of fun. I ate some strawberries while I picked them, but I assure you I picked more than I ate haha. From July 30th- August 1st our group gets to leave La Pocatiere and travel to Riviere De Loup. This three day trip is for our mid-way project, where we get to just be with our group and do activities that our committee has planned. We have a couple of committees made up of people in our group, who are all in charge of important things. This trip will be nice as it will be a short break from our work projects.
I apologize for leaving my blog vacant for so long, but when Rahama (my counterpart) and I were transferred to our new family, I found out very quickly that they did not have the internet. This of course was a shock to me, as I was hoping to be able to keep in contact with everyone back home. As you may have noticed, I found internet in a small cafe close to my home, where I am able to go during my free time (which doesn’t come all that often as I’m always doing something). Well I am defiantly not going to do a day by day addition to my blog this time as it has been two weeks and that would be way too long for me to write and you to read! I promise I will not put you through that torture haha.
My last blog entry left off with me informing you that Rahama and I were in between homes and were on our way to meet our new family. My new host parents are Terese and Roger, whom I might add are extremely wonderful! They are an older couple who live on a dairy farm in Riviere Quelle (a small village, much like a suburb, but with mostly farms and Quebec has lots of these!) Riviere Quelle is about a 8 minute drive to La Pocatiere, so it doesn’t take long to get there for our team meetings every Friday. They have 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls, but only Andre, 1 of the boys lives at the home. He works on the farm and does a lot of the work for his parents. He reminds me of having an older brother as he is much older than me and he likes to bug Rahama and I. Fortunately, he can speak English as my host parents and Rahama cannot. The farm has lots of different kinds of animals and I absolutely love that! They have 3 husky dogs, which are absolutely adorable and very friendly. They have lots of cows of course as it’s a dairy farm and some baby calves. I named two of the baby calves, one is Lucy and the other was Annabelle. Annabelle is now a Ricardo, as I recently found out that it was a male. They all look the same and I wasn’t getting into the crate to check which sex it was haha. I do wish Ricardo was a girl as the name Annabelle suited it very much. If you have ever seen that Christmas movie about the cow named Annabelle, then you would understand. (Yes, that was kind of random, once again, there will be random things in my blogs) There are lots of cats, but 3 of them live in the home, they have some horses and a rabbit, which recently had 6 babies. The rabbits are absolutely adorable and are like little fluff balls that hobble around as they can’t really hop yet. Rahama and I were able to hold them when they were only 3 days old and their eyes weren’t even opened yet! Rahama and I share a room, but it’s fairly large and we have lots of space to put our stuff and make it our own for the 3 months. The home is quite quaint and I am falling in love with its surroundings more and more each day. There is a small river across the road from my home and Rahama and I have gone on many long walks already, getting to know our new neighbourhood and village. Ocean and Daoule (two of the girls in our group) home is now only a short 15 minute walk from where we live, and that is nice as we visit each other when we have free time. I like to walk around the farm and explore everything. I quite like being around the cows and the other animals, and don’t even mind the smell all that much. Yes, that is a little weird coming from a city girl who had never lived on a farm before or anything that resembled a farm in any way. It is possible to go out of your comfort zone and actually like what is being handed to you. I am very pleased with my new home and I assure you I am extremely happy here.
One of the ways Rahama and I bond really well is through our long walks, as it is just us and natures beautiful surroundings. There is a lot more to look at on our walks then there is in Saskatchewan. There are actual mountains and small river streams that seem to appear every 25 minutes or so (While walking). I am getting along very well with my counterpart and we have lots of laughs. She is teaching me new words and phrases in French, even though she cannot speak English. I am starting to understand more and more each day and am able to form small sentences and communicate somewhat. I am happy with what I know, considering I knew absolutely no French when I came here. I will not be fluent for a while, and I defiantly won’t come home being fluent, but my hopes are that I come home with a great understanding of the language. My counterpart is 20 and will be turning 21 on August 8th. She is married and was married when she was only 14! For them that is normal in Mali, but to me that is so young, I can’t even imagine being married at 19! Haha.
My team is awesome and we have had a lot of good memories already. We hang out whenever we can and when we do we always have a good time. Every Saturday there is a public market, where some of the people in my group work with their host families. When a bunch of us are free we usually go to the public market and hangout. Every small town has a hangout spot and in La Pocatiere, the public market seems to be ours haha. Unfortunately, our group is short one Canadian for a while as Nigel from Alberta decided to go home. He didn’t think the program was for him, and everyone misses his humour. Fortunately, they found someone to replace Nigel’s spot and to be Kone’s counterpart. The new addition to our team is Kyle and he is from Nova Scotia. We have not met him yet as he doesn’t arrive until July 19th. Our group is anticipating his arrival and we are all excited to meet him and welcome him. Hopefully he adapts well to our group, but I am positive that he will fit right in. Every Friday we get together for our weekly meetings at the college in La Pocatiere, and we discuss our families and other topics. Recently we started our group presentations where we have to inform everyone on our topic. We have to do 2 presentaions, one in Canada and one in Mali. Each Canadian and their counterpart are considered a group, and Rahama and I have the topic of recycling/ compost. The Malians don’t really know much about recycling and composting, so this shall be interesting. So far three groups have gone and we have been able to tour a ferme ecole (A school for agriculture). The ferme ecole had so many sheep and goats. It was pretty interesting even though half of what was being said made no sense to me as it was all farm terms and in French. We were also able to tour the Ferme Cybelle, which is little shop set up for ice-cream treats, frozen yogurt and they have a huge strawberry/raspberry field in the back. They use what they grow for a lot of the products they make and they have days where people can pick their own. We did that one day and it was a lot of fun. I ate some strawberries while I picked them, but I assure you I picked more than I ate haha. From July 30th- August 1st our group gets to leave La Pocatiere and travel to Riviere De Loup. This three day trip is for our mid-way project, where we get to just be with our group and do activities that our committee has planned. We have a couple of committees made up of people in our group, who are all in charge of important things. This trip will be nice as it will be a short break from our work projects.
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